The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) annual Dinner and Awards 2024 saw nearly 200 representatives of the woodworking industry gather in the West End of London for a high energy evening.
The November 22 event at the Langholm Hotel has garnered a positive reputation for combining musical entertainment with Awards, the latter aimed at recognising the full spectrum of the joinery industry.
This year’s rock and pop live performances from West End performers followed an evening dinner and address from new BWF president Andrew Madge who told guests that the current business environment for the industry was challenging, but with glimmers ahead.
Mr Madge, the MD of Gowercroft Joinery, said the industry had hoped for a budget that would boost markets.
“But we are not going to get that,” he said. “It looks like the Budget is going to be a bit of a challenge and order books are being squeezed.
“But we are a resilient industry and we have been through a recession and Brexit and we will get through it. There were some glimmers in the Budget with construction output expected to grow 2.5% in 2025 and some growth in private housing.”
Building relationships were key, he added and he applauded the Timber in Construction Roadmap as positive progress to boost wood use in the construction market.
But he said workforce shortages were looming large in the construction industry with 250,000 more employees in the sector needed by 2028, in new build and retrofit.
“This underlines the need for recruitment and retention in our industry”.
Mr Madge cited the Wow, I Made That! education programme designed to recruit the next generation of woodworkers.
On the subject of Sustainability, Mr Madge said it was a “drum we need to beat hard on”, but sometimes the wood industry only talked about wood being the only sustainable truly building material but without adequately demonstrating and promoting it.
The BWF Awards winners this year were:
• JELD-WEN won the BWF Health and Safety Award for its development of an RF tag system using AI technology to protect pedestrians from moving industrial vehicles
• BWF Apprentice of the Year Award: Lilli-Mae Broadhurst of Gowercroft Joinery
• BWF Heritage Project of the Year Award: Precision Made Joinery for its contribution to the restoration of the Grade II listed Old Rectory in Suffolk
• BWF Innovation Award: Heron Fire Doors for its ongoing development of its cost-efficient external door set Herodor.
• BWF Sustainability Award: Gowercroft Joinery for its commitment to continued improvement within its manufacturing processes
• BWF Rising Star Award: Tautvydas Bumblys of Heron Joinery
• BWF Woodworking Project of the Year Award: D Foord Joinery Ltd for the design and installation of a challenging elliptical staircase for a Georgian house using English oak.
Helen Hewitt, CEO of the BWF said: “It is truly inspiring to see the exceptional quality and quantity of entries this year, especially those for our new Sustainability Award which received an outstanding response and attracted the highest number of entries in this year’s submissions.”
