REF what the price of hard wood cord now thanks

[mad matty]

Hi Alycidon....Mix generally arb waste seasoned a couple of years and bought in timber, so its not all bought in but its a lot of work for not a lot of dosh.

easier to do a tree or hedge job for the morning and earn more

Cheers Matty

[New Forest Firewood Co]

It's always the same with a new boom type product/ industry. Everyone thinks its easy money doing logs as the raw material was pretty cheap a couple of yrs ago and there were loads of existing and new customers.

 

Every Tom dick and Harry gets involved for a bit of green gold cash and then slowly the raw material is harder to come by, prices go up and a number of the unscrupulous traders p&@s customers off or just can't keep up the quality or supply.

 

It happened with xmastrees a few yrs ago and it'll sort itself out with the logs sometime soon I'm sure. You have to be in it for the long haul, have a good product, not give it away and don't undercut your local guys as it does nobody any favours in the long term and you'll not last the long haul and will also pi&& everyone off.

 

We're all in this together so we need to stickit out and shed the cowboys by keeping a fair price and remembering that there's plenty of cipustomers out there who want a reliable service and a good product.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

It's always the same with a new boom type product/ industry. Everyone thinks its easy money doing logs as the raw material was pretty cheap a couple of yrs ago and there were loads of existing and new customers.

 

Every Tom dick and Harry gets involved for a bit of green gold cash and then slowly the raw material is harder to come by, prices go up and a number of the unscrupulous traders p&@s customers off or just can't keep up the quality or supply.

 

It happened with xmastrees a few yrs ago and it'll sort itself out with the logs sometime soon I'm sure. You have to be in it for the long haul, have a good product, not give it away and don't undercut your local guys as it does nobody any favours in the long term and you'll not last the long haul and will also pi&& everyone off.

 

We're all in this together so we need to stickit out and shed the cowboys by keeping a fair price and remembering that there's plenty of cipustomers out there who want a reliable service and a good product.

 

Wise words!

[Woodworks]

Have a look here:

Energy Cost Comparison | Nottingham Energy Partnership

 

This shows logs as a fuel as just cheaper than gas per kwh but with a fraction of the greenhouse emissions which keeps the lady of the house happy.

 

Buying hard cord in at commercial rates then £85 a cube is not making money especially if that includes VAT. If you are selling timber from arb jobs that you have acquired free or for low cost then of course thats different.

 

Demand for logs is only going to increase in the short/medium term, gas supplies are a bit iffy, we can only now store 7 days worth of gas, we import slightly over 50% of our gas needs usually from the Soviet block. Nuclear power stations coming off line means that my winter 2016 we will have a potential electricity shortfall, demand being more than we are able to supply unless we are able to buy from abroad.

 

People wish to be independent from relying on these major foreign owned energy firms, hence the demand for stoves.

 

My logs can stay in the shed at 100 + vat let alone 85 including. Cost of delivering say 10 miles away is £1.50 a mile each way, so £30, + your time + trailer maintenance costs. If you dont have at least £60 on top of your costs you are loosing money if you are delivering the products.

 

 

A

 

Those figures by the Nottingham Energy Partnership don't add up by my workings.

 

Last time I weighed a cube it was 320kg and I charge £95. That's 1280 kWh - 20% for boiler efficiency comes to 1028 kWh. 95/1028 works out at 9.2p per kWh. Getting on for twice the price of mains gas.

[gensetsteve]

Those figures by the Nottingham Energy Partnership don't add up by my workings.

 

Last time I weighed a cube it was 320kg and I charge £95. That's 1280 kWh - 20% for boiler efficiency comes to 1028 kWh. 95/1028 works out at 9.2p per kWh. Getting on for twice the price of mains gas.

 

I have never seen figures to convince me logs can compete with gas. I always think of logs as bit of a luxury item. Most people burn them on high days and holidays.

[New Forest Firewood Co]

We're not selling to cheapskates who are trying to get a better deal than mains gas. If you are, youve got your marketing wrong. People ( in the south east atbleat) have money and love the feel of burning wood and like the autonomy they get from being a little self sufficient and not tied to gas supply and it's perils.

 

All our good customers don't quibble on price but love the quality. I can almost guarantee that anyone who calls up and whinges about the price isn't worth keeping as a customer - "woods wet", "not as big a load as last time", " Dave in the pub does it for £x", "that (seasoned for 3 yrs) wood is fresh cut".....

