KWH Group has new members on the Stiftelsen för Kimo Bruk Foundation
Stiftelsen för Kimo Bruk rs. (Foundation for Kimo Ironworks) held its annual meeting in June. New board members were elected at the meeting.
Since the foundation was established in 1998, the KWH Group has been represented on the Board by Henrik Höglund and Holger Wester. This year, the annual meeting appointed Kjell Antus and Carl-Magnus Tidström from the KWH Group as ordinary board members and Johan Heikfolk and Björn Höglund as deputy members.
In addition to the KWH Group, the board includes members from the municipality of Vöyri, Oravais Hembygdsförening (Oravais Heritage Association) and the Museum of Ostrobothnia. The purpose of the foundation is to support the preservation of the landscape around the ironworks in the Kimo Ironworks (Kimo Bruk) area. This has been done by taking care of the main building of the ironworks in the village of Kimo in Vöyri.
Kimo Bruk was an iron works established in 1703 in Oravainen. In 1792 it was the most profitable ironworks in Finland. The iron ore, marked with the KB stamp, was transported to the Stockholm iron market, from where it was exported to the rest of Europe. Iron production ceased in 1891 but was replaced by other industrial production. One of the three hammer mills was converted into a sawmill and the other into a mill. In 1922, the Kimo Bruk also started to produce and distribute electricity. After Kimo Bruk ran into financial difficulties in the early 1960s, KWH (Keppo) bought the operations in 1962. Today, the KWH Group has ceased both local electricity production and fur farming activities.
Today, Kimo Bruk is a living cultural landscape, where the old cultural landscape and the picturesque park area meet the modern. Most of the land is currently owned by the KWH Group and the Oravais Hembygdsförening is responsible for the operations of the area.
