Obituary – Frank Riding

A Lancashire man born and bred, Mr Riding was born in Wigan on Friday July 13, 1951. In 1962 aged just 11 he began working at Riding and AndertonÕs Seven Stars Sawmill after school and every weekend. He would come home from school, have a snack and jump on the bus to the mill, and he would work with his dad Fred until it was time to come home and have their tea. He finished school at age 14 and started work full time as an apprentice fitter.

Around 1973 he gained his class 1 HGV license and worked for a couple of years on the transport side of the business, hauling timber out of the mill, at that time mainly to the mines in Lancashire and Yorkshire.

In 1974 his father acquired the mill in Cardross. Around that time Mr Riding returned from the lorries to work more closely with his father, building the mill up in Wigan, mainly producing mining timber.

In the late 1970s Mr Riding started attending the Ligna exhibition in Hannover, where he became a regular attendee never missing the exhibition and always ensuring that he kept up to speed with all technical developments within the industry. He preferred to do a deal on the stands Ð Òyou always get a better deal on the standsÓ he would say Ð and he forged some long-lasting friendships over the years, the common denominator being timber.

In 1981 recession hit the industry hard causing Ridings Sawmills at Cardross to become the sole focus of the family business. Mr Riding and his family moved from Wigan to Helensburgh in the October of that year and he started work on turning the business around. He turned a significant deficit into a profitable business through grit, determination, hard graft and business acumen.

Throughout the 80s and into the 1990s Frank developed a reputation at the Scottish timber auctions, commanding respect by many and developing a broad network in the industry.

In the mid-80s he could see the industry focus was shifting from mining timber and that he needed to change the way he looked at producing sawn timber. He invested in a new cutting edge EWD reducer quad and from that time he built a lasting relationship with Esterer (EWD) that still exists today. He went on to install both an optimizing board edger and a twin resaw with EWD.

Over the years Mr Riding had a hands on approach to all installations, installing a Brodbaek pallet cross-cut and tray sorting lines in the mid-90s, a Stenner seven-head resaw line in 2003; a Costa second pass line in 2009 and most recently in 2015 a Holtec log line incorporating a Valon Kone de-barker and a Jorg Electonik 3-D Scanning system serviced by a Baljer Zembrod portal crane.

His was the first sawmill in the UK to adopt this particular system. At one point during the log yard installation the Holtec engineers asked Mr Riding if he had ever considered a career in design and build in the sawmilling industry as they were so impressed by his mechanical knowledge and ideas during the installation.

At Ligna in 2017 he purchased a Kalin Multi-Rip with planer heads top and bottom, which is currently being installed with a fully automated material handling system. Not one to rest on his laurels, however, whilst recovering from a gruelling treatment plan of radiotherapy combined with chemotherapy he came up with a new idea to move sawn timber round the mill quicker again. And as a result Ridings is also currently in the process of installing a new Stenner 3 head resaw after the quad reducer and onto the existing EWD twin resaw line. It was Mr RidingÕs firm belief that this will reduce a third pass round the quad and thereby increase production by up to 20%. He has now successfully filled every gap in the mill at Cardross and his legacy will be felt there for many years to come.

After more than 20 years membership Mr Riding was invited onto the executive committee of the UKFPA in 2016, where he played an important role ensuring the voice of the producers was heard by industry and at a policy level. In 2017 he was invited to take up the presidency of the UKFPA. It was a great honour for him to be asked to take up this position and at his inauguration at the Houses of Parliament in 2017 he made quite an entrance with his acceptance speech, making sure everyone was aware that he was ready for the challenges the UK sawmilling industry is facing particularly with regard to log supply.

He was re-elected as president in May this year.

Locally Mr Riding was actively involved in Helensburgh Cricket and Rugby Club as president of the rugby section and in 2017 completed a four-year tenure as the chairman of Helensburgh Golf Club.

Mr Riding is survived by his wife Anne, four children and eight grandchildren.

His daughter Lindsay and son David will continue running the business supported by Anne.

ÒFrank taught us everything there is to know about sawmilling in the UK and we will strive to make him proud every day and continue upon the success that he has built here literally with his own hands,Ó they said.

A fund has been set up in FrankÕs memory at The Brain Tumour Charity, donations can be made using this link https://www.thebraintumourcharity.org/the-frank-riding-memorial-fund/.

Please make donations to the Frank Riding Memorial Fund supporter group, as this will ensure all donations go directly into research and also allow the family to select how the funds raised are used.