Financial Year-end Message from Gerhard Victor

Dear Valued Customer,

As we close our FY26 financial year, I would like to sincerely thank you for your continued support, loyalty and partnership with PG Bison.

This has been a difficult year for the South African furniture and board value chains. Our industry has had to navigate sustained global instability, volatile international raw material markets, elevated logistics costs, currency uncertainty and increasing pressure from imported products. These conditions have placed real pressure on manufacturers, distributors and customers across the market.

It is also important to be clear that we are not seeing meaningful relief from global suppliers or international cost drivers at this stage. We expect these pressures to remain with us for some time. PG Bison will continue to do everything within our control to manage costs, secure supply and protect continuity of supply for our customers, but the global cost cycle we are facing is not expected to unwind quickly.

Despite these challenging conditions, PG Bison remains committed to investing in South African manufacturing, local capacity and the long-term future of the forestry, board and furniture value chains.

Our Mkhondo MDF investment continues to ramp up as planned and remains a major step forward in strengthening locally produced MDF board capacity. In June 2026, we installed a new MFB press at our Ugie plant, further improving our ability to supply locally manufactured decorative board products. In January 2027, we will install an additional high-volume, high-pressure MFB press at Mkhondo, which will further expand our capacity and improve supply resilience.

We are also excited about the planned launch of our Gallery 6 range in April 2027. This range will be supported by the additional MFB capacity we have installed, as well as a further value-add capacity investment at our Boksburg plant, which is planned for commissioning in October 2026. This investment will support further localisation of imported products and strengthen PG Bison’s higher-end decorative product basket for the benefit of our customers.

At the same time, we are actively working to protect the local board and furniture value chains from unfair and illicit trade practices. This includes our MDF duty increase application and our anti-dumping case relating to MDF imports from Asia. These actions are necessary to ensure that local manufacturing can compete on a fair and sustainable basis.

We are also working with the National Empowerment Fund and the dtic on a funding initiative that will see PG Bison invest R20 million to support enterprise development in the furniture industry and help combat illicit imports and unfair trade practices across the board and furniture value chains. We believe this type of intervention is essential if South Africa is serious about protecting local jobs, local investment and local manufacturing capability.

The warning signs are already visible across South African manufacturing. The closure of Mpact’s coated cartonboard operation in Springs is a clear example of the impact that import pressure, global oversupply and structural cost challenges can have on local industrial capacity. Mondi’s recent application, supported by Sappi, for trade intervention in the office paper sector further demonstrates that these pressures are not isolated to one industry. They are part of a broader challenge facing South African and African manufacturing.

For this reason, we believe the furniture industry, government and local manufacturers must continue to stand together. We need to use the mechanisms available to us, including industry funds, trade remedies, localisation initiatives and stronger enforcement, to protect legitimate local production and build a stronger future for the industry.

PG Bison remains committed to this work. We will continue investing, innovating and working with our customers to supply high-quality, trend-leading, locally manufactured products. Our objective is not only to navigate the current environment, but to help build a more resilient and competitive African board and furniture industry for the years ahead.

Thank you once again for your continued partnership and trust. We value your support and look forward to working with you through FY27 and beyond.

Warm regards,

Gerhard Victor
Chief Executive Officer
PG Bison