Taking over the helm of £100m turnover hardwood importer Timbmet Silverman from its renowned founder Dan Kemp would strike many as a daunting prospect. But chief executive Simon Fineman has clearly relished the challenge and, since joining the company in 1993, few would argue, has himself become one of the best known figures in the trade.
Simon grew up in Birmingham and his parents were in teaching and engineering. But, he said, there were timber connections. “My maternal grandfather was a cabinetmaker and French polisher, while my father enjoyed building boats, so I suppose there’s always been a link.” There was also, he added, a family tie with the Dublin-based timber firm Fineman’s.
At 18, Simon went to London where he studied law and became a probation officer, which involved a lot of social work. He also got married to Dan Kemp’s daughter, Evie. Then it was time for the couple to broaden their cultural horizons. “By my late 20s we decided to travel; being Jewish, we felt Israel would be a good place to explore. I was fully expecting to continue social work, but I couldn’t pick Hebrew up quickly enough!”
Faced with this obstacle, the carpentry gene obviously took over, as Simon joined a kitchen and cabinetmaker. Here he gained experience of the Israeli way of doing business. “It is very different over there – much more confrontational,” he said. “After quite a long time it became emotionally tiring and I was delighted to come back to the UK, with Timbmet.”
Initially at the company, he confessed, he was “far too outspoken”, because of the way he was used to operating in Israel. “But I’ve learned to adapt.”
On taking over from his father-in-law, he said: “Dan is still a legend in the trade, who had – and still has – strong views, but he knew the business had to change as we faced timber price deflation. We had to look at efficiencies across the company and, while I’m sure Dan does not agree with everything, he knows I have the interests of the family and our employees at heart.”
The family feel about the business, he maintained, has to be controlled: “The trustees quite rightly demand that the business performs and it is my job to ensure we have the right team, starting with the group management board – Jeremy Bristoe as commercial director, Neil Boston for operations and Gill Pagett, who takes care of financials and is also ‘hands on’ supervising some of our operations. John Dobson, finance director, is heavily involved in the strategic financial issues, but doubles up by leading our procurement team at present.
Opportunities
“Our strong team of senior managers is pushing for opportunities across the company and we also benefit from the services of an industry and academic expert, Dr Mike Packer, who plays a key role on environmental issues, which are inevitably a huge factor within the business.”
Timbmet today has six sites and a workforce of 700. Growth through acquisition has added a variety of businesses to the original hardwoods operation, including, of course, sheet materials specialist Silvermans.
“We felt we needed a strategic foot in another camp apart from hardwoods and that integration has been hard,” said Mr Fineman. “What’s more, in a funny way, we’ve been proven wrong, because hardwood business has been very robust, while the panels industry has been extremely competitive. I’d go as far as saying that it’s even more suicidal on pricing than hardwoods!”
Other things have changed at Timbmet too. When he started at the business, Simon recalled “there wasn’t a customer database in sight, just Dan’s amazing brain which recalled every customer, usually with their phone number as well”.
Simon’s and Timbmet’s concerns in the wider timber industry include promoting technical development – he’s just become a director of TRADA – and raising the profile of training and continuing professional development. “We try to do a lot in a variety of areas, including support of the IWSc, because the trade’s full of great people who often do not actually know enough about the materials they’re using; we need to find more ways of increasing training, especially when architects and other professionals give such a short amount of time to timber.”
And while the business inevitably takes a great deal of time, Simon does have other interests. “I thoroughly enjoy sailing and would happily get onto the Solent at any time. I also enjoy football and have been a lifelong Aston Villa supporter – but there’s only so much suffering you can stand! My youngest son made me make the painful decision to buy a Coventry season ticket. Now the boys don’t mind going and we really see some passion.”
And passion is what Mr Fineman feels for the timber industry: “I really believe that you need passion to succeed.”
