The end of firewood?

[Jackalope]

Well Sunday Night tele was crap, so, on the advice of a collegue, some time after my supper I set to reading this forum and 300odd posts later I have not been disappointed!

Some very good points, some cracking comebacks, excellent 'debating' of all sorts (relevant or not), and just when all seemed lost the last 2-3 pages returned to civilised, intelligent discussion'

 

So I thank you all for contributing to my evenings entertainment if nothing else:001_tt2:

[gensetsteve]

No, but my mill only cost £20k. If every day was a good day, it turns £800-1000 worth of raw material into £5000 of sawn product (final, kilned value). Minimal running costs, one man day of labour and also not having to deal with firewood customers!

 

We can all produce endless firewood/sawn timber - it's the selling of it that is tricky!

 

Yes does not matter how much cord you have or how fast your processor works if its 14 deg outside it makes life difficult for people. I feel for anyone making a living from firewood at the moment as i have been there and know how hard it is. Hopefully things will come right for everyone.

[skyhuck]

Retail has aways been about buying, not selling.

 

If your paying too much for the stuff you sell you'll struggle.

[Chalgravesteve]

Retail has aways been about buying, not selling.

 

If your paying too much for the stuff you sell you'll struggle.

 

Nope....Retail is about selling.....even if the incoming stuff is free, if you don't/can't sell it you don't make anything..... stockpiling is no good either..

 

Profit is made on turnover of stock, not how much you have. If you have £50,000 worth of stock and you sell it in a year and it cost you £20,000 to acquire/process you made £30,000.

 

If you have £10,000 worth of stock and it cost you £4,000 (same %age) but you sell and replace the stock every 2 weeks through the year, you never hold more than £10,000 worth of stock, but you sold £260,000 worth of product and made £156,000!

 

What do you want then? £10k of stock or £50k of stock?

[skyhuck]

Nope....Retail is about selling.....even if the incoming stuff is free, if you don't/can't sell it you don't make anything..... stockpiling is no good either..

 

Profit is made on turnover of stock, not how much you have. If you have £50,000 worth of stock and you sell it in a year and it cost you £20,000 to acquire/process you made £30,000.

 

If you have £10,000 worth of stock and it cost you £4,000 (same %age) but you sell and replace the stock every 2 weeks through the year, you never hold more than £10,000 worth of stock, but you sold £260,000 worth of product and made £156,000!

 

What do you want then? £10k of stock or £50k of stock?

 

Yes, but if you buy right, selling is easy

[gensetsteve]

Problem was in 2010 once your stock pile ran out you were dead in the water. We could have sold ten times as many logs but the following year we did not sell a tenth of it. When there is no demand plenty of cord about hard winter = no cord or inflated prices for the following year. At the moment log merchants are paying through the nose for cord yet oil has halved in price. To make it worth doing logs again I would have to be buying in at £35 a toone delivered and that would put me back on par with 2008.

[mendiplogs]

Yes does not matter how much cord you have or how fast your processor works if its 14 deg outside it makes life difficult for people. I feel for anyone making a living from firewood at the moment as i have been there and know how hard it is. Hopefully things will come right for everyone.

 

Hi STEVE you hit the NAIL ON HEAD there 👍14c who going to have loads of fires then there's oil at 35)40p per LR 😭😭😭thanks Jon

[Daniel Jiggins]

I personally think we are sounding like whinging farmers, Yes the past two years have been a bit slow but 2010-12 were great and if you have invested that profit wisely at the time you can just sit on your stock and ride the wave.

My regular round I have built up over the last 10 or so years keeps me going beyond tick over, The more people that are giving the game up because it's a little tough at the moment surely that's a better thing for the rest of us that can stick at it.

[mendiplogs]

Problem was in 2010 once your stock pile ran out you were dead in the water. We could have sold ten times as many logs but the following year we did not sell a tenth of it. When there is no demand plenty of cord about hard winter = no cord or inflated prices for the following year. At the moment log merchants are paying through the nose for cord yet oil has halved in price. To make it worth doing logs again I would have to be buying in at £35 a toone delivered and that would put me back on par with 2008.

 

Hi STEVE as you no we will not see this price again £35 into yard 😰😰😰😰but your right thanks Jon

[R5log]

Cheer up, it not the end of the world

Summers only round the corner!!!