Which timber group operates from a 45-acre site, that can produce virtually any hardwood requirement, sawn or machined, from its own stocks and also includes the oldest timber company in the UK? Answer: Smee Holdings, a privately owned group, run by a highly respected management team who look after some of the best established businesses in the hardwood field.

Even the longest standing readers of TTJ may not appreciate the size and structure of this organisation, started 30 years ago by Michael Smee on the same site at Winsford in Cheshire from which it currently operates.

Furthermore, as proprietor of Whitmores Timber, based in Leicestershire, the Smee Timber group has access to a vast range of home-grown timbers, to ensure a complete package of hardwood products.

Tony Collins, managing director, explained a little more about the key people: “Ron Taylor and Richard Loveridge handle all the buying and have over 75 years’ experience between them. John McCoy heads up Smee Timber’s sales and Natalie Smee runs British Wood Floors. Our customers rely on this depth of knowledge which, when combined with all of the stock facilities on one site, makes us almost unique”.

Acquisition has always been a key part of progress, giving the group some of the best-known names in the trade:

Joseph Gardner & Co, founded in 1748, concentrates on tropical timbers from every part of the globe and is one of the last companies to saw tropical logs here in the UK; meanwhile Smee Timber, established over 30 years ago, concentrates on American and European temperate hardwoods, from alder to walnut, and large stocks of FSC and PEFC.

GR Wiltshire & Co has a long history in supplying structural hardwoods for civil engineering and coastal defence work.

Smee Profiles operates from a large milling complex on site, offering the highest standards in moulding, machining, component manufacture and veneer wrapping.

British Wood Floors provides top quality flooring for prestigious work throughout the UK, on a made to order basis, using the vast stocks available to it at Winsford.

With this portfolio of companies, Smee Holdings is justifiably proud of its pedigree and the Winsford site effectively provides a strong platform for each com-pany, in terms of infrastructure. “We have 80 employees working here on yard and shed stock handling, drying within our 18 kilns, log sawing using the latest technology with our Brenta bandmill, producing a huge variety of machined timber items and, of course, sales,” said Tony Collins.

Stock traceability

Each company has its own dedicated areas, thereby segregating the stocks and ensuring PEFC and FSC inventory can be handled through the business with total traceability. “We’re seeing a continual demand for environmentally-accredited material and quite often provide customers with accredited stock, even when it’s not requested, at no increased cost,” said John McCoy. However, availability is still difficult, especially when the criteria on grade and quality are strict and none of the Smee group companies is willing to sacrifice quality. “We have built up substantial stocks in certain species, such as beech, American white oak, ash and maple among many others,” said Mr McCoy.

&#8220Acquisition has been a key part of progress, giving the group some of the best-known names in the business”

Specialist items

The Joseph Gardner business can provide a huge variety of tropical species, including highly specialist items such as koto, lignum vitae and zebrano. Many customers still request through and through sawn log stocks, to enable them to gain the best possible yield. Michael Smee took up the story: “This is probably the only new bandmill line in the UK for many years and we’ve upgraded it to ensure maximum efficiency, whilst giving excellent accuracy levels. The

Vollmer head on this rig is the most efficient way of removing heartwood, by sawing it out during the resawing process.”

GR Wiltshire is well known throughout the trade for constructional and marine hardwoods. With the bandmill sawing facility and large stock road areas, Wiltshire can provide large, long sectional timber with ease. Balau, ekki, greenheart and European oak form the main part of Wiltshire’s inventory, which is used throughout the UK in a broad range of situations including decking, groynes, bridges and building frames.

Smee Profiles has a huge dedicated milling facility on site, offering basic sawing and preparation machining, right through to complex component manufacture. Many of these machines are geared for making furniture components but, with the decline in British manufacturing, the company has gradually turned its hand to new markets and products, such as flooring. The tool room and moulding lines reflect the Smee group’s search for top quality. The moulding lines, incorporating Weinig machinery, provide extremely high levels of finish across a wide variety of sections.

Hardwood floors

British Wood Floors is the latest company to join the group and it has taken advantage of operating at Winsford, where extensive stocks, kilning and top grade machining are all on tap, enabling it to offer customers a fast turn round on hardwood floors.

Natalie Smee runs this section of the company and it is showing significant growth. “Wood floors are a fashion statement, which requires a great deal of patience in the preliminary stages, as clients decide exactly what to choose,” said Ms Smee. “We’re very fortunate as we can select almost any type of species from stock, to specific grading criteria and then machine it as a batch, to ensure that the stock arrives fresh and ready to fit.”

Further investment was put into the milling section to provide end matching on all boards, as well as specific profiling to give reliable floor components. This has now all come together, under British Wood Floors, supplying customers with their specific requirements, often on a week’s lead time, throughout the UK.

The whole group receives enquiries through a combined switchboard, thereby ensuring that customers can be transferred directly to a specialist on the products or services they require.

“Our philosophy is to keep it simple,” Tony Collins explained. “We don’t have layers of management and we all work together to make it happen. We use outside hauliers, who know our business, allowing us to concentrate on providing customers with top quality products and service.”

So what’s in the future?

“We’re creating jobs, investing in the UK on a long term basis, providing customers with a total hardwood service,” said Mr Collins. “Wood is still too cheap, compared to 20 years ago, and there are too many in the trade who use hardwoods purely as a cash generator, selling it through and never even seeing the stock, turning it over as quickly as possible. To me that’s just taking and not giving, devaluing the product instead of actually adding value.”