Firewood and profit?

[Johny Walker]

we dont... but i have nearly 250 1.3 m loads all split and ready to go that cost me very little [all my own wood from tree work].. so when you put your own wood in with what you bought it goes a lot further...

if i did 500 loads in a season... 250 that i've bought in aqnd 250 of my own it works out at £57 a load.....

 

thats what i do ,makes it about £30 a ton ,

[Theocus]

Yep, start putting your own in at the profit is brilliant, i worked out the costings of felling our own, transport etc etc. Buying in an trying to remain competitive just doesnt work efficiently enough, stick in arb waste and a few who you knows from local estates and i think the percentage is much greater. I think we kick out at 45-50 a load!!

[nick channer]

Yep, start putting your own in at the profit is brilliant, i worked out the costings of felling our own, transport etc etc. Buying in an trying to remain competitive just doesnt work efficiently enough, stick in arb waste and a few who you knows from local estates and i think the percentage is much greater. I think we kick out at 45-50 a load!!

 

can i not interest you in an artic load of hardwood cord sometime soon....?

[Dave Martin]

I saw in another thread that Gensetseve mentioned that £5000 worth of timber will give £1000 profit.

When you think about the time and work that goes into processing, delivering etc the margin seems tight.

To put it another way you would have to buy in £50,000 worth of cord to give £10k profit

Food for thought!

 

You need to factor into these figures that Steve is a pessimist of the highest degree

[gensetsteve]

You need to factor into these figures that Steve is a pessimist of the highest degree

 

I was being optomistic at £1000 profit

[farmer_ben]

Ah, maybe thats what he meant then.

Definitly not to be sniffed at if thats the case.

 

20% is what i aim at also.

 

I aim to shift 5 loads a day @ £100 a go, once i have paid myself £100 and my bro £100 for the day, £200 for the cord and processing, delivery costs, I generally have around £100 left. So not to bad for a days work I feel.

[gensetsteve]

i buy in 26 ton cord.... which costs me 1300 quid.. 2 men process it in 2 days payin them £160 for both of them per day.. 15 gallon red diesel... from that load i get between 33 -40 of my loads which are just over 1.3 cubic metres... total income is £2960 [averaging 37 loads from 26 ton].. that leaves around £1300... or £35 a load... i take 3 loads out at a time and around 10 loads a day when weathers cold.... £105 for a round trip of say an hour will do me... it keeps my 2 blokes in work from now till march and gives me a good living for basically driving a transit all day...

 

seems ok put like that. But what about rent, rates, chain oil, chains, processor depreciation, processor repairs, derv in transit, transit servicing, insurances, road tax, tractor servicing, tractor replacement, training, holidays, sick pay, chainsaw repairs, replacement.

 

The way I work it is 25% is cost of wood 25% is other materials 25% wages at £10 an hour leaves me 25% so turn over £40,000 leaves £10,000

[Big Bolt]

oh boys dont forget the tax man !!!!!!

[gensetsteve]

Yeah so 6 months work for £6,000 or about the same profit for the sale of one used 800 kva and dont forget the vat man.

[nick channer]

seems ok put like that. But what about rent, rates, chain oil, chains, processor depreciation, processor repairs, derv in transit, transit servicing, insurances, road tax, tractor servicing, tractor replacement, training, holidays, sick pay, chainsaw repairs, replacement.

 

The way I work it is 25% is cost of wood 25% is other materials 25% wages at £10 an hour leaves me 25% so turn over £40,000 leaves £10,000

no different than any other line of work.. i dont rely on firewood for a living.... so the 2 transits would be sat in yard doing nothing waiting for a tree job to come in... if you have to start putting chain oil, price of a new chain at around a tener each and changing the oil and filters on an old major once a year then to be honest you shouldn't in the business..