An adeptness at being adaptable has almost become the motto of Northumbria-based A&J Scott Ltd.
And with Northumbrian thrift, the company likes to get ‘the last squeak’ out of every piece of timber that passes through its hands – good housekeeping practice that has helped the company to an annual turnover in excess of £8m and rising.
Located on a 15-acre site at Wooperton near Alnwick, the company ranks itself as one of the biggest home-grown timber merchants, sawmillers and pallet manufacturers in the UK.
It was started 50 years ago by Andy Scott Snr who, equipped with a cross-cut saw, an axe and a bicycle, felled trees in the woods – hardwoods for export and softwoods for fencing materials.
In 1960 he established the company on the Wooperton site and the business moved up a gear or two. At the time the north-east was a booming industrial area and Mr Scott spotted an opportunity. He began to make pallets – and some of his first customers are clients to this day.
But a downturn in manufacturing in Tyneside in the mid-90s knocked the stuffing out of the pallet business.
The Scott family had to adjust to the change and pallets, which had been the mainstay of the business for so long, had to take a back seat to sawmilling and fencing materials.
‘Pallets used to account for 60% of our production,’ said company accountant Rosemary Bertram, ‘but the market changed and there really wasn’t any money left in them any more, so we have reduced pallet production to about 25% of turnover, with merchanting accounting for around 20%, and the rest accounted for by fencing and general sawn timber products.’
Today the company employs 120 people and sources its timber from managed private estates and the Forestry Commission, covering an area stretching from southern Scotland to York and across to the west coast. The company also owns and manages its own woodlands on a nearby estate.
The two sawmills require around 2,000 tonnes of home-grown softwood a week. A further 300 tonnes of hardwood is also handled. All hardwood logs are graded and sold direct from the site if possible. The majority pass through the yard with destinations both throughout the UK and worldwide for veneers.
In recent years the company has seen tremendous investment – with more planned for the future. A new £1.4m grading line was installed last year, and one of the mills saw a £200,000 upgrade earlier this year.
The new grading line, which runs at 80m/min, has already resulted in a 10-15% increase in production and the company is finding that some of its older machinery is having a job to keep up. To this end, a further £200,000-300,000 will be spent this year on new sawmilling machinery to bring it up to speed.
When logs come into the yard they are scanned and optimised as they pass through. After debarking they are sorted by diameter and length so the company can tell at a glance what stock it has.
The company’s two sawmills are running flat out. ‘We only run a one shift system here during the day and we are coping at the moment,’ said managing director Andy Scott.
Mill A1 deals with up to 20cm, rendering the wood down to whatever sizes the customer wants, while mill C does a similar job with sizes up to 50cm.
A&J Scott Ltd has its own treatment plant and also has its own fully-automated kilns, installed three years ago. In the main, they are used for drying pallets for electrical components and each can deal with 600 pallets at a time.
Recovery mill
Mr Scott explained: ‘The timber is all fresh and can take anything up to two to three days to dry.’
At about the same time as the kilns were put in, the company also invested in a recovery mill.
‘As the timber goes through the main sawmill, pieces are cut off the side that need re-working rather than being put into the chipper,’ said Rosemary Bertram.
‘We re-work them into a saleable product such as fencing or pallet components. Anything that is left over is sent to Egger in Hexham as co-products for chipboard.’
The company also has its own saw doctors on site – an essential service given the throughput of timber. Last year £100,000 was invested with Skellingthorpe Saw Services in equipment in the saw doctor’s shop which has resulted in the blades running longer and a decrease in changeover time which, in turn, leads to increased production.
A&J Scott is one of the biggest employers in Northumberland but its rural situation makes it difficult for some employees to access. However, to combat this the com-pany runs four mini buses to bring people to and from work.
It also operates six of its own trucks, each equipped with a hydraulic loader and dedicated to bringing timber in. Haulage contractors are used to take the timber out. The company has its own in-house garage and mechanics to ensure all the vehicles are kept in order.
Speaking about the future Mr Scott said: ‘There is still hope for home-grown timber sawmilling. We have still got a huge amount of competition from the Baltic states but our message is that we are going to meet them head on and fight them and win!
‘We can be diverse – people can come here and ask for unusual and odd sizes plus different volumes and know they can get them.
‘We always try to be ahead of the game with things like certification and qualifications. Having achieved ISO 9002 (BS 5750)) in 1991, we were one of the first sawmills in the country to be certified to Forest Stewardship Council standards and also have our own woodlands certified. We are currently working on achieving Investors in People status.
‘We want people to want to work here and keep them informed so they know what is going on and don’t just feel they are doing a job.
‘By achieving qualifications and certification we are sending a message to our customers that we are forward thinking and not living in the past.’
