Gilbert Planers Worldwide
Over the past two decades, Gilbert has striven to be a first-class world leader in the Planermill Industry. Since the first installations outside its home province of Quebec in 2002, Gilbert has succeeded in installing over 125 planers worldwide.
The North American Market
In 2002, Gilbert participated in the Portland Show, Oregon. This was the first time a planer was brought to the stand, attracting the curiosity of many! Following the show, Gilbert partnered with a western sales distributor and concentrated on developing the western Canadian market. This expansion soon spread out to include the western USA market as well. Today, we count over fifty planers in the West!
In 2008, Gilbert focused its efforts on developing the southeastern USA market. We tailored our engineering and adapted our planer to handle Southern Yellow Pine, a different species than our Canadian spruce and pine. That same year, we succeeded in selling a first planer to a mill in Florida, and since then have over twenty planers in operation and four more in fabrication!
The European market
In 2006, Gilbert’s sales team focused its efforts on developing the European market. These efforts were quickly rewarded when, in 2007, Gilbert installed four new planers in Europe–two in Sweden and two in Germany. Gilbert’s engineering team adapted the planers to meet CE norms. Furthermore, all operation manuals and PLC recipes were translated into our customers’ language and metric standards.
In November and December of 2019, Gilbert’s service team was busy installing a new Gilbert High-Speed Planer at Mercer Timber in Saalburg-Ebersdorf, Deutschland. This planer model is designed to run up to 1200 meters per minute, 4000 FPM!
The Australasian market
In 2014, Gilbert, with the support of its Australian sales agent, sold its first planer to the down under! Since this first installation, Gilbert has worked on five new projects in Australia and New Zealand. We are thrilled to serve this market! Distance is no obstacle to our service team who easily and efficiently offers online remote controlled service to customers worldwide.
The South American market
In 2015, Gilbert had the opportunity to participate in a turnkey solution for a first big planer project in Brazil. This project was such a success that a second planer was soon sold to a neighboring sawmill. Gilbert continues to work with its Brazilian partner and hopes to further develop the South American market in the future.
Customer satisfaction is Gilbert’s priority!
At Gilbert, understanding our customers’ needs, and adapting our planer accordingly, has always been a priority. From a smaller operation to a high speed planer mill, Gilbert presents five different models of planers: Gilbert S Series up to 550 MPM (1800 FPM), Gilbert 6 Roll up to 850 MPM ( 2800 FPM), Gilbert High Speed up to 1200 MPM (4000 FPM), Gilbert Moulder and Gilbert Mass Timber Planer.
Gilbert is comprised of a team of 130 workers, all devoted to making the best planer in the world, and a team of eight planer after-sale technicians, available 24/7 to support customers worldwide. We are also blessed to be represented by sales agents on all continents who continually offer valuable after-sale support.