How do you do stock control?

[Woodworks]

Thanks all plenty of food for thought.

 

Gotta agree with Ted on looking after my customers and will endeavour to continue to do this. It may cost a few sales but should keep goodwill which in a rural area is most valuable. Ted we are pretty new at this but are learning each year.

 

 

Kevin. Like the idea of promoting summer sales but it costs as much to process and deliver whenever it's sold.

Pre-payment scheme. Will seriously consider that.

 

Rowan. Billets is what we have used to fill any shortfall but really don't wish to do many as they have proved very labour intensive. On the upside they are cheap as it's one £3 pallet for a m3 in comparison with a £20 IBC.

 

John. Don't know how you do your billets but I can't make and stack much more than 2m3 an hour plus there is all the loose rings to deal with. They just seem so slow to make and later process.

Edited November 20, 2015 by Woodworks

[Ian Flatters]

First come first served. I do tell the regular customers to order in the summer. So when they forget I can say I did warn you.

[timbernut]

Generally first come first served and I don't really class someone as regular until they've been with me 4+ years, and most of them I can gauge how much they're gonna use from previous years, I do give em a loyalty discount though

[gensetsteve]

I worked out if you have logs on tap for your regulars they will never plan ahead. If the weather is mild you will struggle to sell it so the sooner it's gone the better. If it's a hard winter you could have sold ten times as much if you had it.

[Tom87]

First come, first serve. Turning away paying customers incase regulars come back is a risky strategy.

 

Amen.

[briquette_seller]

Put your prices up. This will reduce the numbers in the loyal customer club, thus increasing the life span of your current stock.

 

More moneys in the bank for more wood next year.

[Woodworks]

Put your prices up. This will reduce the numbers in the loyal customer club, thus increasing the life span of your current stock.

 

More moneys in the bank for more wood next year.

 

Yep. Been thinking this is definitely part of the solution. 5% rise in the new year .

[renewablejohn]

[quote=Woodworks;1381382

 

John. Don't know how you do your billets but I can't make and stack much more than 2m3 an hour plus there is all the loose rings to deal with. They just seem so slow to make and later process.

 

Just stand the billets upright in the IBC container then when I want to process them rotate IBC through 90 degree on forklift and you have an adjustable log deck full of billets ready to wiz through log processor or sawbench. IBC of billets produces a loose fill IBC of split logs so when container empty of billets it then becomes container for split logs.

[Logsnstuff]

Just stand the billets upright in the IBC container then when I want to process them rotate IBC through 90 degree on forklift and you have an adjustable log deck full of billets ready to wiz through log processor or sawbench. IBC of billets produces a loose fill IBC of split logs so when container empty of billets it then becomes container for split logs.

 

We found the same, taking longer to produce 1m3 billets than 1m3 logs off the processor doesn't make sense to us selling it cheaper even if your paying less for the timber it's marginal. if you can get single pass you can get decent speed but most needs to go through 2 or 3 times and theres then also alot of waste.

[Mortimer Firewood]

Do you sell to whoever calls first or keep logs back for the regulars? Last year we kept too much aside for the regulars and then ended up not selling it as the winter was mild. Been selling to lots of new customers this year and now looks like we will have trouble supply some of regulars with dry logs.

 

I hate letting people down but don't want to do ourselves out of sales

Finding it hard to get the balance right :

 

 

Don't run out if you do there's plenty of seasoned wood kickin about