Pricing and marketing freshly milled and air dried boards.

[Squaredy]

On 26/04/2020 at 12:57, arboriculturist said:

The vast majority of business appears to be from Joiners.

I meant to reply to this a few days ago but I've been rather tied up.  I would say you are wasting your time trying to sell to joiners.  They want to make doors, windows, conservatories, shop fittings etc and are very well served by the imported timber industry.  They can get top quality square edged Idigbo, Iroko, and others and you will be struggling to compete with that on quality or price or size range.  It is quite difficult to judge who your customers will be and my experience is they vary a lot, but I almost never sell to joiners - they just don't want UK timber - it is way too characterful for them.

 

High quality bespoke kitchen manufacturers might be a possibility, but again you will be competing with lots of high quality relatively cheap imported timber like American Cherry, Walnut etc.

 

Not trying to be negative, but finding your customers could be quite a challenge.  Maybe don't pre-judge, just start advertising what you have and see who wants it.  Your customers might turn out to be people you never even thought of.

[arboriculturist]

2 hours ago, Squaredy said:

I meant to reply to this a few days ago but I've been rather tied up.  I would say you are wasting your time trying to sell to joiners.  They want to make doors, windows, conservatories, shop fittings etc and are very well served by the imported timber industry.  They can get top quality square edged Idigbo, Iroko, and others and you will be struggling to compete with that on quality or price or size range.  It is quite difficult to judge who your customers will be and my experience is they vary a lot, but I almost never sell to joiners - they just don't want UK timber - it is way too characterful for them.

 

High quality bespoke kitchen manufacturers might be a possibility, but again you will be competing with lots of high quality relatively cheap imported timber like American Cherry, Walnut etc.

 

Not trying to be negative, but finding your customers could be quite a challenge.  Maybe don't pre-judge, just start advertising what you have and see who wants it.  Your customers might turn out to be people you never even thought of.

Great advise as would be expected from yourself. 100 % agree re: joiners. I have known several all my life and they buy 'exactly' as you say !

 

I always thought marketing the products would be the challenge and your post confirms this.

 

It seems clear that this is a niche market that will take several years to break into.- definitely a lot of time, effort and patience needed.

 

I wasn't expecting many replies advising me where to sell the milled slabs, as many have worked long and hard to work things out for themselves the hard way. Saying that I have always found posters on here to be extremely generous with their advice, which I always appreciate.

 

Even though I have never got into milling at this point in time, I can tell that it is one of those things that there is something very special about, that is not easy to put your finger on. ?

[Rough Hewn]

Great advise as would be expected from yourself. 100 % agree re: joiners. I have known several all my life and they buy 'exactly' as you say !
 
I always thought marketing the products would be the challenge and your post confirms this.
 
It seems clear that this is a niche market that will take several years to break into.- definitely a lot of time, effort and patience needed.
 
I wasn't expecting many replies advising me where to sell the milled slabs, as many have worked long and hard to work things out for themselves the hard way. Saying that I have always found posters on here to be extremely generous with their advice, which I always appreciate.
 
Even though I have never got into milling at this point in time, I can tell that it is one of those things that there is something very special about, that is not easy to put your finger on. [emoji2]

Whereabouts are you based?
Maybe try milling first?
[emoji106][emoji106][emoji106]