How the big boys do it..

[big fell!]

Good vid, monster set up. Big money though...

[dave fox]

Less than you burn in a small set up and alot easier on the back. The reason they do so well is they give the impression the wood will be dry.

wooooo get you! they claim you get 40 nets worth of logs in those 1.6 cm vented bags, some people have been buying them and netting them up and flogging them for £9 anet, so one of there reps told me.

[Theocus]

I looked at their stand at the CLA game fair, that £140.00 per cube gets you a fair amount of Aspen wood....... or should i say Poplar!!!! But cant argue, great set up!

[Mortimer Firewood]

The guy behind cw owns more poplar than any other person in the country so i am shore a lot gets put through as firewood. They all so buy that much cord locally that its driving the price of cord up and making it scarce so the likes of me don't stand a chance buying cord locally. Dont get me wrong he is a big employer in Herefordshire and has pumped a lot of money in to the site at Madley , it just gets my goat that they push there product as environmentally friendly but look at all the kit and power the kilns must use .

[firewood]

Great vid, didn't like the music. It makes me wonder for the size of the operation and the price they charge who buys the wood? I have a a hard time getting £85 a cube for dry hardwood..

 

ditto:thumbup1:

 

 

has anyone come across any customers who have bought from any national supplier?

 

I have not.

 

However most deliveries up here are subject to the highland tax and this maybe enough to put people off.

[Alycidon]

you get about £30 for every £230 big bulk bag as a dealer for them.

 

Easy money maybe as they deliver it direct, what happens as and when you have a fall out?, suddenly all your customers will be being supplied direct !!.

 

Personally I prefer to control my own destiny, that means doing my own deliveries, all of them.

 

Look at the Americans selling kilns, time in a kiln is pretty limited. I processed some softwood yesterday, felled about 3 weeks, moisture about 30% and some ash felled within the last week, moisture 27%. I could not believe they were so low. Then checked some very large poplars wind blown a year or so ago at 37-40% so the meter is about right. Kiln Dried generally is 20-22%, not sure what CW moisture level is in fairness. I took out 2 tonnes of natural air dried softwood tonight that I processed earlier this year ( May time) and kept under an open barn, moisture varied from 7% up to about 15%.

 

CW do seem a very switched on company but given sufficient funding then there is no reason why they cannot be emulated. They do have open days sometimes but I always seem to find out to late.

 

A

[gensetsteve]

Less than you burn in a small set up and alot easier on the back. The reason they do so well is they give the impression the wood will be dry.

 

Perhaps that came out wrong. What I meant was although I dont have all those processes whoever supplies me does. I have forklifts and teleporters my small processor probably runs on the same size tractor as their big machine. They deliver several loads with one truck I deliver one with a tipper. They guarantee the wood will be dry and burn. I would imagine most of the wood on here will be dry but the public dont know that and sometimes have a bad experience with small local suppliers.

[Alycidon]

What is their secret ?. Cash, sharp marketing and good product image.

 

From the video the processor looked like a Pinosa maybe, that can I understand run on a full auto set up, just keep the feed rack loaded and take away the wooden crates. Presumably the product has a period of time in the crates then tipped into the metal bins to be finished off in a kiln, then packed. Carriage to the end user will be costing £30 - £40 a pallet I expect, interesting that the delivery guy seemed to be able to pull a big bag through gravel on a pump truck !!. Bet he drinks Carling Black Label !!.

 

So you say they are driving local cord prices up, look at the maths, cost say £45, process and pack it, £30, deliver it £30, marketing £10 a cube, Profit £25 a cube or thereabouts. Maybe I am talking out of my backside with those figures but they wont be doing it for the good of their health.

 

They spend a lot marketing the brand and the concept of burning wood, selling the benefits of kiln drying, we know that are doubtful ( except for killing boring insects) but the public does not. They have a high quality stove and want to feed it high quality fuel. They have working links with most stove manufacturers, leaflets are placed into stoves etc etc so the CW product is seen as being endorsed by the stove manufacturer, neat.

