Omose offers products suite

Osmose showcased its new micronised preservative system, MicroPro, and also how its suite of timber treatments and coloured products can be used together .

“We are taking customers into areas of added value. We are now not just a preservative supplier,” said Osmose Europe’s marketing manager Andy Hodge.

The trend for maintaining the rich colour of timber, rather than leaving it to weather to grey, is growing and Osmose offers a choice of colour pigments to be used with its treatments. Likewise its FirePro fire retardant can also be used in conjunction with other products.

On the stand in the Timber Works section, Mr Hodge and his team took the opportunity to survey architects and specifiers about what they wanted in timber. “We’ve had some good insight into what they want,” he said.

Osmose’s MicroPro treatment, which was introduced to Europe last year, attracted a lot of interest. The micronised process, which is based on micronised copper and quarternary compounds, has 60% of the US market and has been taken up by two companies in the UK, as well as in other European countries.

“It’s sweeping across Europe,” said Mr Hodge. “We will continue to see growth this year and next year and in two or three years it will be a volume market.”

While TTJ was on the stand, Geoff Brown of M&M Timber, which uses MicroPro, also stopped to talk. The company introduced the treatment in July last year and it now accounts for 20% of business – and he had just taken an order from Forestry Commission Scotland.