To say Sweden’s wood industry is invested and embedded in the UK market is an understatement. The origins of the Anglo- Swedish timber trade are lost in the mists of time. Today the UK accounts for around 20% of all Sweden’s exports, while Sweden provides about 40% of the UK’s softwood imports. The trades of the two countries are inextricably linked and intertwined.
Understandably, the UK has from the outset also been a key focus of Swedish Wood, which was set up over 25 years ago as the market development arm of the Swedish Forest Industries Federation (SFIF – Skogsindustrierna). It’s the only individual export market which has its own Swedish Wood project manager.
Despite the maturity of this trade relationship, however, Stephen King, who has just taken over the project manager role on the retirement of Tony Traynor, still sees scope for it to evolve in line with market development and to the advantage of the timber sectors of both countries.
Another understatement is to say Mr King is steeped in the Nordic and more specifically Swedish wood industries and their trade with the UK. A former president of the UK Timber Trade Federation (TTF), his career started in 1984 when he joined Billerud’s sales department. From there on it was a who’s who of the big Nordic market players. He spent time at Stora, Iggesund, UCM, Fagerlid and then joined SCA in 2000, where he was sales and commercial director and went on to become UK managing director. “I got a great grounding from the start – while I was in sales, at Billerud my training didn’t let me near a customer for the first two years!” said Mr King. “One opportunity really led to another within the Nordic industry, culminating with my 25 years with SCA.”
He’s clearly had time to assimilate the Swedish management culture. “It’s a different approach to the UK’s; there’s generally a flatter management structure and perhaps a more consensual decision-making process than you find in most British businesses,” said Mr King.
His latest opportunity came about through a combination of circumstances.
“I heard that Tony was retiring after over 20 years with Swedish Wood,” he said. “I was also set to retire from my SCA role in June 2025. I didn’t want to stop work completely, but nor did I want to work five days a week. I knew the project manager role was not full time, so I put in a call to director Anne Ryberg Ågren. It worked for both of us. The moment I truly realised it was what I wanted to do was when another company offered me a full-time role and I turned it down.”
Mr King went through a three-month induction with Mr Traynor before he took over the role fully and acknowledges he’s got big shoes to fill. “Tony built up this wealth of knowledge. He handed me a whole hard drive of information and a library of thousands of project pictures. It’s an incredible archive of the Swedish timber sector in the UK.”
It further underlines how plugged in Swedish Wood is to the UK, that Mr King will work with its director of technology and trade, Johan Fröbel, who sits on the board of TDUK, and director construction, Susanne Rudenstam, who is on the UK Structural Timber Association (STA) board. Swedish Wood has a close working relationship with both organisations.
It might at first seem counter intuitive, but it also works with UK forestry and timber sector body, Confor.
“Some people say hold on, aren’t you supporting a competitor to Swedish timber,” said Mr King. “But we don’t see it like that. We’re all working to raise the profile of timber and to increase its availability and use. Our work is mutually beneficial.”
The wider Swedish forest industries have long been represented by one body, the SFIF, while in the past the UK sector’s representation has been more fragmented. But the formation of the Confederation of Timber Industries as the UK’s association of associations has changed that, says Mr King, helping reinforce co-operation and communication with Swedish Wood. “The UK now has a body which harnesses the skills and resources of the whole sector and strengthens its voice to policy and decision makers,” he said.
When asked which aspects of Swedish timber Swedish Wood stresses particularly in its marketing; its quality, technical or environmental performance, or the service which underpins it, Mr King responded “all of the above”.
“It’s about the whole picture,” he said. “Communicating just how key timber is as a resource to Sweden and how committed it is to developing its potential and to its sustainability.”
The SFIF is industry funded and Swedish Wood’s programme is decided each autumn, with some projects rolling on, and new ones introduced.
Naturally enough, promoting and supporting use of wood in construction generally and wood-based building especially is a prime objective for Swedish Wood, again working closely with UK bodies.
“There’s no doubt there is a shift in momentum in UK timber building,” said Mr King. “We’ve got the government-industry Timber in Construction Working Group and its Timber in Construction Roadmap, and we’re seeing leading housing developers setting up or acquiring timber frame manufacturing factories with an eye to further market growth.
“Taylor Wimpey’s big new plant in Peterborough, which I visited is a case in point. So far, it’s only partially occupied, and they said it’s to future proof it, giving them scope for growth. The wider consensus is that, given the combination of UK housing need and net zero targets, timber building’s time has come. There are, of course, still the timber building sceptics in construction and, working with the Structural Timber Association, in particular timber in construction manager Stewart Dalgarno, we part sponsor their learning journey visits within the UK to forest sites, timber building developments and construction operations to see latest advances in the sector. They’ve got up to four of these planned for 2025-2026.”
It’s also Swedish Wood’s ambition to get politicians on a Swedish timber construction fact finding visit, notably the UK housing minister if possible and to engage and develop relations with housing development agency Homes England and critically the UK building insurance sector in the evolution of its approach to timber building.
“We will be scoping out the potential for an event in spring 2026,” said Mr King.
Swedish Wood also backs the now annual TDUK Timber Design conference for the wider timber construction sector, from architects to housing associations (see pp47-50) and is the founder and funder of the online timber learning platform Wood Campus. This is now being integrated with the TDUK website and its education material to reach out to a wider audience.
Fire safety in timber construction is also naturally a core topic for Swedish Wood and it is co-founder and co-host of the timberfiresafety.org website with TDUK and the STA. There are plans for developing this too.
“Clearly, since the horror of the Grenfell disaster the focus on fire safety has been even more paramount and the use of combustible materials in construction, which of course includes wood despite it not being implicated in Grenfell, was central to the subsequent Hackett inquiry and changes in Building Regulations,” said Mr King. “The Timber Fire Safety website is extremely detailed and thorough, informed by Sweden’s in-depth experience of timber building, and highly demanding national and EU regulation. But at the same time, it’s very technical. Our aim is to further adapt it to the UK environment and complement it with a more stepwise approach to this essential information, to make it more user friendly and broaden its appeal and accessibility.”
It is also Swedish Wood’s role to keep the UK ahead of the changing dynamics of the Swedish supply base. In the immediate future this will include an increasing importance in the supply mix of pine.
“A combination of factors, including storm damage, a post-Covid spike in demand and patterns of harvesting and felling, and to a lesser extent, spruce bark beetle in southern Sweden, will see a temporary dent in supply of spruce and a complementary upturn in pine, the two of which are interchangeable in most areas of application,” said Mr King. “It’s not an issue of total availability and definitely not ‘there’s no more spruce’ but it’s a situation we will keep the market informed about.”
Looking to the long-term, Mr King is clearly excited by his new role.
“The UK and Sweden have such a long history of working together in the timber market and I really believe there are more opportunities to come. In particular, I see possibilities for raising the profile of the Swedish Wood brand in the UK market. It’s a bit about using the logo a bit more, but more than that. It’s about highlighting our role and what we can offer UK timber traders, specifiers and end users,” he said. “On taking up my new position it was also agreed I should present to the Swedish Wood market committee on what we’re doing in the UK market and with the UK timber industry. I want to get that communication right up there.”
