Selling softwood to fill time?

[Big J]

We are moving to a new and larger yard to allow us to expand with the sawmilling business and part of that is that we want to commit to being onsite at least a couple of days a week.

 

In order to fill that time whilst there aren't customers there, we need to do something. If we were milling for all that time, I think that we would produce far more sawn timber than we could realistically sell at this point. However, if we were to sell firewood, it could be a viable use of our time.

 

We have good local access to stands of good quality (and fairly large) Sitka, Larch and Douglas which we can fell and extract ourselves, probably getting it to our yard for £25 a tonne.

 

Would you bother? All the local estates only sell hardwood. Most of the local tree surgeons sell mixed loads. I'm pretty sure that it would sell quite well for about £50 a cubic metre (two cube to the tonne, so £12.50 cost, plus my time and a bit of petrol for conversion). We would need at least a couple of hundred cubic metres to make it worth while, which isn't an issue for storage (could probably stack and store 3-400 cube).

 

I know that in various parts of the country softwood sells well, and in others it's impossible to convince the customer of it's value.

 

Jonathan

[hardtop110]

Depends on the makeup of your team. If you are working alone, I would suggest using that extra time to increase the sales of your preferred premium (more valuable for you) product - milling etc.

 

If you have other folk, who may not be able to work on the business development side, then it may offer a short term answer to keep them busy.

 

I'm a softwood fan, but you may have to explain its benefits to existing customers. These can include quicker to get the stove hot, lower levels of ash, lighter to carry, cleaner to store (?) etc.

 

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[muldonach]

........

 

We have good local access to stands of good quality (and fairly large) Sitka, Larch and Douglas which we can fell and extract ourselves, probably getting it to our yard for £25 a tonne.

 

Would you bother? All the local estates only sell hardwood. Most of the local tree surgeons sell mixed loads. I'm pretty sure that it would sell quite well for about £50 a cubic metre (two cube to the tonne, so £12.50 cost, plus my time and a bit of petrol for conversion). We would need at least a couple of hundred cubic metres to make it worth while, which isn't an issue for storage (could probably stack and store 3-400 cube).

 

I know that in various parts of the country softwood sells well, and in others it's impossible to convince the customer of it's value.

 

Jonathan

 

If you have good access to good timber is it not just as easy and profitable to sell the big quality stuff as sawlogs and firewood the small roundwood? I am assumming that your milling and kilning is primarily hardwoods?

 

I can get £25/ tonne standing for good sawlogs it is the smaller roundwood that lacks profitability and needs value added.

 

I would be tempted to take out enough for a trial, sell the sawlogs to cover costs and firewood the small roundwood.

 

Seasoned wood at £50 a cube is good value but it might take a while to establish a customer base - especially if there is plenty of seasoned hardwoods available.

 

Cheers

mac

[firewood]

Up here in the aberdeenshire approx 80% of what i sell is softwood. You just need to price accordingly.

 

At the start of every season some wll only buy hardwood but by xmas when everyone has sold out of dry hardwood dry softwood becomes even more popular!

 

The key to making a profit is volume. If i were you bank on getting about 500m3 split up for next year to give yourself a fair shot at it. Also push mixed loads to help shift it if you encounter customer resistance.

 

For the most part the cheaper price will sell it for you.

 

http://www.kinnoirwoodfuel.co.uk

[felixthelogchopper]

If you already sell hardwood logs, it might be worth your while to give a small bag of softwood logs away with each order, explain to people that they are your softwood logs which you are starting to do as they are cheaper and ask for their feedback on them. That way you are already in mind for when the hardwoods run out in January

[northumbriaforestry]

We're switching to softwood firewood from start of new tax year. Hardwood in this part of the country is just not sustainable. We're really looking forward to being able to offer an even cheaper, more sustainable & just as a high a quality product to our customers.

[felixthelogchopper]

We're switching to softwood firewood from start of new tax year. Hardwood in this part of the country is just not sustainable. We're really looking forward to being able to offer an even cheaper, more sustainable & just as a high a quality product to our customers.

 

Exactly what everybody needs to be plugging

[Big J]

Very useful replies - thanks everyone!

 

As it stands, I don't sell any firewood, but can only see it as an industry that will continue to grow. The margins are small though, and that is what puts me off. I would have to be very careful not to tread on the toes of the estate that I will rent the yard from.

 

Jonathan

[slack ma girdle]

We're switching to softwood firewood from start of new tax year. Hardwood in this part of the country is just not sustainable. We're really looking forward to being able to offer an even cheaper, more sustainable & just as a high a quality product to our customers.

 

Softwood cost the same to process as hardwood, therefore be careful about how cheap you sell it for.

[firewood]

Softwood cost the same to process as hardwood, therefore be careful about how cheap you sell it for.

 

Not quite. I find sw is quicker to process as it is more uniform in shape. This equates to a saving of 15 to 30 minutes per load in both tractor time and my time. Then again perhaps im just getting rubbish hw cord.

 

http://www.kinnoirwoodfuel.co.uk