Glenmere Timber Co Ltd has been operating for more than 25 years with virtually no publicity or promotional literature, yet it is a vital part of the supply chain to many of its wide band of customers.

As is so often the case, personal recommendation wins over new customers. At the same time, reliability, integrity and quality of products and service are the keystones to maintaining this reputation and these are not built up easily; you need experience combined with sheer hard work to bring it all together.

Glenmere Timber is a true family business. Its founder Ron Robinson and his wife Ivy, together with their sons Keith, Kevin and Michael and daughter Lesley, a qualified accountant, are all involved in the day-to-day running of the business. Lesley’s husband, Philip Mason, also works at Glenmere.

While Ron admits that at 73 years old he might spend a little more time on his golf, he still packs in as much as most younger people would do. He and Ivy visit the US at least six times each year, which last year included a difficult trip, as Ron explained: ‘We happened to fly out on September 11, for the NHLA conference and were diverted to Newfoundland, where we stayed for six days, starting off in a sports hall, until a very kind family put us up. The conference was cancelled and, as you can imagine, our whole itinerary was turned upside down.’

The Robinsons know that the heart of their operation is ensuring consistent supplies of the highest grade timbers and this can only be done by regularly visiting the mills, to ensure that they are monitored. Ron concentrates on North America, while Kevin looks after Glenmere’s African and Far Eastern shippers, visiting each area around three times a year. This may sound like an exotic lifestyle, but the reality is very different, particularly for Kevin, who has to maintain supplies in an ever-changing political scene, where governments are notoriously unstable.

Glenmere Timber is one of the last companies to import African logs into the UK and this goes back to the start of the business. It is still a large part of the whole operation, contributing around one quarter of the total mix as this speciality is particularly suited to a large number of Glenmere’s customers, who require specific cutting, particularly in unusual thicknesses.

Long experience

Ron Robinson has always been involved in the hardwood trade. He started as an apprentice with Reif and Son in East London where he gained valuable experience in veneers – experience which has stood him in good stead more recently as North American veneers now play an important part in the overall sales. As Ron explained: ‘You have to be even more vigilant on checking supplies of veneers, as the grade can slip very easily. I do spend quite a lot of my time in the States, monitoring the quality of our shipments.’

Having moved on to Phoenix Timber, Ron became hardwood director in the 1960s and Kevin was also apprenticed there.

However, Ron could see that there were opportunities to set up on his own and in 1978 the Hopton Sawmill site at Market Harborough became available. ‘In the early days, we were fortunate to have the trust of agents and some excellent furniture com-panies who were willing to help us start by allowing credit or paying promptly,’ said Ron. ‘Together with factoring, which we have used from the beginning, we were able to finance the first shipments of West African logs. We still offer the same service today, of sawing to the customers’ exact requirements, particularly special thicknesses for the furniture industry, with our own kilning and delivery service. Initially we had to have kilning done by other people but we developed our own facility as soon as we could, so that we didn’t have to rely on anyone else and could ensure very high levels of service. Then, as profits dropped through, we reinvested in our infrastructure, to give the facilities that we have today.’

Two sites

Early photographs show a site knee-deep in mud but now Glenmere Timber is a thoroughly modern set up, operating from two sites. The original Hoptons Sawmill, at Gores Lane, still cuts the huge African sapele, mahogany and walnut logs; 13 kilns on site work constantly to keep up with demand for stock replacement and special cutting. Glenmere’s FSC accreditation also gives customers peace of mind.

Keith is the mastermind behind all of the building work, ensuring that the infrastructure meets their strict requirements. Glenmere Timber has its own engineering team, which built most of the kilning facility from scratch and maintains the sawmill, lorries and other buildings. When he isn’t busy on that work, Keith spends his time on sales.

Michael runs the Hopton Sawmill operation which, with the kilning, sawmill and basic machining workshop, gives Glenmere an area of speciality for top quality African species in a wide range of thicknesses; in turn this brings customers in for the wide range of other timbers and veneers that are always in stock.

European and North American species are held at the Riverside site, across the road from the Hopton mill. This site was acquired in the 1980s and has been developed to give hardstandings and sheds for storage and handling.

Glenmere Timber has a high concentration of furniture and joinery customers and this, together with its experience in alternative species, shows through in the depth of stock on species that are not commonly specified. For example, Chilean lenga and North American alder are becoming increasingly popular substitutes for cherry, which has priced itself out of many markets.

However, the most popular species, such as ash, beech, cherry, maple, red and white oak, tulipwood and black walnut, are held in large quantities, with good stocks of difficult specifications, such as wide boards or long lengths.

Minor species

The selection of minor species is also impressive, with good stocks of agba, basswood, birch, idigbo, mahogany and obeche.

Order quantities vary enormously and customers remain loyal. ‘One of our European boatbuilding customers always selects his mahogany through us,’ said Ron. ‘A recent consignment was for one boat which will cost well over £20m. The timber order wasn’t bad either, at around £80,000.’

It is hard to describe the stockholding at Riverside, which is known affectionately as ‘Fantasy Island’, without using superlatives, but the main impression is of vast stocks of high grade, meticulously stored timbers. Anyone who knows how hard it is to source, maintain and provide top quality hardwoods, consistently, would be more than impressed; it could easily be called Treasure Island.