Rosyth-based Scott Timber Group (STG), the pallet specialist with an annual turnover of around £35m, is to invest heavily in converting its seven-acre facility in Barry, South Wales, into a pallet removal/repair/re-conditioning and wood waste chipping operation.
Combine Recycling, part of Combine Pallets whose Welsh operations were acquired by STG in early 2003, will “offer customers in Wales and the west of England a comprehensive and cost-effective solution for all their pallet disposal issues,” according to STG. “Within three years, it is expected that the new recycling operation will have surpassed the group’s Scottish operation which produces 25,000 pallets a week and has a turnover of £3m.”
Michael Jack, managing director of Scott Recycling, said market research had highlighted “a gap in the market where we could replicate our success at Rosyth”. The new venture would entail “significant” investment in machinery for pallet repair and re-building, as well as wood chipping capacity. At present, he added, the focus at Barry was on “building stock”.
In other group developments, STG recently achieved Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification and has announced plans to invest more than £500,000 in upgrading its forklift truck fleet. Under a deal with the Jungheinrich Group, 40 new diesel trucks with capacities of 2.5 and 3 tons will be supplied to STG manufacturing sites at Rosyth and Fort William in Scotland, the Isle of Sheppey, Northfleet and Burton on Trent in England, and Flint in North Wales.