Good start in fragile market

Happy new year is not quite the economic message that greeted us last week, with some gloomy headlines welcoming the year in. We've had the credit crunch, the recession and now the “spending squeeze” is here.

Projections for the construction industry are by no means rosy, but there are some positives. Fundamental to the coalition’s new housing strategy is the statement “we need to get the housing sector – and in particular new housebuilding – moving again. This is central for our plans for economic growth”. New initiatives, such as the mortgage indemnity insurance scheme and Get Britain Building should start to oil the wheels, and potential easing in planning regulations may also help to kick-start more development.

At BWF our focus is on helping joinery and woodworking businesses meet these challenges and in doing so, to trade profitably. As well as providing support and lobbying, this involves a focus on the specification of our members’ products, making wood the easy and obvious choice.

In this, it is vital that we rally as a sector and provide consistent messaging that promotes wood’s inherent advantages and capabilities. The BWF Stair Scheme is a good example, emphasising best practice, helping to instill ever more confidence in the performance of timber stairs, boosting safety and regulatory compliance and underpinning the suitability of wood in markets where our share should be better. The BWF’s doors and windows quality schemes also demonstrate how companies can set aside competitive differences to focus on expanding markets and solving customers’ problems.

It was happier reading on New Year’s Day with the news that BWF president and chief executive of Performance Timber Products Group, Roy Wakeman, was awarded an OBE for services to the joinery manufacturing industry. Thanks to his leadership and the input of so many of our members, the BWF’s membership has grown over the past year. So the BWF is off to a good start for 2012, but there is more to be done – the market is fragile and the wood sector remains fragmented, providing a weakness that competitive materials can, and do, exploit.

TTJ Industry Updates are a forum for trade bodies to address key issues.