Howarth Timber Importers Ltd is poised to invest £700,000 in its timber mill at New Holland, bringing to £1.4m the amount spent there over the past 12 months.
The money – earmarked for spending at the Lincolnshire site from March onwards – comes on top of £700,000 invested since last March.
The spending to date has increased output by 40% and taken the facility from a 16 hour-a-day double-shift operation, to a 24 hour-a-day triple shift set up.
The latest outlay at the £30m-turnover importing division of Howarth Timber Group is designed to enable it to keep pace with rapidly rising demand for its value-added timber machined from Russian and Scandinavian redwood.
The £700,000 will hike production of products such as decking, architraves and shiplap via the addition of a high-speed saw line placed in front of the existing Waco planer/moulder and additional moulders.
This will see the production of value-added move from 50% of the current output of 85,000m³ per year to nearer 75% by 2002.
Howarth Timber Importers managing director Andrew Howarth explained: ‘Traditionally we have been more involved with carcassing and sawn timber but we intend to move more into value-added because of the additional profit opportunities.’
Mr Howarth added that the site, which employs 150, has experienced year-on-year value growth of 10% over the past five years. He attributed the rise partly to the running down of many merchants’ moulding capability.
