Hetas, Woodsure, Ready to Burn and Grown in Britain

[Chalgravesteve]

I've recently been approached by "Grown in Britain" to register my kiln dried firewood with them, to enable me to display the logo on my products which are all sourced from within 20 miles of me. 

I have also been approached by Woodsure, the woodfuel quality assurance scheme.

I have also been approached by the "Ready to Burn" scheme as our products are all under 20% MC and we kiln dry it ourselves.

 

All of the above are linked/operated/controlled by HETAS Ltd?

 

And when you search Companies House, HETAS is a private limited company, with over £1 million in cash in the bank according to their last filed accounts?

 

I always thought that HETAS was a regulatory body? Clearly its not?  Now I take my hat off to them if they have built a private business around providing other private businesses with certification saying that products/services are compliant, but compliant with what? 

 

There have been recent published articles regarding firewood (The Clean Air Act) and the emissions etc, and it would seem to me that there is a push towards having these brandings on products to enable the consumer to know that the product meets certain criteria, but I can't see how that is compatible with a private company run for profit? 

 

Or am I missing something here?

 

 

[Steve Bullman]

1 hour ago, Chalgravesteve said:

Or am I missing something here?

Yes....you’re missing the Arbtalk approved badge.  Only £80+vat per year, or £80 for cash

[Squaredy]

1 hour ago, Chalgravesteve said:

I've recently been approached by "Grown in Britain" to register my kiln dried firewood with them, to enable me to display the logo on my products which are all sourced from within 20 miles of me. 

I have also been approached by Woodsure, the woodfuel quality assurance scheme.

I have also been approached by the "Ready to Burn" scheme as our products are all under 20% MC and we kiln dry it ourselves.

 

All of the above are linked/operated/controlled by HETAS Ltd?

 

And when you search Companies House, HETAS is a private limited company, with over £1 million in cash in the bank according to their last filed accounts?

 

I always thought that HETAS was a regulatory body? Clearly its not?  Now I take my hat off to them if they have built a private business around providing other private businesses with certification saying that products/services are compliant, but compliant with what? 

 

There have been recent published articles regarding firewood (The Clean Air Act) and the emissions etc, and it would seem to me that there is a push towards having these brandings on products to enable the consumer to know that the product meets certain criteria, but I can't see how that is compatible with a private company run for profit? 

 

Or am I missing something here?

 

 

I think you are right it is a regulatory body, but also a company.  The question I suppose is who owns it and if there are any profit distributions who do they go to.  Maybe the reason their bank balance is healthy is that they do not distribute their profits.

 

And as far as I know there is no connection between Grown in Britain and HETAS....

[Chalgravesteve]

21 minutes ago, Squaredy said:

I think you are right it is a regulatory body, but also a company.  The question I suppose is who owns it and if there are any profit distributions who do they go to.  Maybe the reason their bank balance is healthy is that they do not distribute their profits.

 

And as far as I know there is no connection between Grown in Britain and HETAS....

The company is owned by its directors, although it is limited by guarantee and not shares.

 

I quote from my email from "Laura Sceal, Business Manager, Grown in Britain Team"

We are connected to Woodsure and Ready to Burn.

We do offer a discounted audit rate if you choose to have both audits done at the same time.

Edited February 5, 2019 by Chalgravesteve

[BARNSLEY BOB]

Lol

[openspaceman]

3 hours ago, Chalgravesteve said:

The company is owned by its directors, although it is limited by guarantee and not shares

It's probably a company limited by guarantee so that it becomes a legal entity while not being a government body.

 

The directors are the guarantors.

 

Charities often do this to prevent their members and directors being sued for more than the guaranteed amount.

 

The scam part of it is as they are a not for profit organisation the guarantors/directors often vote the employees a substantially higher wage than a commercial company would.

[Alycidon]

Its all a con,  the max allowed MC is 20%,  thats pretty poor,  stove manufacturers all want 15%-16%.   

 

They charge you so much a tonn,  audit your suppliers, the product and the process you use,   money for old rope.   Cuts no ice with punters who will change suppliers for £2.

 

A

[daveatdave]

I do not think the private consumer will give a toss as to what logos you have on your logs as long as they burn and are a keen price 

[Woodworks]

7 hours ago, daveatdave said:

I do not think the private consumer will give a toss as to what logos you have on your logs as long as they burn and are a keen price 

That's our experience. Supply dry logs (18-22%) and they come back time after time. Can't say they are put off by a price hike either as we put £10 more on a single cube this season and we are about to sell out.

[richardwale]

yup, dry is all they want. Sold out. Say every year it won't happen again but it always does.