There comes a time for all organisations and businesses when it feels right to take stock. For the Timber Research and Development Association that time is clearly now. In January Dr Chris Gill announced he was stepping down as TRADA chief executive. He’d been in the job over 14 years and was handing over to Andrew Abbott, managing director of TRADA Technology, the commercial operation which undertakes TRADA’s research work.

Days after this news came another key event – the launch of the online information service askTRADA. As he pushed the live button Mr Abbott resoundingly introduced the website as “the most important development TRADA has undertaken for a generation”.

We sat down for the stock-taking process a fortniight later and from the start it was clear that both Dr Gill and Mr Abbott are proud of the way TRADA has adapted to a fast-changing market place in recent years. In fact, the metamorphosis could hardly have been more complete.

When Dr Gill started at the organisation in 1984 (and Mr Abbott joined 12 months later) it was clearly doing vital work for the trade. But it was an old-style industry research body. It employed 100 people, was non-profit making and funded partly by a levy taken from Timber Trade Federation membership dues.

Today, TRADA is still backed by subscriptions but it now ‘buys’ its research and test work from TRADA Technology which forms part of the Chiltern Group. The latter is an independent business which includes four other test, research, training and quality assurance subsidiaries. It has 200 staff, turns over £10m and, Dr Gill emphasised, makes a profit on its commercial activities.

Corporate review

Neither he nor Mr Abbott make any bones about the fact that TRADA had to change: “In 1989 we undertook a corporate review – a glimpse down the tunnel to see if there was light ahead,” said Dr Gill. “The industry appreciated what we were doing, but we couldn’t rely on subscriptions. The sector was consolidating rapidly and our cap on subscription levels meant emerging bigger companies couldn’t be charged extra to compensate. If we had 1950s subscription levels today they’d bring in £1.1m – in real terms we’ve lost 60% to 70% of this income.” The conclusion was obvious. TRADA had to find a different funding method.

By coincidence, the TTF was undergoing a similar review and invited TRADA to come up with plans for financial separation. This involved a risk, highlighting TRADA’s precise cost to companies, but 11 years after severing the TTF cord, it was clearly the right move.

“Some companies relinquished TRADA membership and a few left the TTF, but most remained with both and we were now able to develop direct relationships with them,” said Mr Abbott. “Through the transition TRADA also continued to build professional membership, including architects and engineers.”

Management buyout

The next stage in TRADA’s development came in 1994 with the management buyout of its High Wycombe research and test operations led by Dr Gill. The result was the Chiltern Group, which was designed to enable TRADA to preserve its industry service ethos, while allowing its collective expertise to be used to build commercial research, consultancy, information, certification and testing businesses (and besides TRADA Technology, these today comprise BM TRADA Certification, Chiltern International Fire, FIRA and the joint venture Chiltern Clarke Bond).

“The MBO enabled us to ring-fence TRADA subscriptions from commercial operations,” said Dr Gill. “Chiltern also undertook TRADA’s administration at its own cost, which meant every subscription penny could be pledged to research and information.”

Mr Abbott added: “The new structure enabled us to leverage subscription income too. Today, in most projects, every subscription pound is augmented with two or three raised by TRADA Technology from government and commercial sources.”

A new function the ex-TRADA and now Chiltern workforce had to embrace in the commercial world was promotion of their services to a wider market. But they took to it readily – witness the joint TRADA/BRE TF2000 multi-storey timber frame project. This not only helped lay the technical bedrock for the renaissance in timber frame construction, but grabbed the headlines and attracted thousands of visitors.

The changes also seem to have given TRADA a more overt ‘marketing’ approach, with Dr Gill outlining its aims as defending existing markets for wood, winning new ones and generally helping people use the material. The goal is also to progress the ‘decommoditisation’ of timber, something which is chiming with an increasingly broad section of the industry.

“We now have more vertically integrated timber businesses and companies adding value to their products,” said Dr Gill. “They’re closer to end users and have greater responsibility for their product’s performance in the market place. That makes our work even more directly relevant to them.”

Government appeal

Another vital activity of today’s TRADA and TRADA Technology is “marketing to government”. “Securing government funding has become far more complex – they won’t pay up just because you’ve got a good idea!” said Mr Abbott. “Today you have to demonstrate your proposals fit in with their wider strategies.”

In some ways, askTRADA is a distillation of TRADA’s strategies over the past 15 years. The website is billed as the ultimate tool in accessing timber information both for timber firms and for specifiers and end users. Its suppliers listing also gives it a more immediate commercial edge for timber businesses, enabling potential customers to get directly in touch.

“Changing standards and regulations mean the timber specifying process is becoming more complex and it’s increasingly difficult to ensure technical information is up to date,” said Mr Abbott. “askTRADA provides the latest information 24/7 and visitors can also post queries.”

The site also ties in with Latham and Egan report recommendations on providing more technical data for construction and on collaboration of industry bodies.

“It was always intended to carry information from other sources – for instance it already includes the TTF’s NPPD Panel Guide,” said Mr Abbott.

He also described askTRADA as a “wonderful platform to engage with TRADA members”. “It demonstrates our value to their business – that we’re not researching away in some remote corner – and we’re liaising closely with them on the site’s development.”

The launch of the online service was also a factor behind TRADA’s recent management change.

“askTRADA will have a growing influence on the way TRADA operates and Andrew has been involved in its development at TRADA Technology since the outset, so it made sense for him to combine management roles,” said Dr Gill.

At the same time he stressed he won’t be vanishing from the scene. He remains Chiltern Group chairman and has been invited to stay on the TRADA Board.

Both he and Mr Abbott also emphasised that the latest developments do not signal a consolidation period for TRADA. It might have reached a moment for taking stock, but it’s also a stepping off point for further development. One thing that hasn’t altered since Dr Gill arrived is TRADA’s awareness that it has to keep reinventing itself to serve a fast-changing timber industry.