BSW Timber lines up Giddings expansion
8 May 2015BSW Timber is lining up significant expansion at its Giddings Sawmill business near Southampton in a move that will enhance demand for the region's timber supply, a delegation of woodland owners has heard.
BSW Timber has plans to increase the 95,000 tonnes of roundwood it currently handles at Giddings Sawmill, Ringwood, with the added hope that more jobs will be created at the company, which currently employs 40 people making fencing and landscape products.
BSW acquired Giddings last summer with plans to double sawn capacity at the mill to over 60,000m3 within 12 months by introducing additional shifts.
Confor described the announcement as a clear signal to whoever forms the next Government that it must do more to protect and expand future wood supply for a sector which was “creating jobs, driving investment and economic growth and cutting carbon across the UK”.
“BSW’s investment in its Southampton mill is being reflected across the sawmilling sector,” said Stuart Goodall, chief executive on ConFor.
“The forestry supply chain is in good health, but it is important that we continue to grow markets for UK timber and to ensure a secure, long-term timber supply to feed those markets.
“We are pleased to welcome so many Confor members and the Forestry Commission to our mill here in Southampton,” said Martin Gale, BSW Timber’s chairman.
“We are pleased to welcome so many Confor members and the Forestry Commission to our mill here in Southampton. The message we want to send out is, very simply, that we are open to business from private growers across the south of England.”
