Considering increasing our Firewood prices

[arboriculturist]

That's a good list.

Everything breaks occasionally, just a massive processor blade return spring went under 12 mths old - £ 130, everything goes wrong occasionally and definitively wears out!

It's looking like my £30/ m3 margin looks fairly accurate.

Not forgetting the 5% vat that has to be adsorbed per m3, where small suppliers don't.

It all goes with the territory, so have to take it on the chin.

Diesel price increase is a killer though when you are running flat out for days on end and the increased delivery fuel costs.

We rarely deliver unless the truck is full or very local. Offer incentives to take full vehicle load, people like a saving.

I would be interested to hear Ash's, Alcydyons and Charlesgraves  view on production costs, as I think they are high volume producers.

[ash_smith123]

They've been saying that for several years.  It still keeps coming in though.  You are probably still right mind

There's been hardly any hardwood available in South Wales this year! The last couple of softwood loads came in as "chipwood" with 5/10% ash in it. They are just not separating it at roadside. Heard from a few people Euroforest are sending pretty much every scrap from around here to as biomass plant in Kent to avoid massive failer to supply fines. CW are even struggling to find it. Softwood it is then!

[arboriculturist]

2 hours ago, ash_smith123 said:

On 04/08/2018 at 07:45, Steve Bullman said:

They've been saying that for several years.  It still keeps coming in though.  You are probably still right mind

There's been hardly any hardwood available in South Wales this year! The last couple of softwood loads came in as "chipwood" with 5/10% ash in it. They are just not separating it at roadside. Heard from a few people Euroforest are sending pretty much every scrap from around here to as biomass plant in Kent to avoid massive failer to supply fines. CW are even struggling to find it. Softwood it is then!

That is why I have now put our prices up.

 

The supply situation is only going to get worse and it will be a question of who you know if you are to maintain continuity of supply.

 

I know smaller buyers who have been waiting for months now.

[SbTVF]

Luckily we secured ourselves a good supply this year and have plenty in with more coming almost weekly but the price have gone up £10 ton in the last 12 months because all the agents know how in demand it is and are expecting more.

Prices going up accordingly of course but I’m expecting it to have to do so even more in not too long!

[ash_smith123]

Yes had a load of ash in at £70 a ton..softwoods £55 now too but luckily it's been so dry the chipwoods coming in at 15% when split [emoji106]

[ash_smith123]

Yes had a load of ash in at £70 a ton..softwoods £55 now too but luckily it's been so dry the chipwoods coming in at 15% when split [emoji106]

[Chalgravesteve]

My business model is different to most, in that firewood is a secondary business for me. My main business is a golf club, so I have 5 greenkeepers who are already employed anyway, but they have substantially less to do in the winter than they do in the summer. Well, they did. Now they are bloody busy all year! So, my initial set up was always based upon the fact that I don't have any staff overhead as they were already being paid anyway. I also owned most of the equipment, I've got 2 processors now though so I've spent a bit there. I also have an RHI kiln and we process arb waste, selling it in barrow bags not loose bulk.

 

However, I do consider the real cost of producing the bags, and whilst we have incoming arb waste free, the wages costs are higher because its much slower to process and needs more manual handling, to process it, get the bulk wood into the kiln, get it out again, pack into barrow bags and deliver it. Our kiln dried product is a stovemix and will be absolutely anything, but we always make sure that every bag contains hardwood. We do process some really big chunks though, which could mean that an entire bulk drying cage can be filled with the same tree which might be a softwood - so we keep a stock of pure hardwood to mix in if need be. I dont sell pure hardwood except in nets which I buy in and sell to people who want to collect and they can't collect a barrow bag because of the size.    

 

My barrow bags are 50x50x100 so 4 = 1m3 and because we are essentially handpacking, as I don't want them to sag and fall over on the truck, I know that three of my bags is roughly 1m3 loose. 

 

I sell 1 bag delivered at £49.50, 2 at £47, 3 at £44 and 4+ at £39.50. I know 4 bags are a proper 1m3 and I sell that then for £158 - £198.00.

 

My market is not the loose load 2m3 customer. Mine is the customer who doesn't have that much space to store it, wants it delivered in a nice clean back, to the log store on a sack barrow and left in the bag so the customer doesn't have to get their hands dirty.  They don't want to pay the £7.99/£9.99 for crap seasoned logs from a garage forecourt though. I've got an 85% returning customer rate. They buy and they keep coming back and buying more, plus we keep getting more new customers. 

 

I'm fortunate that I have a very good head of population in my area, and excellent road access, so deliveries are easy within a 15-20 mile radius. I've got 6 bags on the truck to deliver now, its a 24 mile round trip to 2 destinations and I expect to be back in about 45mins to 1 hr.

 

I am looking at the prices though, and what I will probably do, is leave the 1 bag price as it is and increase the multiples slightly and the 4 bag+ price to around £41/42 if things start getting to tight in my view.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[arboriculturist]

Thanks for taking the time and trouble to compile such a detailed post. 

 

Your model wouldn't work for us as it is so rural here and 99% of people request by the m3.

 

If our location had the footfall I would love to sell smaller quantities and offer collection at a premium price as there is certainly the demand. There again retailing from a site requires planning consent, which is not always straightforward.

 

What's your view on gaining consent for retailing Firewood from a site?

 

?

[arboriculturist]

Having put our prices up by £5 /m3 it's made no difference whatsoever at the moment - the orders are still coming in and up to now knowone has even commented. I hope everyone else has the good sense to do the same.

[Khriss]

Blame it on Brexit- it'll be the thing, soon k