HS Timber Group is an Austrian-based company operating in the wood processing industry, lumber trading and bioenergy production.

[8] HS Timber Group has built a new sawmill in Gobernador Virasoro in Argentina in a joint venture with the Belgian company Forestcape.

The earliest known reference to the family Schweighofer's involvement in woodworking dates back to 1642, as documented in official records.

The development of the family business commenced in 1956 when Franz and Maria Schweighofer acquired a sawmill in Brand, Lower Austria, with an annual capacity of 1,000 cubic meters.

Gerald Schweighofer joined the company in 1975 and in 1977 he opened the worldwide unique profiling line for small diameter logs at the headquarters in Brand/Austria.

This marked the beginning of a series of expansions and acquisitions, which included the opening of what was, in 1984, Europe's largest sawmill located in Ybbs an der Donau, Austria.

By 1997, after acquiring sawmills in Bad St. Leonhard, Austria, and Plana, Czech Republic, the company's total capacity increased to 3 million cubic meters across six mills.

The Schweighofer family sold its shares, along with all sawmills in Austria and the Czech Republic to Stora Enso Timber in 2001.

In 2010, Holzindustrie Schweighofer BACO started producing blockboards and concrete formwork panels at the former Finnforest factory in Comăneşti.

[26] In the same year the company faced allegations when evidence suggested that some of its suppliers were involved in the widespread destruction of virgin forests, with claims that the group was aware of the illegal sourcing of wood.

[27] Responding to the allegations, in 2017, the company launched an action plan to promote a sustainable timber industry and transparent supply chains in Romania, with measures such as the implementation of the GPS tracking system "Timflow.

[29] In December 2021 HS Timber Group broke ground for the construction of a new sawmill in Gobernador Virasoro in Argentina.

[21] In 2023 a new Christian-Doppler Laboratory was opened at the Technical University of Vienna, where HS Timber Group acts as the commercial partner.

The laboratory's research aims to enhance the sustainability of these by-products by transforming what is typically considered waste into valuable composite materials.

HS Timber Group and the foundation it is owned by (Evergreen Privatstiftung) support existing charitable projects in many countries.

[32] In Romania, the Romanian subsidiaries of the HS Timber Group focus mainly on projects in the immediate vicinity of their local plants.

These projects include the financing and support of orphanages, hospitals, mobile elderly care, children's playgrounds, and disaster relief.

At the end of September 2017, the group launched the tree planting initiative "Tomorrow's Forest - Pădurea de mâine" in Romania and supports the campaign with over 1 million euros as well as logistical infrastructure.

The main prize honors a laureate for their lifetime achievement - for exceptional contributions that have a demonstrably positive impact on the European forestry and wood industry.

The Schweighofer Prize will no longer exist in its previous form, meaning the call for entries and the public award ceremony will be discontinued.

This commitment also includes areas of national parks (“buffer zones”) where harvesting is explicitly permitted by law.