Take a new business, set up in the early 90s, when recession was a popular word, with a very small capital outlay and see what happens. Year one, turnover £394,000. Year two, £1.1m. By year four it’s £5.5m and climbing and there have been all manner of innovations and developments.

This takes real nous, sheer hard work, some very brave decisions and a great deal of experience and expertise. Well, the first few points are definitely true, but when you hear that Keith Slinger and Mark Plummer, the two men who run S&C Timber as well as a property development company and a substantial transport fleet, you may be surprised to know that they’re 30 and 31 years old respectively.

Keith and Mark don’t pull punches and admit they have made plenty of mistakes along the way, but they know that customer service is the key and their enormous energies are focused on that.

Keith explained the background: ‘We knew each other from school and Mark had contacts in the plasterboard industry, so we bought loads of product which we sold on. At the same time we got a small warehouse and a saw, so we bought sheet material offcuts and offered a cut to size service.’

Mark continued: ‘I worked all day at this and got part-time evening work to pay the bills, while Keith had another business making and selling transformers. In the early days it was very hard to get credit, but we got through. Then in the next year we grew and offered a 48-hour cut to size service, delivered anywhere in the UK and this has been our business ever since.’

Keith took over the story: ‘We moved to a 12,000ft² warehouse, thinking it would see us through for years and outgrew it in 12 months, so we moved to these premises, which are part of the old glassworks in Knottingley.

‘We were still buying all sorts of second-hand and waste material. Looking back now it was comical, with trailers of stuff spewing out everywhere. It took us ages to sort it out for cutting and our labour costs were huge.’

Fast growth

By this stage the business was growing so fast it was becoming hard to control, as Mark described: ‘We’d got into selling packs of MDF, hardboard, plywood and chipboard and were heading for a turnover of around £8-9m. We had 40 people working for us and work was coming in from all over the place.’

‘We weren’t making any money and we were always having problems with supply, meeting demand, hitting deadlines. By now we had three lorries, 65 staff and constant headaches!’continued Keith.

So, as Keith and Mark poured over the figures they soon came to the only sensible conclusion and as usual they did not hang about.

‘We got rid of the pack business overnight, cut back on staff to 25 people and cut out well over £2m in business,’ said Mark.

There were changes on the management front too, as Keith explained: ‘My father, Barrie, is a precision engineering expert, who worked in the glass industry and who wanted to reduce the time he spent away all over the world. He has seen the very best ways of maximising production and increasing efficiency.’

Barrie Slinger agreed to take a look at the business and there’s no doubt that his influence comes through in the new S&C Timber.

‘Since 1998 we have not really looked back,’ continued Mark. We’ve got time to concentrate on profitable sales, instead of fighting another fire!’

Barrie has brought controls into this very entrepreneurial company and now they have the best of both worlds. He has broken down the overhead system, to get analysis by tonnage, with machinery utilisation and accurate margin information. Monthly stocktaking also ensures that they know exactly how they’re trading. His knowledge of production has also brought S&C Timber into a totally new market, with CNC routing and machining.

Greater flexibility

‘We have increased from our original Holzma saw, to two and are now awaiting the arrival of our latest baby, an HPL43, which gives a 4.3m beam and much greater flexibility. It will take capacity up from around 600 tonnes per week to 800 tonnes,’ said Keith. ‘The SCM Record 220 CNC machine is now working three shifts and we’ve got another on order to arrive in July.’

This investment has been made possible by use of company profits plus new capital from the sale of Keith’s interest in the transformer business. They also brought in some new talent, with Dave Goodall, who used to run sales on the transformer business and Jonathan Plummer, a bright young graduate, to run production.

‘There’s more to come, with our new office and showroom facility, as well as the factory extension, which will take us to 58,000ft²,’ said Mark.

The new plans look very impressive. Heat will be created by a Talbot incineration plant. ‘Some years back we got fined for burning waste on site and we learned our lesson, so this will keep us on the right side and help reduce our wastage costs, which run at over £50,000 per year,’ said Keith.

‘The business is changing – we’re looking to get into finished products and our latest development is powder coated MDF. We know there’s a huge potential market for this product and, with good showrooms, we’ll be able to promote ourselves in a way that has not been possible before.’

But, as ever, their feet are firmly on the floor. They know that the mainstay of the business is 48-hour delivery on cut to size panels, either from their own huge stocks, or customers own materials.

‘We purchase from all manner of sources including Kronospan, Unilyn, BAG Timber Agencies, Caledonian Plywood Co, Finnforest and Sonae, which gives tremendous flexibility on supply,’ continued Keith.

Wide customer base

The customer base is also very wide, including merchants, builders, end users such as packaging companies and the huge DIY market, via the big shed operators.

As with all businesses, credit and cash flow are critical, so S&C Timber uses credit insurance through Trade Indemnity and sees this as a very worthwhile cost, as it means it can trade while feeling secure.

It’s quite incredible what nine years, a huge amount amount of hard work and a mixture of new and older experience can do. It has resulted in a business that is in the forefront of rapid service on cut to size sheet materials and CNC machining. Now the powder coating system will be brought in and a range of finished products will come onto the market, to give the company another string to its bow.

S&C Timber runs its own transport fleet, using mainly articulated lorries, with a 27-tonne rigid as well. Based on the junction of the M62 and A1(M), the company can reach a large part of the UK rapidly, while containing costs.

Spending a few hours on site doesn’t give one the impression that Keith and Mark are planning to put their feet up. In fact, as Keith said: ‘We’re sorry for the hassle we gave the trade by making 48-hour delivery on cut panels normal, but I guess we’ll find something to top that’.