Our History
We are a company dedicated to mechanized harvesting that was born in June 1991, through an invitation from the Manager of Forestal Chile Limitada, Mr. Felipe Leniz to Mr. Juan Carlos Rodriguez, to start a company to provide thinning and harvesting services to this forestry company, today Arauco Sociedad Anonima.
With a team of 12 people, 2 Skidder Ranger Clark 666 and 1 Tecfor Trineumático began the history of the organization at the “El Molino” farm located in Dichato, in the municipality of Tomé in the Biobío Region.
Forestal Antares began operations with an annual production capacity of 36,000 m3.
In 1997, after negotiating with Forestal Arauco for land in Concepción and Constitución, the company obtained terrain in Chillán, where it established its current operations and maintenance base.
In 2008 there was a financial crisis related to mortgage loans in the USA, a milestone of great relevance for the company, since it was the cause of its expansion, doubling production, accessing new forestry contracts, hiring personnel and new machinery.
In 2009, the first Harvester arrived at the organization, which would be the beginning of modernizing and technologizing the harvesting and maintenance processes.
We are characterized by our capacity for adaptation and innovation.
On February 27, 2010, an event occurred that marked the entire country, the earthquake in Chile is considered the second strongest in the history of the country and the eighth strongest recorded by mankind.
Despite this, on March 12 all of the organization’s sites were active, which helped to keep personnel generating income and supplying the contractor’s demand by operating uninterruptedly.
In 2011, forestry is now fully mechanized. The reasons were primarily to reduce accidents to personnel by getting infantry out of the woods. In addition, achieving more productive operations and complying with the supply requested by the producing companies, which resulted in the opportunity to provide better income for personnel, training in different areas and increased safety during the harvesting process.
We have more than 180 employees and an average annual production capacity of 1,150,000 m3.
In 2020, the pandemic is triggered, affecting thousands of people around the world.
Within the organization, sanitary measures are implemented to mitigate the impact of this situation. The results of these measures were positive, productivity levels did not drop and the rate of infection within the organization was nil during the first 6 months of the pandemic.
Today, almost 2 years after the global pandemic, the company continues to adopt protocols and a culture of self-care and care among colleagues and their families.
Forestal Antares focuses its efforts on being recognized as a national reference company for the industry.
In 2021, new strategic alliances were signed with universities in the area, the network of benefits and institutional agreements was expanded, labor climate surveys were conducted and work was done on improvement processes by area.
It currently has 4 production sites, distributed between the central and southern areas of the country.
Today it faces a great challenge in terms of investment and innovation to maintain and exceed its production levels.
To support these projects, Forestal Antares embodies transformation, stimulating a new profile of its employees, getting people to think and live continuous development.