Best of Both Worlds

The timber door and window industries know all about PVCu product competition after decades of fighting it out.

But wood-plastic composites (WPCs) sit in a strange middle camp, consisting of both wood and plastic.

For many timber product companies the big question may well be – should I stock it? Is it woody enough? Does it matter?

In recent years the timber product distribution sector has been moving towards acceptance of WPCs as a viable option for customers, principally for decking.

It is now the fastest-growing part of the decking market, with most major distributors offering a WPC product as well as some major merchant chains such as Travis Perkins (UPM ProFi brand) and Jewson (Dura brand). Imports make up the majority of brands on the market – from Asia, Europe and North America, with some UK production.

One of the leading brand names in composite decking – Millboard – is not covered in this report, as it is not actually a WPC, having no forest-based content but instead relying on polyurethane resin, mineral stone flour and glass fibres.

WPCs often feature approximately 50-60% wood flour, normally comprising ground down timber processing waste, and recycled plastic – either polyethylene, polypropylene or PVC, as well as UV inhibitors and a colour system. The materials are combined in a carefully controlled process and made into decking in an extruding line.

Profiles can either be a hollow or solid structure and capped or uncapped, with capped products featuring a plastic surface layer for additional durability.

Quoted benefits are low maintenance and colour fastness and its position in the market usually sits towards the high end, with products three to five times more expensive than traditional treated softwood decking.

WPC market share

The Timber Decking and Cladding Association (TDCA) is surveying its members to assess market shares for softwood, hardwood and WPC decking. It most recent figures relate to 2016 and show a 6% WPC volume market share and 20% value share.

Most companies TTJ spoke to believe that it has now broken through 10% for volumes, with some suggesting it could be up to 12%. “It has definitely grown,” said Janet Sycamore, head of operations at the TDCA. “I don’t know if it’s into double figures yet but some members are reporting 100% year-onyear growth.”

She said the lesson of mature WPC decking markets such as the US was that the product reaches a threshold of about 25% of the decking market, with its price premium limiting further growth.

The TDCA has kept a watching brief on WPCs, as it is often used with timber joists so is a factor in the decking market and because many members are now offering it. To date it has not formally “accepted” it, but that could be about to change.

“There is a feeling in the board of directors that the time is now right to start to accept WPC but we are not quite there yet,” she said. “We are canvassing the views of members and everyone that I have spoken to so far has been positive about it.”

A TDCA board meeting in March will make a final decision on whether to accept WPCs. “Most of our members do have a WPC range and if they haven’t then they are probably thinking about it,” she added.

“There are two ways to look at it. The dyed-in-the-wool timber person does not like it. But it goes with a substructure that usually needs more timber. If you are selling more wood then it’s a win-win situation.”

Timber sector response

While softwood decking may be the biggest loser from WPC’s rise, many timber merchants and distributors don’t appear to be too vexed by the newer product.

Kent-based Odds Timber is a distributor for the Saige brand in the south-east.

“From our point of view, we have been trading it for 12 months and the sales are now about 70% of the volume of softwood decking sales,” said Duncan Odds, MD. “It could be one-to-one by the end of the year.

“It was a fairly easy decision to take [adding WPC decking] because it’s offering a solution that gets rid of the maintenance issue. We are giving the end-user a product that they don’t have to do anything to.”

Odds is offering both a hollow-core product, mainly purchased by retail customers, and a solid profile, which tends to be bought for commercial applications, such as pubs. It stocks two colours – charcoal and light grey.

“Quite often it is the architects who are specifying that a project has to be a composite deck. On the retail side, Sittingbourne where we are based is not a particularly affluent area, but people will pay [the higher price for WPC]. I think if merchants stock the product, it will sell.”

Timber trader Charles Taylor, also director at WPC brand Composite Prime, argues that traders should embrace new products.

“It’s taking a little time for people to get used to it because it’s not 100% fully timber and stockists have to understand that.”

“So, it’s been a slow start for composites in the UK. But we are now growing at quite a rapid rate.”

Composite Prime’s route to market follows the traditional timber importer model – purely selling to distributors – with Arnold Laver and Taylor Maxwell being its two UK distributors.

“We estimate a 10% WPC decking market share at the moment. We know it’s currently growing at around 100% per year in terms of volumes and we think it will have a 50% new decking market share in the next three to four years as end users recognise the benefits of composites over timber. It can be a deck they enjoy rather than having to do maintenance.”

