Andy Gentle

hi, here are a few facts and figures about french tree firms.This was from a survey conducted by UNEP(union national des entreprises de paysages)in 2007.

There are 4500 tree companies in france employing 7800 climbers. 80% of these employ between 1 and 5 people,only 9% more than 10 people.

Although Only half the climbers have the national certificate, 30% of employers said it was the most important criteria when recuiting, for 26% it was experience, and 18.5% prefered work experience within the company.

There are 360 new climbers trained each year,out of these, 320 find employed work, while 40 start there own companies.

In all, there are 200 new companies created a year, providing 660 new jobs.

Each year 840 people leave the profession.Either due to a career change or retirement. Amongst these 400 climbers leave the job principally due to the physical nature of the work.

Hope you found it interresting.

Interesting stuff Perci, I've travelled in France a fair bit and have never seen much tree work being done. People I've spoken to out there have said that there isn't really a tree surgery industry as such with most of it being done by forestry workers or farmers in the rural areas but maybe this is changing? What chippers do you use out there?

What's the weight?