Seemingly against all the odds, I managed to sell my house last month. Given the current state of economic affairs, I feel like I’ve dodged a bullet.
Others, clearly, have not been so lucky (and I’m sure luck does come into it) and, regretfully, TTJ’s pages have become full of tales of profit slumps and job losses.
Thankfully, however, not everyone is suffering. One independent timber merchant contact tells me he’s never been so busy, thanks to the RMI market, while Rembrand Timber, Scotland’s largest independent, is continuing to expand by opening two new depots. A company spokesperson said he hoped that sharing this news will “send a signal that there are still business opportunities out there”.
He added that perhaps we’ll all just have to try a little harder than we’ve needed to in the last couple of years.
We’ll also have to be more flexible and more open to new ideas – two concepts that are at the heart of Ridgeons Forest Products’ not-putting-all-its-eggs-in-one-basket approach.
The timber machining specialist has just invested £7.5m in new processing equipment across two sites and plans to quadruple output within five years.
That output will be absorbed by the company’s diverse customer base (from civil engineers to caravan manufacturers) – “as market opportunities arise in different sectors, we have the capability to move into them”, it said.
As our special feature on The Merchant’s Shop reveals, timber merchants are also au fait with the concept of offering a diverse product range. Many make “add-on” sales of power tools, adhesives, stains and nails and find these small, but high-value items carry higher margins than their core product.
In these testing times, those companies that can adapt to change the quickest and seize opportunities as they arise will be the ones that survive.
