Brooks Bros acquires assets of Sewstern Timber Services

Sewstern is the sawmilling arm of Associated Timber Services (ATS) - which recently went into administration.

Brooks Bros has saved all 20 full time jobs at Sewstern and has employed six of the former ATS staff (with plans to recruit a further four).

It is now effectively the owner and operator of the whole Sewstern site and will start trading immediately as Brooks Bros (UK) Ltd (Home Grown Timber Division).

The company has also purchased many of the machinery assets of ATS in Brompton on Swale, which will be distributed around the group production facilities as well as at Sewstern.

STS has a longstanding reputation as a timber service company specialising in the quality band milling of predominantly oak logs into beams and through and through boards. It also has Weinig machines, including laser guided multi ripping, Powermat moulding, Opticut S50 cross cutting and a Grecon ProfiJoint finger-jointing line.

The site also houses a recently installed large modern biomass kiln drying facility with 11 kilns and a monthly drying capacity of approximately 600m3 of which Brooks Bros (UK) Ltd is already a major customer.

With the appointment of a dedicated home grown timber sales team, Brooks Bros said the main difference under its ownership will be that STS will now stock and sell a wide range of European T / T and 1 S/E hardwoods, including substantial volumes of oak and Douglas fir logs for conversion into bespoke beams which will include graded beams.

“This acquisition is a fantastic opportunity for Brooks Bros to significantly strengthen its market share in home grown hardwoods and at the same time enable us to secure and grow our kiln drying capacity,” said Mark Fleming, managing director of Brooks Bros.

“We’re happy to be welcoming our new colleagues in Sewstern on board.”