Got an idea for kiln drying logs. Any feedback appreciated.

[gensetsteve]

I dont think you will sell much between now and October then you will sell 30 tonne a week. Get 300 tonnes done through a used processor for £3000 now or more if you can spare the money and cash flow. 30 tonnes will be a drop in the ocean with the amount of contacts u say u have.

[Justme]

Buy in some ready to sell logs that meet your standards. Then you wont need to set up the temp dryer before getting the figures. Or just make some up (IE do a business plan its the same thing) & approach the bank with that.

 

Or you could even do the marketing before you buy them in (If you can find anyone with good dry stock to sell you).

[philg]

Yeah i feel we can get top money for the logs. My plan for drying them artificially is so that i can contact some customers......sell the wood and then i'm able to approach the bank with some figures.....ie......if i contact 200 customers and manage to shift 30 ton of wood within a short period of time then it should enable me to approach the bank with some promising figures and will give them idea of what kind of amounts we can shift if we approach all 4000 customers. I'd then like to borrow money to buy a processor, rent more space, buy in stock to season........etc.

 

Drying it artificially isn't a long term plan at all.....it's only to get up and running so we can finance the business and scale things up so we have enough wood to season it naturally in the barns.

 

I'll have fork lifts, tipper trucks............etc...... we will hire in a processor initially until we get finance to purchase our own and i've proven the business will work.

4000 customers:thumbup1: do you have any idea at all of the sort of volume of timber you would need to stock:confused1: Now if you need to borrow money to get a processor i would start very realistically and start off very small and forget the magic 4000 customers for a while. Just say that each customer takes 4 loads a year roughly 2-2.5 tonne thats works out at 8-10 thousand tonnes of seasoned logs(thats alot and a very large barn to store them in). At the average of 4 loads per customer per season thats 16,000 deliveries to make many in the winter months when you have very limited working daylight hours:001_rolleyes: best of look in your venture

Thanks Phil.

[scbk]

What about briquettes to get you up an running?

All you have to do is buy them in, sell them on straight away. No seasoning, storage, cutting, splitting, noise, waste, etc

[philg]

Sorry forgot to add lets say the bulk of deliveries will be in 200 days through the winter that works out at roughly 80 deliveries a day.... that will be some big logistical setup you say you've done lots of research so i presume you've already looked at this nothing wrong with that i just wouldn't want that hanging around my neck, It'll be one big setup and I for one wish you all the best and would love to see it happen but i dont think it will in all reallity.

[Fahrenheit]

Thanks for your concern.....i'm obviously not going to approach all 4000 customers to start with......more like couple of hundred. I don't want everyone to be phoning me for wood and then not be able to meet demand as this would bad for business.

 

Most of my work is word of mouth.....i don't advertise....once i tell a few customers word will get around naturally.

 

I understand that it is getting to the end of the season but people are so desperate around here for dry wood i'm sure i could shift plenty over the summer.....i'll offer a discount if bought in the summer months.

 

A huge chunk of our business is chimney sweeping.....this used to be dead in summer and crazy in winter.......we offered £5 off in summer and now all of our customers get their chimneys swept in the summer......i'm sure i can do the same with firewood.

 

It doesn't seem that much work to be honest............buy softwood and hardwood in at £35 - £55 a ton. A ton of wood should do at least 2 cubic metres........sells at £120 per cube.........thats £240.....less the original cost of the wood leaves around £200 before wages and fuel. Get a guy with a processor in.......dispense the firewood straight into ventilated sacks......stack one sack on top of another.....fork lift it into the kiln.....leave it for 2-3 weeks to dry.......fork lift it back out, put on a tipper and send to the customer. The kiln will run on the crap produced from processing the wood.

 

I'n the meantime get another 100 ton or so seasoning for next year and then build up the stock as demand increases.

 

Or am i missing something huge?

 

I'm not keen on the briquettes........they look a bit naff and my customers want wood. I used to sell briquettes but i didn't like them. Also less money to be made from them.

[firewood]

"It doesn't seem that much work to be honest............buy softwood and hardwood in at £35 - £55 a ton. A ton of wood should do at least 2 cubic metres........sells at £120 per cube.........thats £240""

 

 

you have just answered your own question.

 

 

You may have the driest firewood in town but at £120 per cube many customers will carry on buying cheaper wet wood.

 

be careful about whether you can sell softwoods in your area. from reading this forum i would suggest that softwood is only popular in parts of Wales and Scotland (others may shed more light on this). Softwood prices to the customer will be around half that of hardwood.

 

Also, 1 ton of green hardwood will just about make 1.5m3 of split logs not 2m3. i.e. 25% less than you are estimating.

 

 

making and selling firewood is very hard work. do not underestimate the effort and hassle involved. you have to be a cutter, labourer, mechanic, driver, salesman and entrepreneur all rolled into one. IMO unless you are shifting 500 tons plus p.a. you will not be able to employ anyone and still make a profit so you will be doing all the work at least to start with.

 

 

Your biggest asset is your marketing database. If i were you, I would put out a call here on arbtalk and find two or three members from your area who can supply to you or your customers direct and take a commission off each sale. profit guaranteed!

 

my 2p worth.

[Fahrenheit]

Thanks for the input......i don't think it's a doddle by any means.....i realise it's hard work......the bit you quoted wasn't intended to make light of what firewood suppliers are doing.

 

When i've spoken to people in the trade and also searched previous posts on this forum everyone talks around 2m3 - 2.5m3 to a ton of hardwood. What is the typical range when converting 1 ton of wet hardwood cords to 1m3 firewood?

 

£120 for 1m3 for dry firewood is pretty cheap around here........another guy i know sells seasoned firewood for £130 a cube and he's turning people away.

 

What i'm saying is if i can afford to buy 500 ton of hardwood, a machine that can process 20-25 ton of wood a day with 2 men......to shift 500 ton in 6 months is only 7 loads a day excluding weekends.

 

Therefore there should be reasonable money to be made if shifting enough of it, no?

 

Obviously if i were cutting, splitting and stacking by hand then it would be considerably more work and labour and probably not worth bothering with. The thing is that i already have full time staff and the wood business would make use of our slack period so would not cost much extra in wages either.

Edited February 13, 2011 by Fahrenheit

[gensetsteve]

Thinking about it go with your original idea buy in 30 tonnes of cord. Keep an accurate record of time and expences. If its not dampened your enthusiasm you will have learnt alot buy in more. One thing I have found is I could live without my processor some days I could gladly run it over with the Jcb. I could not live without a decent overhead splitter.

[Justme]

gensetsteve,

 

If I click your firewood link I get no results found