The first thing that hits you at the Carrefour International du Bois is a heady aroma of timber and fresh coffee. From this you’d be right to conclude that this trade show in Nantes is 100% about wood and wood products, but wrong to assume it was 100% French in any other respect than its style and hospitality.

Carrefour du Bois may have evolved as a forum for France’s timber trade, but today it attracts exhibitors and visitors from across Europe and around the world. This year there were delegations from China and Japan and an increase in visitors from eastern Europe. Buyers were also reported from North and South America and Australia.

“Carrefour is definitely becoming more of an international forum,” said Alex Dedeckel of Belgian tropical hardwood, veneer and panel importer Bomaco. “It’s because the focus is exclusively wood. For many traders that now makes it more significant than Interzum.”

Lesser known hardwoods

What was particularly striking about the displays put on by exhibitors for this international audience was the prevalence of lesser-known and lesser-used hardwoods, both tropical and temperate. This, said one importer, reflected the fact that architects and furniture manufacturers, in particular, were “rediscovering their confidence” in specifying hardwoods.

“For a while, they were put off by environmentalist scare stories,” he said. “Now more realise that, while there are problems with some species, you can get many others, including some stunning exotic-looking timber, from well-managed sources.”

One company highlighting its tropical offer was Willy Carpentier of Belgium. In fact the ‘table’ on its stand was a pack of hardwoods prominently featuring purpleheart.

“We’re getting demand for this for flooring and furniture and also seeing good demand for tigerwood and jatoba,” said general manager Heidi Carpentier. “It’s all about variety these days. Everybody wants something a bit different.”

“Often customers are asking us now for, say, 10m3 or 15m3 of oak and to top up the container with other hardwoods,” added the company’s Stefan Vander Stichele.

Overall, Carpentier said that business is currently 15-20% up this year, and one of its fastest growing markets is the UK, where it is doing well with hardwood logs and beams as well as sawn goods.

Fellow Belgian importer Vandecasteele Houtimport also reported a strong performance from tropical timbers and that, while old favourites continued to take the lion’s share of the market, customers were increasingly receptive of alternative species. Export manager Genevieve Standaert said that Vandecasteele’s latest expansion at its Kortrijk headquarters, which now has 12ha of undercover storage, left it better placed to respond to this trend.

“The main reason for our investment is to allow customers effectively to use us as their stock holding operation, with 48-hour delivery to most of Europe,” said Ms Standaert. “The extra room also enables us to respond to a faster changing market more effectively.”

Bomaco, meanwhile, reported strong interest in itauba, which it is finding replacing bangkirai in the affections of decking producers, and in ‘Tasmanian oak”, which is really a eucalaypt.

Eco-certification

Another noteworthy feature of Carrefour was the prominence of eco-certification logos on stands, although there were mixed views on the level of demand for certified material and particularly of customers’ willingness to pay a premium for it.

“We are supporters of both the PEFC and FSC and most recently have developed relationships with FSC-certified hardwood suppliers in Peru and Bolivia,” said Henk Voorderhaak of Voorderhaak Timber and Wood Products of the Netherlands. “But there is still a resistance in the market to paying the extra that suppliers need to charge for certified timber. As a result, sales in Europe are driven by public projects where certified material is obligatory.”

Perhaps the exhibitor making the biggest play of environmentally certified timber was Swiss-based Precious Woods and its business development manager Finn Knudsen insisted it was persuading customers to pay the price.

“We were established to develop FSC-certified forestry and timber resources in Brazil and now have 400,000ha of forest and three sites producing sawn timber and veneer,” he said. “We are not the cheapest because we have to follow strict harvesting regimes. But we are getting the demand, a fair price and also persuading customers to take a wider mix of timbers. Some even take more than one species for a particular application provided they look and perform similarly.”

Positive feedback

Meanwhile PEFC-certified Ducerf of France reported positive feedback to its new marketing campaign, highlighting that it plants a tree for every cubic metre of oak it produces. “You can’t promote yourself as a responsible timber business in the 21st century if you don’t take these issues seriously and we’ve had a very good take up of the campaign posters from customers,” said sales manager Florence Perrucaud.

She added that Ducerf was experiencing particularly strong demand for its certified oak in the UK, which is why it has just appointed sales representative Elric Jacquet to focus on the market exclusively.

The company was also highlighting its Panoplot edge-glued and Patchwood finger-jointed panels at the show. “We’ve been finger-jointing since 1963 so you could say we have some experience in the product!” said Ms Jacquet.

CE-marked timber

On its stand, Lavrasul of Brazil made a feature of its recent FSC chain of custody certification for mouldings, plywood and blockboard. But it was giving at least equal prominence to CE-mark certification, issued by BM TRADA, for its 12mm and 18mm pine plywood which clears its way for structural and external use in Europe.

“This has created huge interest and the first shipments of CE and FSC-certified plywood are en route to Tilbury for Travis Perkins and Dublin for Timber Marketing Services,” said Isac Zugman of Lavrasul.

The Carrefour focus from the American Hardwood Export Council was the design potential of US hardwoods for construction and interiors, underlined by a dramatic new ‘stage set’ stand.

“Our aim is to appeal to the creative audience, particularly architects and specifiers,” said European director David Venables. “And judging by the growing number of ‘flagship’ architectural products in Europe using American hardwood, the message is getting through.”

Nearly as creative as the AHEC stand from Scierie Pineteau were its Durapin treated-pine swimming pools. Starting at €7,000 and guaranteed for 15 years, the plastic-lined pools are designed to be built above ground or buried. “The package includes the plumbing and the pool is very easy to build,” said the company’s Philippe Pieveteau. “We’re now selling 400 of the bigger models and 1,000 of the smaller design a year.”

Carrefour regulars commented that wood and laminate flooring were also more in evidence at this year’s show and one of the companies boosting the number of exhibitors was Terhürne of Germany.

“This is our first time here, but we’ve had a great response,” said export sales manager Monika Rahmann. “We’ve not only seen European customers, but also quite a few from Francophone countries in North Africa and the Lebanon.”

The company’s new products included its laminate range and ingenious floor lighting. But its “star performer” was a rustic wide-board solid oak.

Also benefiting from the European wood flooring boom is Eurochêne of Saint-Lothain France. “We’re selling a lot of oak for flooring, especially to the UK where there is such a dominant oak culture,” said Marie-Therese Carrey. She added that PEFC-certified Eurochêne was also doing well in the UK with beams and dimension stock for kitchen doors.

Another company with strong UK connections was hardwood specialist Scierie Pianetti. “As well as sawn timber and flooring grades, we’re also promoting our own range of rustic oak furniture,” said Guillaume Pianetti. “This is proving especially popular with British pubs.”