Digging deep

I'm sure I'm not alone in this being a favourite time of the year, and for the trade there comes the promise of more activity, particularly for the construction and fencing and garden product sectors.

It's been a busy month of travelling on TTJ - travels have taken me to Bristol, Manchester, Essex and London for, respectively, the Western Timber Association annual dinner, Howarth's 175th anniversary celebrations, a focus on the Port of Tilbury, the UK press conference for the Ligna woodworking technology show and of course, the Timber Trade Federation's annual dinner.

This week I'm at a Lincolnshire timber company to see its latest factory investment and then travel to Germany to see what innovations are taking lace in the specialist panels/ door blank sector.

Visiting the Port of Tilbury for the first time in several years was extremely interesting. The sheds were rammed with plywood, as is often the case at this time of year and my thanks go to Caledonian Plywood's Sam Ballard for showing me their extensive stocks, George Hudson for sharing his memories of the port in its forest products "heyday" and Forth Ports' Paul Dale for outlining the port's current involvement with timber and sheet materials. I and my colleague Thomas Jay look forward to visiting other major UK timber product ports in the months to come. People have been asking me what I thought of this year's Ecobuild. Well, it really depends which way you look at it.

The facts are it is certainly smaller than a few years ago, timber sector exhibitors are definitely lower overall and it's harder to ascertain what the "eco" in Ecobuild now is, partly due to eco construction now being mainstream, with nearly every product claiming some form of green credentials. But if you forget the trail-blazing eco days when the show was at Earl's Court and then when it first came to ExCeL, when there were about 1,500 exhibitors including lots of timber sector representation, then it's still a decent show with lots of interest points. It's just not quite as good as it used to be.

Meanwhile, it was sad to hear that award-winning timber frame manufacturer Frame Wise, had gone into administration because of a bad debt and apparent late payment/penalty clauses by contractor clients. Its frustration was obvious in its lengthy comment on the Frame Wise website.

It is a timely reminder that while the market has picked up, risks remain and it's important to keep a close eye on business, as Paul Trigg from Euler Hermes advised in the February issue of TTJ.

Lastly, we're pleased to be able to announce the guest speaker for the TTJ Awards 2015 - writer, broadcaster and former MP Gyles Brandreth, one of the UK's top speakers.