BSW Timber, the UK’s largest sawmilling group, is to be featured on national TV as part of a Confederation of Forest Industries (ConFor) backed campaign showing how the Scottish timber industry is now competing with the very best in Europe.
BSW’s site in Dalbeattie, acquired from Howie Forest products in 2009, is to be showcased on Landward, BBC2 Scotland’s weekly countryside magazine, broadcast on Friday (April 8) at 1900.
The programme will show how the Scottish timber supply chain has benefited from investment on all levels, and is now working closely together to create a high-quality final product that can compete with Swedish and other European timber.
The Dalbeattie site, the UK’s largest single-location sawmill, has recently benefited from a £7 million pound investment by BSW in a drive to increase productivity from 230,000 m³ sawn timber to more than 350,000m³ per annum. This has included a new planer and grader line, which will almost double production of Easi-Edge™ construction timber from 65,000m³ to 120,000m³ each year, and a new stacker system to improve operational efficiencies.
Also featured on the Landward TV programme is Deeside Timber Frame, the UK's leading timber frame home manufacturer, showing how such investment and best practice is benefiting the entire industry supply chain – from forestry and saw-miller, to merchant and house-builder.
Hamish Macleod, Head of Public Affairs at BSW Timber, said: “The investment in our Dalbeattie mill underlines our confidence in the growth in the market for British timber. I am delighted that such investment, which is happening across the industry, is now paying dividends and allowing Scottish and UK timber to actively compete on both quality and price with Scandinavian and other European products.”
The ConFor-backed campaign highlighting the quality of the Scottish timber industry, argues the need to continue such good practice by both protecting and expanding the nation’s softwood forests.
Chief Executive Stuart Goodall explains: “The UK timber industry is now a modern, hi-tech sector producing a highly competitive product. The investment which companies like BSW are committing to is starting to finally address the fact that between 70 and 80 per-cent of UK wood consumption is currently imported.
“However, for this trend to continue to be reversed over the longer-term, we must do more to protect our softwoods - and this means planting more, and safeguarding them from rival land uses such as wind farms.”
