Summary

  • C Blumsom was founded in 1896.
  • It is the largest independent specialist hardwood importer in London.
  • It has invested heavily in new technology over the past 18 months.
  • Flooring accounts for a significant percentage of output.

C Blumsom Ltd‘s status as one of the oldest timber importers in Britain (it was established in 1896) and the largest independent specialist hardwood importer in London is widely known, but there is now a lot more behind the company than that particular claim to fame.

Blumsom, which occupies a 2.5-acre site on Maple Wharf in Barking, has survived into the fourth generation of ownership by being light on its feet and by putting its emphasis on value over volume. It has also widened its portfolio of products and invested heavily in new equipment and machinery to enable it to speed up its own throughput and to draw in business from third parties.

The investment programme kicked off at the beginning of last year, coinciding with some changes at senior management level; a director and the senior sales manager both left the company which gave an opportunity to restructure the management team and led to the appointment of Tim Gunning as purchasing director and Kevin Tyler as commercial director. The new senior management team was completed following the appointment of Mark Price as finance director last April.

“We came to the conclusion that a lot of equipment had to be replaced,” said chairman and managing director Robert Blumsom. “We had an old high-pressure steam boiler and high-pressure steam kilns, which we felt were dangerous by definition. We installed a Weiss hot water boiler, which is totally automated and is online to the manufacturers in Germany, so if there’s a problem, they know before we do, although we check on it twice a day.

“And Kiln Services put in a 200ft3 capacity kiln for us. This enables us to specialise in kilning flooring timber where underfloor heating will be used and also our specialist door lipping business,” he added.

Moulder speed

Two Weinig Powermat 1000 moulders, one with a straightening table, were also installed. “These moulders are working virtually all day and replace five old ones,” said Mr Blumsom. “We sometimes think we’re quiet and then realise we’re well on budget, it’s just that these moulders are so quick. In fact, we realised our sawing capacity couldn’t keep up with them and bought a Weinig Raimann multi-rip saw. We’ll be putting a second one in soon – and again, these two will replace three old ones. Furthermore, as the new equipment is highly energy efficient we able to partly fund the purchase via the Carbon Trust.”

A cross-cut optimising saw, a template maker for the toolroom and a Weimar hogger to crush off-cuts ready for the boiler, completed the investment in the mill, but there was more in store for the company – and not all of it anticipated.

While the newly configured mill operation was taking shape, a serious fire broke out in the dust extraction system and silo in June 2006. After battling flames for several hours, the fire brigade managed to save the entire stock and machinery, but the silo and dust extraction system were extensively damaged.

Fortunately, Blumsom operated on two separate dust extraction systems and, by using the second one and extending the working week, the company managed to service all its customers requirements as normal – in fact, no-one outside of Blumsom knew about the fire until well after the event.

The damaged dust extraction system has now been replaced by Air Plants and incorporates a Grecon spark detection system. After putting this measure in place, the company’s insurance was renewed with no increase in premium.

“After all this wonderful investment in machinery we thought we’d better upgrade our computer systems and after careful appraisal of the available systems we settled on BisTrack from Progressive Solutions,” said Mr Blumsom. “That’s really done the job and must have increased our margin by at least 2%.

“The other great thing about it is that we can now have people working from home,” he added. “All our reps have laptops and can download what the stock situation is at the end of the day, any price changes and so on.”

While Robert Blumsom is clearly impressed with the benefits new technology has brought to the company, he maintains that the backbone of the operation is the staff of 40. Many have been with the company for 20 years or more and with the youngest recruit at 16, there is a healthy balance of youth and experience.

A vibrant new sales team has been formed over the last year led by sales manager Dean Hare and comprising four internal and three new external sales reps. With one exception the new reps came from outside the timber industry, a move designed to fit the business philosophy of diversification. “While hardwood will always be our core, we now offer so many other products, such as sheet materials, softwoods, mouldings, floorings, finishes and glues; and services, such as milling and kilning,” said Mr Blumsom.

The company is now well known to both trade and private customers, partly through its Timber Centre and showroom, which operate from the same site. The Timber Centre, said Mr Blumsom, is key to the com-pany’s continuing success, perfectly complementing the hardwood importing and milling side of the business.

The showroom sports an impressive array of hardwood flooring, which accounts for a significant percentage of Blumsom’s production. Top quality French oak flooring is imported, as is flooring from China which, said Mr Blumsom, “is mainly oak and black walnut and is very good quality”. We are known for providing long and wide specification flooring including European and American oak, American black walnut, maple, ash and cherry, which is milled on site. Furthermore, Blumsom maintains a large stock of massaranduba, balau and ipe decking which it machines to the customer’s required profile.

The hardwood species held in stock are sourced globally, the majority of which is prime grade. Sourcing prime material is “a slog”, but is seen as setting the company apart from some of the volume producers and essential if the future of the company is to be assured. It also works purely from a logistics point of view, said Mr Blumsom. “Because we’ve only got a 2.5-acre site we really have to sell high value products. If we sold lower value but greater volume, we’d need a yard five times bigger.”

Environmental commitment

The company has always worn its eco-credentials on its sleeve and was one of the first members of the WWF 95+ Group. It attained chain of custody from the Soil Association for a proportion of imported North American hardwoods.

While Blumsom’s location close to the M25/ Dartford Tunnel and M11 makes supplying the south-east and East Anglia straightforward, its proximity to central London is the real ace in the pack. Central London is where refurbishments are carried out on a grand scale, whether it’s by private houseowners in Hampstead Heath, restaurateurs (Gordon Ramsey was a recent client), colleges, hotels or clubs.

“We’re putting two deliveries a day into west London and it’s all refurbishment work, which accounts for 15-20% of our milling,” said Mr Blumsom. “We can be there by 7am when most of our competitors are still stuck on the M25,” he said. “We have two 7.5 tonne lorries and a small Mercedes truck and they can all get back to London with another delivery at lunchtime. For deliveries to the home counties and beyond we use two 17.5-tonne lorries.

“Service and quality are our main criteria,” he said.