Summary
¦ Martinsons has been producing glulam since 1965.
¦ It started supplying DIY stores two years ago.
¦ Now it provides stock items, wrapped and bar coded.
¦ It also sells glulam cladding and decking.

When builders and homeowners take their purchases through to the checkout at a Swedish DIY store, along with the nails, mastics and fillers that may be on their trollies, you’re just as likely to find a few lengths of glulam.

In the UK, glulam is still an engineered product reserved largely for big, bold projects like swimming pools and sports halls but in Sweden, sawmiller and engineered timber producer Martinsons Trä has made it an item for the everyday.

The family-owned company has been manufacturing glulam since 1965 and is one of the country’s biggest suppliers, exporting to Europe, the UK and Japan. It has supplied DIY stores and merchants for many years, often on lead times of two or three days which later shrank to 24 or 48 hours.

Off the shelf

Now Martinsons has taken the product a step further – off the shelf glulam, wrapped and bar coded, and which can be swiped through the till as easily as a can of paint.

The idea developed out of a desire to make glulam more accessible, and in turn make the product more successful for the merchants and stores.

“The market in general has always looked at glulam as quite an expensive product and also one that needed a lot of knowledge and engineering thinking,” said managing director Kenneth Wallin.

One of the things that made it more complicated was the pricing in cubic metres and the lengths that were supplied.

“If we sold the DIY stores 12m lengths and the customer wanted 8m they had to cut it in the store and find a customer for the piece left over. Also, they had to put on their safety gear to cut it, and that also cost money,” said Mr Wallin.

“We found that if we produced beams in say, five sizes in three different lengths, that would cover roughly 80% of the market. So now we cut the lengths and put a price on each piece.”

This means the retailer doesn’t have to do anything and the posts and beams are in sizes that can be displayed on the shop floor.

“When we supplied DIY stores with just 12m pieces, they found them heavy to handle and they were often stored away from customers’ view,” said Mr Wallin.

Now the glulam can be displayed easily and each piece priced, the customer is more likely to buy.

“It’s a product now rather than something you sell by the cubic metre. Instead of nailing two pieces of 2×4 together, the customer can use 90×90 glulam, buy it in 2.5m lengths and have a higher quality product that’s more exclusive but at a price that most people can meet,” said Mr Wallin.

“A lot of people are building small houses or sheds and rather than buying 2×4, if we can convince them to use glulam they have a better product at a good price.”

Inspiration at point of sale

Martinsons has also developed point of sale material to provide inspiration for customers, from building a car port or conservatory, to pergolas and garden benches.

And it’s found a market with builders, as well as DIYers.

“A lot of companies are two guys and a truck building or renovating a house and they don’t plan that much ahead; they just go to the DIY store and ask for two pieces of glulam,” said Mr Wallin.

If customers need help with load-bearing or snow load calculations, there is a calculation program on Martinsons’ website, as well as information about the products’ carbon footprint.

The company’s glulam range also includes treated posts for fencing, cladding and, new this summer, decking.

The move into the DIY market is paying off for Martinsons: volumes are increasing every month and one of Sweden’s largest DIY chains, Bauhaus, carries the glulam range.

Once the product is established in the Swedish market, Martinsons plans to export to Norway, where it has its own sales company, and then to the UK. In fact, a UK visitor to the company this month has already shown an interest in the range.

In Sweden, educating store staff, encouraging them “not to be afraid of the product, to dare to sell glulam” has been a challenge, and is something Martinsons will address in the UK.

“You can’t sell it like a sawn commodity,” said Mr Wallin.

However, the company will stick by its slogan – “Martinsons has made it easier to build with glulam” – and it may not be too long before glulam is seen in UK shopping trolleys too.