Lancer

Walkers logs I think are in the Cotswolds. Good company

2 years ago we increased prices by £10 a cube and we got much busier. We have recently increased by £10 again and have seen no drop off in sales. Can afford to lose a fair few customers and will still be better off. We are now £105 for air dried and £120 m3 kiln dried.

Thanks for this advice. Manual ringing up will be fine for us. Does the splitta 400 cope ok with hard, dry wood? Some of it has been down 2 years now. Yes we may trade one of these in for a larger machine over the next year or so

Hopefully someone can help us out here. I am looking to hire in a larger processor to cut some over sized wood. We run a couple of tajfun 400 processors which are managing upto 40cm diameter. Currently all slightly larger wood (40-50cm) we are stacking out the way but the pile is steadily growing. I would estimate it's 150-200 tonnes total. All nice and straight. would just be a man and processor needed we can provide tractor and digger for loading deck. Alternatively if anyone has a big processor and wants to offer to buy the wood from us that may also work. We are in Northamptonshire. Thanks

Hi Bob this might be something I can help you with. free to ring me on 07989606697

Hi mate. I could probably help you out, ring me tomorrow on 07989606697.

I spoke to Jonathan a few weeks back they have nothing for sale currently. We bring a lot of hardwood into northants most coming past your door so I am sure I could help you out. How many tonnes are you after? I'm in Norway currently back on the 4th of Jan give me a ring. If you put Nene valley firewood into Google you can get my number.

Similar to Alycidon I am just down the road from you and would be happy to point you in the direction of a few local suppliers or just give a bit of advice if just starting out.

Haha we are all asking where we can get wood for free. Not very common these days. If you process firewood just get a good Kindling supplier and it is definitely worth adding in because it will increase profits on every delivery you get an order. Maybe get firelighters and coal as well it all helps.

Hi mate. My view is that if you have a consistent, dry and free supply of wood. Probably waste from another process then you can make money on it. If like us you are buying in your wood and have to dry it then I would not bother cutting kindling. We buy all of ours in from a friend and I can't produce as good a product for less than I pay him.

We had a few days last week we were selling over 30 m3 a day to local houses. We also do a little bit to shops and other merchants so had one day we did about 40 m3 all in. Just keeps getting busier generally. We put prices up to slow demand but that has not worked. Can't complain it will not always be like this so have to make the most of it.

We are very pleased with sales so far this winter. Nicely up on last year. We did our best day ever today on deliveries.

I have no issue with what Ash is doing, the fact he is shifting a good amount of logs shows he is getting something right. For me the crucial thing is honesty with customers about moisture content then being consistent in delivering what you claim. We could argue all day about what the terminology seasoned means. On the subject of kiln dried it has often seemed a bit odd that some merchants are so against it. I see it as an opportunity. We are all in business, the fundamental object of which is to make a living/profit. Rightly or wrongly there is a big market out there for kiln dried. 1/3 of all our sales are kiln dried, on these sales we make more profit. At no point do we lie to customers we just say that the kiln dried are about 5-10% drier and let them decide. If they want kiln dried happy days, then it is down to the customer to decide if they are happy with what they buy. For me this is basic sensible business. Judging by the houses of many of my customers buying kiln dried they are far from stupid. They can quickly work out what's what and make the choice on what they buy. The log business is a tough place to make profit. If customers want to pay a premium let's make the most of the opportunity.

Well not exactly local, Northamptonshire. might work if you were happy to stay away from home for a bit. What sort of experience do you have? I guess more and more its m9 intensive orchards in Kent. We grow apples pears plums and apricots on intensive and older more traditional orchard systems so fair experience of fruit trees would be necessary. Might be worth us having a chat at some point.

Ok agree with others then that buying in cordwood and selling on would be difficult to make profit on. Interested in the fruit work because have a fruit farm and skilled pruners are hard to come by. We are a way off but might be able to put some work your way on our farm if short of work in the winter

Agree with people that it is very tight to make profit especially with a log splitter and chainsaw but still think it could be worth a go if your circumstances are good. You have to start somewhere and who is to say you can't turn it into something successful. I noticed your photo is a fruit farm and you said your a farmer in your original post. Do you own this farm?

Hi mate. To give you a rough idea. You are looking at paying £55 per tonne for hardwood delivered currently. This does fluctuate depending on location in the country. We usually calculate that a 26 tonne load will give us 45 loose cubic metres of split logs. Worth being aware if you buy green beech or oak that it will be less. So in terms of what you will make just multiply 45 by your sale price and remember that if selling to end user it will have 5% vat on it. Good luck and let us know if you have any other questions

Yes there is but to be fair we have several advantages over someone starting from nothing. 1. We own the farm so don't have to rent a yard. 2. We already have staff and kit for other existing business on the site so don't have all ours eggs in one basket. To give an example our employees can go from busy season harvesting fruit and then when that's quiet they go onto logs more. 3. Once you get to a certain size you can be very efficient with deliveries this massively effects profitability and production speed is fast when you have the kit, economy of scale. 4. Space is another thing we have plenty of and barns. All these factors and others make it a business that stacks up financially for us. However can very much understand how it is extremely tight to make a decent living from if circumstances are not as advantageous but I do think if you run a tight ship and work hard there is money to be made on the small scale even if you are buying in the wood.

Great to read peoples stories. I work on a small fruit farm, we never originally planned to have a firewood business. About 7 years back we we're grubbing out an apple orchard and one of our employees asked me if we should keep the wood and sell it. Because it was a bit out of line with what we we're focused on as a business I remember not being majorly enthusiastic but said I was happy for him to do it. It all sold quick so I bought an artic load of ash and beech which we chainsawed and split with axes. Each year after that we roughly doubled every year what we sold and this year we will process 2000 odd tonnes.

Agree with this having watched the big machines I will more likely run 2 tajfun in the future rather than a big processor. Watched the cord king and it was impressive how fast it cut but too messy in my opinion. Have a friend who runs possibly the biggest firewood company in Norway and he runs 3 tajfun 400 full time and they cut a serious amount per year.

Hi mate. I could probably help you out I have plenty of cordwood. Give me a ring on 07989606697. Cheers

You must be running a really tight ship to make those numbers stack up. You are a bit unfortunate if that is what people around you are charging. On the price of cord, we have found its been more of a buyer's market this year and have bought fairly large quantities for average price £51 per tonne delivered. Last year was £55.

Softwood £85 Hardwood £95 Kilned hardwood £110

Is your waste heat from an a d plant or something else?