Composite Prime’s HD Deck Dual decking products are reversible, with different colours on the two sides and a wood grain effect. It has four colours in total, with Antique (grey) being its most popular.

Taylor Maxwell expects the composite decking market to gain “real traction” in 2018.

“Our route to market through timber and fencing merchants will be critical in building the success of this product,” it said.

“Whilst some competitors appear relaxed on who they sell to, we will support and protect our stockists in selling Composite Prime decking.”

Taylor Maxwell said its ability to deliver other construction and fencing based timber products from stock alongside softwood, anti-slip and composite decking is helping it gain a foothold in the WPC market.

“Internet sales of WPC are going well because every board is the same – they all come out perfectly straight and consistent,” added Charles Taylor.

“From a stockist perspective, they can make a better margin on it. I do believe that stockists won’t stock one just brand – that is how it has gone in the US.”

The company is currently developing a fire-rated WPC cladding product and is working closely with architects, talking about a fire-rated product for balcony decks.

US-made Trex, listed on the NY Stock Exchange, is probably the best known among the WPC brands and is billed as the world’s largest WPC manufacturer.

With a huge factory in Winchester, West Virginia, the company is reputed to be the world’s largest recycler of plastic bags and recycles some 180 million kg of wood and plastic waste every year.

Arbor Forest Products is the exclusive UK importer/distributor for Trex, selling the Contour range to the DIY retail sector and Transcend range to the trade.

A Trex shipment arriving at Arbor’s New Holland terminal in mid-March will consist of 50 40ft containers, giving the company big pre-season stocks.

“I think the WPC market would be over 10% now,” said Sarah Francis, Arbor product manager. “We are budgeting for more growth and still looking for new stockists and have a few geographical gaps.”

Arbor saw growth of 140% in 2016 and 50% last year, backed by promotional work with its 200+ stockists.

Unusually, Arbor also saw its best ever year for softwood decking in 2017, which it attributed to winning market share from other softwood deck offerings in the market. Trex’s solid board is capped with a polymer “shell” on three sides.

“But there are people that still want to have a hardwood or a softwood deck.

Composites are never going to look exactly like timber but they are improving.”

One of the Chinese-made products present in the UK market for seven years is Saige – a family-run operation whose parent company Sino Trading employs 12 people in China.

A distributor-based business model, Saige has Illingworth Ingham as its north-west distributor, while Beach Bros Ltd covers the south-west, Odds Timber the south-east and a distribution operation covers Northern Ireland and Scotland.

Harriet Keohane, Saige director, said the company was actively looking for more distributors. “A few years ago we were calling timber merchants and they didn’t know what WPC was,” she said. “Now people are approaching us. I think in the next five years about 20% of new decks will be WPC.

“Last year our growth was 30% of the previous year. This year we are expecting to grow by about 40%.”

Saige offers hollow core and solid profiles in an uncapped, brushed finish product, with grey being the most popular. Its solid rustic product in walnut featuring an embossed wood grain is proving very popular.

Its projects include a roof terrace at Watford Girls Grammar School and student accommodation at Lincoln College, Oxford. SmartBoard is another Chinese product – imported and distributed by Hoppings. The ultra-dense product features a tactile matt brushed finish and its composition allows it, Hoppings says, to be face fixed with colour coded screws at standard 400m joist centres.

UPM ProFi

James Latham has distributed the UPM ProFi brand since 2013.

This product’s forest-based content comes from lignin-free cellulose-based fibre recycled from the self-adhesive label industry. This, says UPM ProFi, gives it good colour holding and resistance to fading.

Richard Mosson, James Latham’s group cladding and decking manager, said WPCs had been a slow burner initially but sales grew significantly in 2014, increasing by 50% the following year and a further 30% in 2016. Sales of WPC decking have now reached a seven figure sum and it is Lathams’ biggest decking seller.

Lathams noticed a stagnation in 2017, which Mr Mosson attributes to a big influx of Chinese products. But he expects growth to resume this year.

The Profi product is made in Germany and has a contemporary stone look, while the higher-spec US-made Lifecycle product has an embossed wood grain.

“We’re seeing an increase in demand for wood grain effect WPCs,” said Mr Mosson. Peter Stewart, UPMProfi international sales manager, said its UK sales have doubled in the last three to four years.

“It’s only really since 2012 that it has been taking off,” he said. “If market share in the UK reaches 25-30% then everyone is going to be happy, except for softwood decking.

“But people still like the look and feel of timber and there is nothing wrong with that.” Certificated hardwood decking, Mr Stewart added, tends to have a market.

