Have you ever not sold out?

[widmere]

I don't produce a huge volume of firewood and always sell out well before the end of the season. Has anyone ever been left at the end of the season with a lot of unsold stock.

[Joy Yeomans]

we have a big rush come October right through to Christmas when everyone wants a load delivery on christmas eve - never ran out, but we get to the stage where when new customers ring up end of Feb. when seasond hardwood getting low, we have to offer them seasoned mix loads - as we never want to let our existing customers down. due to us being foresters i suppose it helps as we always have stacks at the various woods the lads are in. alot of our friends in the area who sell logs as a sideline run out come mid winter and pass their custom onto us:thumbup: - its good to have friends:001_tt2:

Edited July 1, 2010 by Joy Yeomans
spelling

[Stephen Blair]

i had some left from last year, it was my first year doing firewood seriously. This year i am just going to split dry timber when i require logs instead of using up a lot of yard space and time and effort when i am flat out with tree work. I am thinking on getting a processor, makes so much sense.

[Frankie Lawrence]

Like logbarron we do forestry aswell so have alot of wood around. we fell firewood one winter seasoning it for next and roatate round like that.

 

Get a processort steve there great pieces of kits and you can start making some monney from logs.

[widmere]

Thanks Logbaron - I am in the same situation as yourself and I am sure everyone else at a point in the season you start to run out of dry product and so stop servicing new customers or selling part seasoned wood.

Bobbysm - you don't actually say whether you run out or not.

Stephen admits to a surplus left in his first year - could be various reasons for this.

 

My point is that I think we all undersell our product. If you look at the posts on hear it looks like most of us vacillate on how much to charge a cubic metre or worse still try and take advantage of their customers with the 'old builders bag ton of logs' malarkey.

 

Local retail outlets round here £3.99 a net for wet softwood - 50p a log - 352 logs a metre - £176 a metre for a poor product which the customer collects and pays for at point of sale. If they didn't sell they wouldn't stock them.

[Joy Yeomans]

My point is that I think we all undersell our product. If you look at the posts on hear it looks like most of us vacillate on how much to charge a cubic metre or worse still try and take advantage of their customers with the 'old builders bag ton of logs' malarkey.

 

Local retail outlets round here £3.99 a net for wet softwood - 50p a log - 352 logs a metre - £176 a metre for a poor product which the customer collects and pays for at point of sale. If they didn't sell they wouldn't stock them.

 

i agree whole heartedly, especially with red derv at the price it is, we have fixed our price for this summer at £75/cube for seasoned hardwood and this is fixed for the moment - if derv goes up again, prices will have to go up:thumbdown:, as transits and tractors dont run on fresh air! - also our felling costs have gone up so come winter the price will have to go up to nearer £85/cube if costs keep going up:thumbdown:

had another call yesterday lady wanting 10 tonnes of logs - couldnt get the lady to understand that weight wasnt the way to go with logs - but i will keep galliantly repeating my mantra "you really want the logs as dry as possible and so as light as possible, thats why we sell by volume, in m3"

the builders bag - aaaaaaarrrrrrrggghhhh - dont even get me onto that mr widmere -

 

if only people would take nice seasoned larch for £60 m3- but i blame the stove installers for brainwashing the public into asking for either kiln dried or 3 year seasoned hardwood - (which is what we got asked for the other week)

Edited July 2, 2010 by Joy Yeomans
addition

[csservices]

Yep remember those conversations well, no doubt be a few this year again, trying to explain a ton of oak would be less than a ton of willow for example, which is why its mixed and sold by volume mind probabaly the worst was the bloke who wanted his logs cut exactly 12 inches long as his log store was 2ft deep and it would make them easier to stack, ordered 6 loads like that got them all cut and he never came back for the rest :thumbdown:thin k the word ends in ker, so now they get them as they come unless thier old regular customers

[Joy Yeomans]

Yep remember those conversations well, no doubt be a few this year again, trying to explain a ton of oak would be less than a ton of willow for example, which is why its mixed and sold by volume mind probabaly the worst was the bloke who wanted his logs cut exactly 12 inches long as his log store was 2ft deep and it would make them easier to stack, ordered 6 loads like that got them all cut and he never came back for the rest :thumbdown:thin k the word ends in ker, so now they get them as they come unless thier old regular customers

 

dont you just hate those sort ed, i know a few of those city bankers:blushing:

[Rob D]

I have run out in Jan each year even though my firewood output has doubled each year! (For last 3 years since I started).

 

Prob did 200 cubic meters last year and aiming for 300 cubes this year.

 

Will be selling hardwood at £90-00 cube and mixed at £80-00.

 

But buy 2 bags (and they are cubic meter vented logs not builders bags) and I'll do a £10-00 discount.

[widmere]

Rob - you sum up the point exactly - Please don't take this the wrong way but shouldn't you be trying to produce 400t and stop discounting for multiple orders. In fact a business model might suggest a price lift of 30% and you still may run out of wood. My guess is that you sell great product that is delivered efficiently why not get paid for it.