 

We had a guy last week, first one of the winter ( we get one per season) complain the load didn't fill his Woodstore as much as last time ( same size load) , wood was heavier ( oak) , " I'm not paying, cancelling my cheque, come and pick It up...." we offered some more wood and free kindling as " the customer is always right" ( as long as he pays), but he still wanted it picked up. We arranged to pick it up 5 days later and bobs your uncle, he wants to keep it.

[mendiplogs]

We're not selling to cheapskates who are trying to get a better deal than mains gas. If you are, youve got your marketing wrong. People ( in the south east atbleat) have money and love the feel of burning wood and like the autonomy they get from being a little self sufficient and not tied to gas supply and it's perils.

 

All our good customers don't quibble on price but love the quality. I can almost guarantee that anyone who calls up and whinges about the price isn't worth keeping as a customer - "woods wet", "not as big a load as last time", " Dave in the pub does it for £x", "that (seasoned for 3 yrs) wood is fresh cut".....

 

We had a guy last week, first one of the winter ( we get one per season) complain the load didn't fill his Woodstore as much as last time ( same size load) , wood was heavier ( oak) , " I'm not paying, cancelling my cheque, come and pick It up...." we offered some more wood and free kindling as " the customer is always right" ( as long as he pays), but he still wanted it picked up. We arranged to pick it up 5 days later and bobs your uncle, he wants to keep it.

 

HI MATE did you get your money in the end then thanks jon

[New Forest Firewood Co]

Yep, he paid up and kept the wood.

 

He'd asked for more oak in his load so we gave him more oak then he complained that it was green oak, which it wasn't. It was 3 yrs seasoned - 2.5 in a stack. There wasn't even any bark on it. When I explained that the oak would be heavier than the ash, alder, birch, beech he told me that I was conning him and that he knows it's green as he "works with wood" he's probably a kitchen fitter or something and obviously knows more about firewood than me, a professional forester with 20 yrs + experience of dealing with firewood.

 

He said hell not use us again as we were trying to con him. We weren't. I feel for the next supplier who he uses as it'll end up the same. His aggro emails were generally about 10.30 in the evening and the more rational ones in the daytime. I don't need that.

 

Cheque has been banked though....

 

Back to price of cord....

 

One of our local competitors (good friends and allies) just paid £42/m3 +vat and delivery for some beech/ oak.

 

We chatted it over yesterday and more likely the price will go beyond that soon but we just all have to put our prices up. At least here in the south east it's better to have a realistic price that makes you some profit and do a few loads less as some customers drop off than keep pushing logs out too cheaply and lose money ( and pi&& off your competition ) with every load.

 

Something to thin about is keeping the price the same but offer a slightly reduced size of load.

[mendiplogs]

Yep, he paid up and kept the wood.

 

He'd asked for more oak in his load so we gave him more oak then he complained that it was green oak, which it wasn't. It was 3 yrs seasoned - 2.5 in a stack. There wasn't even any bark on it. When I explained that the oak would be heavier than the ash, alder, birch, beech he told me that I was conning him and that he knows it's green as he "works with wood" he's probably a kitchen fitter or something and obviously knows more about firewood than me, a professional forester with 20 yrs + experience of dealing with firewood.

 

He said hell not use us again as we were trying to con him. We weren't. I feel for the next supplier who he uses as it'll end up the same. His aggro emails were generally about 10.30 in the evening and the more rational ones in the daytime. I don't need that.

 

Cheque has been banked though....

 

Back to price of cord....

 

One of our local competitors (good friends and allies) just paid £42/m3 +vat and delivery for some beech/ oak.

 

We chatted it over yesterday and more likely the price will go beyond that soon but we just all have to put our prices up. At least here in the south east it's better to have a realistic price that makes you some profit and do a few loads less as some customers drop off than keep pushing logs out too cheaply and lose money ( and pi&& off your competition ) with every load.

 

Something to thin about is keeping the price the same but offer a slightly reduced size of load.

HI MATE some are just like that theres no helping them mate thanks jon

[openspaceman]

Those figures by the Nottingham Energy Partnership don't add up by my workings.

 

Last time I weighed a cube it was 320kg and I charge £95. That's 1280 kWh - 20% for boiler efficiency comes to 1028 kWh. 95/1028 works out at 9.2p per kWh. Getting on for twice the price of mains gas.

 

 

Makes sense, they were working on about 18p/kg 20%mc wood you are charging 30p. I used .7m3 builders bags and they only had 300kg of green wood in when I test weighed a fresh load.