A successful career in finance wasn’t enough to keep auditor Julian Kakule in banking after he saw a Wood-Mizer sawmill in action.

“I was an auditor at a large commercial bank in Kinshasa and was successful and comfortable in my job. A timber trader friend took me to a sawmill in 2018, where I saw a Wood-Mizer cutting timber. The speed and precision of the mill were amazing. My professional background immediately saw a business opportunity”, Julian says.

“To take a log and produce sawn timber from it that you can sell at a profit has many advantages. Locally produced sawn timber builds our economy. Exporting finished timber products rather than raw logs that are processed elsewhere creates jobs, grows the timber sector, builds people’s lives, and protects our forests. People will protect and grow trees if timber is their business”.

Three months later, in 2018, Julian bought his first Wood-Mizer LT15. Five years later, Julian owned six Wood-Mizers and ran a successful sawmilling business, Scierie Jules Fie, in Kinshasa’s Kinkole district.

His sawmilling success attracted Wood-Mizer’s attention. In 2020, Julian was appointed as a Wood-Mizer representative in the DRC. Wood-Mizer has representatives in Kinshasa, Lubumbashi and the Eastern DRC who work with Wood-Mizer’s Country Manager, Fred Kapenda. They form a service support network in the to support sawmillers and develop the sector.

A tough balancing act

“When I decided to go into sawmilling, my friends and bank colleagues thought I was mad. I took a risk because there’s a saying in French, ‘if you don’t take risks, you’ll never make it’. I took the risk, and today I am where I am because of Wood-Mizer”, Julian says. 

Running a successful sawmill and managing a Wood-Mizer dealership in the heart of Kinshasa’s busiest sawmilling district, Kinkole, is a tough balancing act. But the experience Julian has gained from running two businesses is helping both improve.

Julian developed his sawmilling business to do general and artisanal cutting. The general side cuts are popular sawn sizes sold daily, and the artisanal side cuts are custom sizes according to customer specifications.

Scierie Jules Fie has seen exceptional growth, with general and custom cutting overlapping. “The cutting accuracy, durability, and recovery that my Wood-Mizer gives me have also grown my business,” Julian says. 

Customers spend more to get accurately sawn timber. Wood-Mizer’s thin-kerf, narrow-bandsaw blade technology also results in less waste, so there is more sawn product to sell. The thin-kerf blades use less electricity, resulting in greater savings.  

“Wasting less and having more timber to sell is very important during the dry season. When the river is low logs don’t reach Kinshasa. Because I waste less, customers know I always have sawn timber in stock. I also don’t need to pay more for logs when the river dries and log prices rise”.

Wood-Mizer’s bandsaw blade sharpening and setting equipment also save time and money. “Sending blades away for resharpening takes longer and costs more. I resharpen, set, and check the quality of my blades in-house to ensure the best cut quality and straightest timber” he says.

Julian has made these lessons part of Wood-Mizer’s dealership, which he now manages. “Because I am a sawmiller, I know the frustration of waiting for blades or spare parts, or of having to wait when sawmills break down”.

With easy access to Wood-Mizer’s two branches in Kinkole and Kingabwa and technical service support teams visiting sawmills to service machines, train staff, and provide advice, sawmillers now have the convenience and trusted partnership of an experienced sawmiller and Wood-Mizer dealership on their doorstep.

“Selling a Wood-Mizer is easy”, Julian says. “The durability of a Wood-Mizer, its year-on-year dependability, proven large-log cutting capacity, and its reliability as a source of income make it easy for sawmillers to choose Wood-Mizer”.

Wood-Mizer’s services support the reliability and availability of genuine spare parts and blades across the DRC.

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