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White River Saw Mills wins the 2026 Sawmill Improvement Award

August 22, 2026

Andrew Crickmay is flanked by WRM's sawmill manager Carel Jacobsz on his left and WRM's Densa sawmill manager, Metsing Maloka

Congratulations to White River Saw Mills on participating in the Crickmay & Associates Intermill Comparison (IMC) and on attaining the Sawmill Improvement Award for the second time.

Andrew Crickmay announced the winner of the 36th annual competition at the Sawmilling South Africa (SSA) annual general meeting in Pretoria. The Sawmill Improvement Award recognises the sawmill that improved its productivity and competitiveness over the past five years (2021 v 2025).

The weighted criteria are improvements in net margin, labour productivity, recovery, net average selling price and total costs, including administration. The focus is on improvement, with the winning mill not necessarily being the most profitable.

Crickmay said the Runners-up that met the criteria and showed improvement were, in no particular order: AC Whitcher, White River Sawmills (Densa), Iswepe Timbers, Singisi Forest Products (Langeni), Lawa, MTO, Tekwani (Piet Retief), RF Gevers and Tekwani (Thornville).

Craig Rance shows the agm attendees the award the winners get to keep

Andrew Crickmay explaining how the Intermill Comparison works — Craig Rance shows the agm attendees the award the winners get to keep

White River Saw Mills also won the award in 2014, and CEO Willie Stander says it is all down to teamwork.

“This recognition belongs to every employee whose hard work, expertise and commitment continue to drive us forward”, Stander said.

“We extend our sincere gratitude to Crickmay & Associates and the IMC programme for creating a platform that encourages benchmarking, learning and excellence within the South African sawmilling industry”.

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