“For Travis Perkins it has become a daily order product. They regard WPC as a standard product now.”

Two types of product are made – a solid profile capped product with UPM’s own Formi cellulose-based bioplastic forming the outer surface and a standard hollow core uncapped profile.

Mr Stewart says the hollow core profile uses polypropelene, a stronger polymer that means a hollow profile can be both lightweight and robust.

UK producer Ecodek has been producing WPCs since 2004 and operates from a factory in Wrexham. It was acquired by PVC products giant Epwin Group in 2015. UK customers include Center Parcs, Barratt Homes, the National Trust and Lend Lease. Ecodek’s products bear the Made in Britain marque and are used around the world, including in Antigua, Dubai and Portugal. Projects include the 14km Jumeirah Beach Walkway (Dubai).

Lend Lease’s massive 3,000 homes Elephant & Castle project in London is using Ecodek’s AT 21mm and Classic 25mm decking boards. Primary use is within off-site produced balconies.

Ecodek also made a special profile for a VIP area for the London Olympics. Ecodek marketing manager Felicity Hodgkinson said the company is seeing growth of 20% year-on-year.

“The large bulk of our sales are going to big developers in London but we’re now looking to also form up with distributors and supply the market in that way,” she said. It has joined the NMBS buying group to access independent merchants and is setting up a new installer scheme, while the product has been rated as carbon negative by a cradle-to-grave footprint assessment.

A buy-back scheme for users’ offcuts (which can be used again in the manufacturing process) further improves the environmental profile of the product, which is 90-96% recycled and 100% recyclable. Ecodek only makes a solid uncapped profile in five colours. It will launch a Heritage product in the next couple of months featuring a wood grain effect. It will also launch a cladding offering, featuring two additional colours.

But it hasn’t all been plain sailing in the WPC market, with reports of problems attributed to product quality or poor installation.

Both DIY retail and trade distribution sectors have suffered, with reports of one company being hit by claims amounting to six figures due to product failure.

Whenever a product group sees strong growth there is inevitably an increase in the number of players seeking to profit and WPCs are no exception, with a big rise in Chinese products entering the market. Both Charles Taylor and Peter Stewart drew comparisons to the early days of UK Chinese plywood imports, with variable levels of quality, particularly at sector’s lower end.

“It’s easy to sit at a computer or tablet and buy a product from China,” said Mr Stewart. “If you’ve got a bank account you can be an instant trader and import composite decking.”

Saige, a well-established Chinese-made brand in the UK, said it was important to do homework on suppliers and to look for thicker walls in hollow profiles and that ingredients had been properly mixed in manufacture.

“There are cheap products out there and we have seen a lot of factories in China,” said Saige’s Harriet Keohane.

The TDCA admits there is a lack of authoritative generic information on WPCs.

“There is such a mix of qualities of products on the market,” said the TDCA’s Janet Sycamore.

“There may be some data and a warranty but at the end of the day it’s difficult for the consumer and specifier.”

Twenty-five year warranties abound in the market but the TDCA said testing information was important to back this up.

Arbor’s Sarah Francis said despite the challenge of a host of WPC products entering the market, she expressed confidence the quality brands would “win out in the end”. Lathams’ Richard Mosson agreed, adding: “It will take a bit of time and there will be a little bit of pain along the way.”

Installation is key, with hollow WPC decking generally requiring a slight fall designed into the deck level to guard against the effects of penetrating water.

Reduced joist centres is another requirement, with 300mm advised on many but not all products, potentially increasing timber joist sales, though an aluminium or steel sub frame is a common feature in the mature German WPC market.

Correct gaps (normally 5mm) should be left between boards for expansion and contraction, with lengthwise gaps important as WPC expands along its length. And following the supplier’s fixing advice is also key, whether using a clip system or special screws.

Negative marketing

The TDCA has noticed negative marketing tactics from WPC distribution specialists not involved in the timber trade, using language such as “won’t rot like timber”, while some are even criticising other WPC products.

As WPC use becomes more widespread many of the installation related issues should resolve and there could be sector consolidation focusing on the best performing brands. Independent industry best practice guidelines and product certification will help achieve this.

WPC looks set to continue its strong growth in decking and make inroads into other sectors, particularly cladding, based on its low maintenance and colour-fastness benefits, as well as high end fencing.

It is becoming another choice for buyers and looks likely to eat into softwood decking’s market share, but tradition, pricing and, for some, aesthetics will mean timber decking will continue to be the dominant volume player for years ahead.