Grainger Sawmills Ltd is preparing to celebrate 25 years in business at its plant in Enniskeane, Co Cork. Current managing director William Grainger acquired the site in 1977 and built the family-run enterprise into one of the top three sawmills in Ireland, with an annual turnover of I£25m turnover.
The growth and development of the sawmill has taken a number of years but the forward thinking and progressive leadership of Bill Grainger and his management team is apparent at every turn.
The major break came in 1989 when Belgian company Sapin, which is jointly owned by two major global producers of newsprint and light coated paper, Parenco BV and SAPPI, invested in the company.
Sapin brought an injection of capital that enabled Grainger to invest in a high capacity small-log mill and move from cutting pallet material to the more lucrative world of carcassing. Along with the investment came an evergreen contract to buy woodchips. Sapin saw the sitka spruce residue as being a good product to put in the mix for pulp as it has long fibres which are ideal for newsprint.
There are two mills on Grainger’s 15-acre site – the small-log mill which produces lengths from 1.8-3.6m and a sawlog mill which produces lengths from 4.2-6m.
In 1991 Grainger Sawmills began a three-phase development on the small-log mill.
The first phase saw the installation of a debarking line, timber grading line, a canter, two resaws and an edger. All this equipment and technology was French-Canadian and began Grainger’s trend of investment in hi-tech equipment. The second phase began in 1994 when a second canter was installed, along with a second edger and third resaw.
The third phase was completed three months ago with a further I£2m investment in a lumber sorting line. This has resulted in a further increase in production from 220m³ to 350m³ per day and a decrease in the number of operatives, making it a highly efficient manufacturing unit. The investment will enable the company to introduce a double shift when required.
‘The key to the success of this development is a tongue loader manufactured in Canada by PLC. This enables the system to singulate boards at 180 pieces per minute before they pass through a 3D Perceptron optimising scanner which categorises the board into length, width, thickness and grade (wane definition),’ explains Niall Grainger.
In the interim, the sawlog mill was rebuilt. Using Swedish and Canadian technology, production was pushed from 50m³ to 250m³ per day with the same number of operatives (seven) working a 10-hour shift.
Both mills have the full complement of debarking technology and optimising scanners ensuring the best recovery. The small-log mill produces more volume of sawn timber per day than the sawlog mill despite the smaller dimensions. This can be attributed to the highly automated machinery and the advanced computer technology used.
The small-log mill’s product line spans pallet and packaging material, fencing material and shed components, custom-made mouldings such as D rail, shiplap, tongue and groove flooring and panelling.
Meanwhile the sawlog mill produces planed and strength graded timber in all sizes up to 6m, while machined studding and tiling battens are available in six different dimensions and in 2.4-5.4m lengths.
All structural timber is kiln dried and can be pressure-treated if required. ‘The only part of the traditional sawmilling operation that has been missing is a treatment facility,’ says Niall Grainger. ‘We’ve just got planning permission for an accelerated fixation plant and expect the Environmental Protection Agency to grant our Integrated Pollution Control Licence within the next month.’
In 1999 a new planing line was commissioned: ‘Irish timber is prone to a large variance of shrinkage,’ says sales executive Michael O’Regan, ‘so after kiln drying it’s all planed to an exact size’. The highly automated Swedish technology planing mill is capable of producing 400m³ a day in two shifts.
The Grainger team is not content to sit on its laurels: ‘In the past the emphasis was on production and, of course, providing the customer with a quality product in a timely and efficient manner,’ says Bill Grainger. ‘Things have changed and the pressure is on for sawmills to come up to the mark with personnel, health and safety and environmental legislation. Twenty years ago, we could not have predicted that the future of our company would be dependent not on the product we produce but on the by-products created in the process.’
Grainger Sawmills has always led in added-value markets and Grain Deck and associated decking products have seen steady growth over the past three years and provided a wider market for the company. ‘Added-value products have always been of key importance to us and we’re constantly investing in researching and developing new ideas,’ says general manager Michael Russell.
Thirty trucks of finished product leave the site each day and a good portion is destined to cross the Irish Sea. Grainger has a long tradition of exporting to the UK and figures currently run at about 3,000m³ per month, around 1,200m³ of which is feather edge fencing. In fact, 27% of Grainger’s yearly output is destined for the UK in the form of fencing and packaging, while 23% is sold on the domestic market. Fifty per cent of output is construction material for the home market.
‘We’ve shown our commitment to UK customers when others let them down,’ says Bill Grainger, referring to the black days of the early 90s when the Irish punt stood at £1.18 to the pound. Financial director Pat Twomey estimates that during a three month period – ‘the worst in Grainger’s 24-year history’ – that exchange rate cost the company I£500,000. ‘The irony was that it was the progressive mills, the ones that exported, that suffered the most,’ he says.
Grainger’s goods are marketed throughout the UK by Taylor Maxwell Ltd. ‘Our companies have been involved with each other since 1989 and we work very well together,’ says Michael O’Regan. Loyalty still accounts for something and he estimates that 75% of Grainger’s UK customers have been with them for more than 10 years.
Bill Grainger believes his company to be the most export conscious in the Irish Republic. ‘I suppose we can credit this, in part, to our overseas investors, Sapin. They provided us with a gateway to Europe,’ he says.
‘We will always export because it’s part of our culture,’ he adds. ‘I believe, though, that we are competing with the Baltic mills rather than with other Irish or UK mills.’
He is appreciative of his experienced and dedicated staff: ‘Michael Russell has been with us since the inception of the company, Michael O’ Regan has been here 17 years and Pat Twomey has a 16-year history with the company. Over 60% of our employees have been with us over 10 years. This is testament itself in my eyes,’ says Bill.
The company remains confident about the future too: ‘Sapin has first refusal on all our residues, which is a relief because Irish forests are yielding more and more and the industry is predicting a glut of sawdust and chips,’ says Niall Grainger. He adds: ‘We have to look at cutting energy costs and alternative uses for our residues so bio-energy may be an option.’ He pointed, as a model for this sort of strategy, to Finland where almost 20% of electricity requirements is met by bioenergy.’
Bill adds: ‘My policy for the future is "onwards and upwards". Our company will always be forward thinking and progressive, we will be amongst the first to try things and we will never back down from challenges the industry, the market and the environment throw at us’.
