The success of UPM’s specialist timber Service Centre in Hull has resulted in plans for a second centre at Tilbury, due to open next month.
The two will work hand-in-hand, spearheaded by UPM’s sales team in the UK, complementing products with a full back-up service and expert knowledge.
UPM’s timber terminal Service Centre in Hull, now in its third year of operation, has proved that UK customers appreciate a facility where they can source their exact requirements and have them delivered within 24-48 hours from receipt of order.
Now a 60,000ft2 centre is under construction at Tilbury and will be ready by July 1. Tilbury, being a major forest products port like Hull, has excellent shipping services from Finland. There are two weekly sailings from the south of Finland and another two from the west. All shipments are made on ro ro vessels, which offer considerable advantages. All goods are loaded by forklifts on flats and towed into the hold, minimising damage to packages or pieces within those packages.
Cargo is kept under cover all the way from the mills in Finland to the customer’s yard. A state-of-the-art racking system, which was pioneered in Hull’s Service Centre, will also be used in Tilbury. The system enables better handling and quicker loading of the goods once an order has been received.
David Mason, sales manager of both UK Service Centres, said the Tilbury centre marked a new era for UPM timber in the UK. “Distribution costs from Hull have always held us back from developing our landed stock business in the south. The advent of the Tilbury terminal gives UPM the opportunity to service southern customers more effectively and competitively,” he said.
Delivery options
“We have centralised the Service Centre sales because this offers us more options from the delivery point of view. If we do not have some items available say in Tilbury, we can always use Hull as a back-up.
“However, as we are essentially operating with customers who are also buying forward goods from us, we have a pretty good idea what is required and when. Moreover, as we strive for more partnership-type operations, we are increasingly planning together with our key customers. This benefits the customers because we are minimising the storage period and hence reducing their costs covering storage, interest and so on.”
The only way for an operation like this to succeed is to keep the costs down and IT plays a vital role.
“All our stock management is computerised, as is the documentation. The use of IT can offer further benefits to our customers: we can transfer all documents directly to the customer’s own IT system. This system is quick, accurate and requires less labour than the conventional way of dealing with paper documents. We will also have a call-off facility, which enables customers to browse our stocks and make orders on-line,” said Mr Mason.
UPM also achieves advantages by using all the company’s departments and divisions.
“We fill the ro ro vessels with our paper products, plywood and timber through Group logistics, which have also been instrumental in the setting up of the Service Centres. When looking at the facilities we have in our Service Centres it is obvious that we are treating our customer’s products with the greatest of care. In our view, timber is not the poor country cousin, but a well-respected, quality product,” said Mr Mason.
UPM supports its customers in several ways, such as arranging timber schools and in-house training for its products, he said.
“Likewise we acknowledge that, jointly, we can achieve best results by co-operating in all areas of business, including product development, new IT solutions, new supply arrangements and promotion,” said Mr Mason.
