Traditional Firewood is history

[TimberCutterDartmoor]

I'm now quite convinced that small scale traditional air dried firewood is a dead business.

 

Heard today of yet another decent, honourable well established firewood co in the South West packing it in.

 

RHI / Biomass is the culprit; 3 new suppliers within 2 miles pumping out KD at £40/cube.

 

Bonkers.

 

Lots of manor houses with the heating at full tilt all summer, windows wide open, kerching, kerching, kerching...

 

[bilke_user]

Government subsidy fecks everything it comes into contact with. A dole fund for the rich

[Logsnstuff]

spoke to someone last week who was telling me their closest competitor now has 8 kilns running and selling 4 cube £250 and they have 2 kilns themselves.

[ash_smith123]

lot of people took serious advantage of it! I have 2 boilers into kilns but it's my sole business and that's what I needed for my business to grow. The RHI is a nice but not the sole reason I got the kilns.

There is a farm down the road that has spent in excess of 300k on boilers and another 150k on firewood equipment to start a firewood company but only delivers 1 cubic metre at a time in a 5 mile radius and only when they have time around what they are doing on farm. They sell no more than 200 cubic metres a year. 450k investment for £20k a year in sales! It's not a business it's a front to claim massive RHI from the timber they have on their land.

[ash_smith123]

spoke to someone last week who was telling me their closest competitor now has 8 kilns running and selling 4 cube £250 and they have 2 kilns themselves.

 

 

And maybe for once on here I am going to agree with you! [emoji23][emoji23] it's stupid the prices some people are punting out. I can never understand people underselling products. It used to happen a lot in the cycle trade when I was involved in it. If a competitor is selling 1000's of cubic metres at £120, what's the point in selling it for £80? Yes you might gain a few customers here and there but your working just as hard for half the profit! Sell it at a decent price so everyone can make a few pound coins. Isn't that what we all do it for!!?

[gdh]

Shame to see someone go out of business but it's usually imported wood that's the problem if they've been undercut to the point they can't compete.

 

I don't see the issue with drying to be honest, the aim of RHI was to get more people using renewables and it's worked. We've been selling wood for 20 years and we were trying to work out a way of selling more dry stuff through the winter so it worked perfectly for us. It was a big investment and we've still got a loan to pay off but it's helped the business to expand.

 

RHI hasn't made our wood any cheaper, it just covers the cost of drying (except towards the end of the year when we go over the payment limit). We also don't charge extra for 'kiln dried' wood, we only dry to be able to sell more so whether we sell dry stuff in summer or use the drying shed in the winter it's still our standard £60-70 a cube.

[Alycidon]

The problem is paying £60 a ton for maybe 100-200 tons of cord if you can get it. Some like me have moved to imported over the last two or three years but the dip in the pound has made me think about maybe upgrading my processor and starting to prep more of my own.

 

I have a guy near me selling at £60 a cube for decent hardwood but that is seasoned, god knows how he can afford to do that unless someone paid him to take away some large oversize.

 

A

[Coximus]

Tin Hat on...........

 

Im currious about peoples set ups and what they find is the problem?

 

I own a small woodland as part of some of my fields, the trees are no use to my sheep so I sold them standing to a chap selling firewood - He paid me 20/cube standing, approx, mostly sycamore coppice originally planted for pit props, cut himself and dragged in bundles with a kubota. and he sells bulk bags (1/2cube) for 45 and makes a good living, and gets 3.5-4 bags from each cube standing, he recons he averages process and deliver 30 bags in a normal week, but in peak time sells close on 45.

 

Now to me, thats a good set up - he has no shortage of farms with small woodlands to raid - plenty of coppice about, and he just uses a saw horse and chainsaw, bucket, defender 110 and tipping trailer.

 

So - if he is making a profit, why are people struggling against him?

Whats wrong with his business plan? Hes most likely making more than national average sallary (Which is no mean feat for anyone in any self employed trade), and appears to lead a comfortable life;

 

So, are others perhaps over-invested? Tied into overheads? Or is he just lucky?

[richardwale]

So, are others perhaps over-invested? Tied into overheads?

 

Reckon you've hit the nail on the head there

[SbTVF]

I blame the mindset of the general public personally. If they had the brains to order ahead and store their wood, rather than calling up asking for wood immediately because they are 'desperate'. There wouldn't even be the kiln dried/fully seasoned market in the first place.

I'd far rather just process straight into the trailer and have the customer store it rather than messing about with bags and crates.

 

Aside from that, we sell at a sensible but affordable price, and the business stands up alone without the RHI which really only covers the drying costs, which are really quite small. About as much as one load of timber a year.

 

 

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