When a business operates in south-east England, space can be one of the largest constraints; if you move inside the M25 land turns into gold dust and the pressure to maximise every scrap of space grows ever greater.

C Blumsom Ltd has been on its three-acre site at Barking for 50 years and during that time it has continually found new ways of using the space, resulting in one of the most densely arranged timber sites in the UK.

Blumsom began trading in 1896 from premises in Bethnal Green, East London and continued to grow rapidly, moving to wharf premises in Bow and on again to Barking, before finally arriving at the existing site in 1955. The original business concentrated on furniture manufacture but soon developed an importing arm.

By 1972 the main Blumsom business had expanded into kilning, trading as Timber Dryers, which now operates 12 kilns giving a drying capacity of over 200m3. The added-value aspect continued in the 1980s when a large milling complex was built on site, to produce hardwood window sections and merchant requirements.

Mergers and acquisitions

Merger, acquisition and development over the intervening years have culminated in Blumsom’s ability to offer a wide range of services for customers requiring high quality hardwoods and softwoods. Pearson Timber & Services has evolved into the Blumsom Timber Centre, a local merchanting service, while two years ago Drysdale Timber & Mouldings was purchased to run alongside Blumsom’s existing milling facilities, providing specialist mouldings. This has allowed the original milling unit to develop flooring alongside its other products.

Robert Blumsom is the current managing director and fourth generation in the family business, controlling the financial and developmental aspects of the company, as well as being heavily involved in sales. At Blumsom’s centenary Robert said that many companies sit back at this stage and say “made it”, but it’s certainly not the case at Barking, where the site has constantly evolved since he took over from his father, Stanley Blumsom.

Robert’s right-hand man Nick Armon-Jones has been with the company for 30 years and, as purchasing and operations director, has seen all these developments. Long service is a key part of the business and there are many examples of staff who have worked up from school-leaver jobs to senior management posts.

The trade centre is at the front of the site, offering a wide range of high quality timber products. Kevin Tyler is the director of this operation and his drive to develop the merchanting business has been extremely successful. “We concentrate on high quality mouldings, in hardwood and softwood, with all of the ancillary sheet materials, such as veneered MDF, supplying shop and bar fitting companies, joiners and carpenters,” he explained. “Flooring complements this business and is a growing part of our trade, as we offer all the parts they need, including fixings and finishes.”

The quality ethic is obvious at every turn in the yard, where covered racking is continually being placed on every part of the site, as Mr Blumsom explained: “It’s essential for our business and when space is at such a premium, the only way is up!” There are only a few uncovered spaces remaining and plans are in place to continue this development.

Product quality

Product quality is also paramount for Blumsom, which tends to stick to top grades across the range of products as a preference, building up a wide range of shippers for all hardwood and softwood species. As an example, softwood is specially graded and marked BLUM GRADE 1, which is all virtually clear 3 sides stock, in a wide length and width specification. The same goes for hardwoods, where prime grades are the key lines. Blumsom does stock FAS and can be competitive on it, but knows from its machining experience that better grade stocks minimise waste and reduce labour costs, making them cheaper overall.

Blumsom holds vast stocks of all the key temperate and tropical hardwoods and through its connections with one particular North American shipper, can offer a wide specification of high grade FAS in pack lots, very competitively. It has found a good market for this and, with the focus on quality, is finding that customers keep coming back for this material. There is also a high emphasis on prime grade short lengths, which works in well with the machined door lipping business. These are stored on a high mezzanine area, where they are selected for jobs, prior to dispatch. American black walnut continues to be popular in the London area and this is reflected in the levels of stock kept on site, together with all of the other popular species.

The yard sheds are densely stocked, with over 30 different species available at any one time. Square edged European oak and beech are kept in depth, sourced from many of the emerging European countries, such as Croatia and Ukraine, as well as France and Germany.

Certification

African, South American and Far Eastern species are also well represented. Blumsom has been a member of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) since 1995 and offers a wide range of accredited species, including ramin. “The hardest part is finding stocks that are FSC certified, but of a high enough standard for our customers, who expect the very best,” said

Mr Blumsom. Oak from Poland is another example of the company’s ability to source high grade FSC-approved timber.

Blumsom is always monitoring forest management schemes for the products it sources, particularly in the emerging countries, where you need good people on the ground with excellent contacts and continuity of supply.

Mill expansion

Milling has been an integral part of the business for over 20 years and the original mill, which concentrates on planing and flooring, has been expanded to incorporate all of the Drysdale Timber & Mouldings machinery in a second section. Gary Loveman, recently appointed sales director, runs the entire milling operation, which accounts for a large part of group turnover, adding value to raw materials. This area is a hive of activity, with banks of moulders operating all the time, producing specialist mouldings, especially picture frame sections, on the Drysdale side, while the Blumsom area of the mill concentrates on door lippings, merchant sections and flooring. Quality is the byword, with slow feed speeds to give excellent finishes.

Continued machinery development has brought about many specialist machining techniques, espec-ially for flooring, which is playing an ever increasing role in the throughput for the Blumsom side of the mill. All manner of flooring patterns can be offered, with end matching on tongued and grooved boards as just one example of the added services available.

Kilning

Kilning still forms a major part of the group’s business, offering a contract service to importers, merchants and end users for rekilning as well as initial drying. Gary Hoy manages this section, where cost and service efficiency are crucial to maintain viability in a tough market. The ongoing reduction in unkilned material coming into the UK has seen the demise of many other kilning operations, leaving Blumsom’s Timber Dryers unit as probably the largest drying business in the south of England. The switch to woodwaste-fired boilers over 17 years ago has proved to be a shrewd investment, reducing running costs while also increasing the efficiency of the milling operations.

Robert Blumsom continues to have a heavy involvement in many aspects of sales, with Peter Wright heading up the sales team, which includes an experienced office staff as well as representatives in the field. Customers who are involved in high quality hardwoods will always require high levels of service and it is the sales force’s experience that plays such a crucial role in ensuring that all the hard efforts made within the many operations offered by the Blumsom group are translated into a thriving business.