BSW Group position strengthened during 2022

The investments have strengthened the positioning of BSW Group, helping to place the company in a strong position for when the forestry and timber industry is able to bounce back from the current challenges.

Within its stable of timber and forestry companies, BSW Group has invested £4m into a new 25,000 m² mini-plug production facility at Maelor Forest Nurseries.

Designed especially for growing forestry species, the investment will help to secure the future supply of high-quality trees for the industry. The facility allows seeds to be sown directly into trays, with germination in a controlled environment helping to improve growth, efficiency and resilience in seedlings.

As part of BSW Group’s ongoing commitment to investment into sustainability and development of trees species suitable for the UK’s changing climate, plans are also in place to use the facility to cultivate alternative tree species that will be available to customers.

Another member of BSW Group, Dick Brothers finished the year in a very strong position after winning several new high value contracts with Forestry and Land Scotland. To better service these contracts, BSW Group is investing over £5m in several new machines to strengthen their fleet of harvesters and forwarders.

BSW Group’s manufacturing sites have also received significant investment, with Bayram Timber acquiring a £300,000 Hundegger machine. The new machine will help meet the demand of the industrial markets as it provides the ability to process timber in several ways, all in one operation. It has also allowed the company to streamline its caravan kit supply to improve customer quality and service. It is an exciting time for Bayram as it looks to venture into new markets and make sizeable improvements to the automation around its site.

BSW Timber Solutions in Melton, Hull, has also had a new £400,000 H23 planer installed to strengthen the existing stock of planers. The new machine brings an extra capacity in excess of 10,000m³ per year, as well as greater flexibility across existing workloads. Extra features include automated packaging stations for wood bundling and to be able to produce mini packs for customers moving forward.

BSW Timber Solutions has had further investment at its Stoke site, which has had a state-of-the-art showroom built to better showcase the full range of products produced by all BSW Group members, covering both internal and external timber products.

BSW Timber’s sawmill at Fort William, meanwhile, received a £1.4m investment in the form of VK Debarker. The new VK Debarker features a 680mm ring, allowing for a significantly increased output of 140m3 per hour. The site, based in Corpach. was also completely resurfaced, with an area of approximately 31,000m2 being filled in.

“The forestry and timber industries faced many challenges in 2022, and further challenges will no doubt present themselves as we move into 2023,” said Tony Hackney, CEO at BSW Group.

“These challenges came in the form of the pandemic, the conflict in Ukraine, increasing energy costs and a 40-year high in cost-of-living expenses. The result of this was a global downturn across the timber industry, which unfortunately led to the closure of our Boat of Garten sawmill.

“However, the BSW Group and Binderholz GmbH board’s strategic review of the business has presented opportunities where investment would strengthen our offering.

“The decision to make these investments in 2022, with more planned throughout 2023, will allow us to drive efficiencies across all sites and place us in a great position to serve customers with an even stronger offering going forward.”

BSW Group also acquired Scott Group in December 2022. Based near Dunfermline in Scotland, with an annual turnover in excess of £250m and 1,300 employees, Scott Group is an award-winning, sustainable manufacturer of new, bespoke, and reconditioned timber pallets, producing over 30 million pallets per year.