 

I think we can all learn something here and maybe benchmark our own business against it. You boys selling wood as a stand alone business need to have close links with people like me selling stoves ( I do my own logs thanks!!) , perhaps offering an 'own brand' image for the stove guy. Easy to do these days with Microsoft Publisher, I have just sorted my own brand name and image for logs. Be straight with him though, assuming you are delivering direct the customer will sooner or later attempt to buy direct from you, that should be rebuffed maybe by quoting a higher price than the stove guy. Trust is essential, tell the stove guy which of his customers have approached you. At the end of the day if it goes wrong between you then you have a list of customers !!.

 

 

Most people buying stoves today have no experience at all with fire, the stove supplier should be able to also sell wood especially when taking the stove order. I deliver a stove, flue parts and a cu m of wood in a bag, can just get it all onto a trailer.

 

Sorry if I rambled a bit, just thinking aloud. Feel free to flame it.

 

A

[gensetsteve]

What is their secret ?. Cash, sharp marketing and good product image.

 

From the video the processor looked like a Pinosa maybe, that can I understand run on a full auto set up, just keep the feed rack loaded and take away the wooden crates. Presumably the product has a period of time in the crates then tipped into the metal bins to be finished off in a kiln, then packed. Carriage to the end user will be costing £30 - £40 a pallet I expect, interesting that the delivery guy seemed to be able to pull a big bag through gravel on a pump truck !!. Bet he drinks Carling Black Label !!.

 

So you say they are driving local cord prices up, look at the maths, cost say £45, process and pack it, £30, deliver it £30, marketing £10 a cube, Profit £25 a cube or thereabouts. Maybe I am talking out of my backside with those figures but they wont be doing it for the good of their health.

 

They spend a lot marketing the brand and the concept of burning wood, selling the benefits of kiln drying, we know that are doubtful ( except for killing boring insects) but the public does not. They have a high quality stove and want to feed it high quality fuel. They have working links with most stove manufacturers, leaflets are placed into stoves etc etc so the CW product is seen as being endorsed by the stove manufacturer, neat.

 

I think we can all learn something here and maybe benchmark our own business against it. You boys selling wood as a stand alone business need to have close links with people like me selling stoves ( I do my own logs thanks!!) , perhaps offering an 'own brand' image for the stove guy. Easy to do these days with Microsoft Publisher, I have just sorted my own brand name and image for logs. Be straight with him though, assuming you are delivering direct the customer will sooner or later attempt to buy direct from you, that should be rebuffed maybe by quoting a higher price than the stove guy. Trust is essential, tell the stove guy which of his customers have approached you. At the end of the day if it goes wrong between you then you have a list of customers !!.

 

 

Most people buying stoves today have no experience at all with fire, the stove supplier should be able to also sell wood especially when taking the stove order. I deliver a stove, flue parts and a cu m of wood in a bag, can just get it all onto a trailer.

 

Sorry if I rambled a bit, just thinking aloud. Feel free to flame it.

 

A

 

The biggest problem with logs is cash flow and storage and I have not found a stove supplier that eases either of these problems. We cant keep up with the demand in the winter what we need is people to buy and store their logs in the summer. As a self employed person working with my hands tied behind my back for a stove installer would not work for me. I could always start stocking and installing stoves.

[windfall]

Alycidon, I know i am splitting hairs (i havent got, except in my nose now for some reason!) but i have found that the kiln dried logs i am selling are 14-17%, with most actually 15/16%. Which is quite a difference to the 20/22 you are quoting, where did the logs come from that you measured?

 

I am happily selling KilnDried logs along side my own seasoned logs which are at 24% currently for HW and 15% for softwood. Some people just want the percieved premium product and i am not going to loose a customer because i am will not sell them what they want. For the same reason i am now selling Cough coal Cough, althought i have to admit that selling this product really hurts.