Scottish timber traders have been urged to fully support the Scottish Timber Trade Association (STTA) and not sit on the sidelines.
Timber Trade Federation president Kevin Hayes, who made the rallying call at the STTA’s dinner on October 28, said it was important that the STTA represented the whole of the Scottish timber industry, rather than just a part of it.
He said the Scottish home-grown timber sector was making greater inroads into the structural timber market due to imported product increases and the weakness of sterling, with British C16 now being trialled for timber frame construction.
But he said the trade needed to stand together to meet the challenges of competing products, marketing of wood products, climate change, carbon footprints, due diligence and EU environmental legislation.
“I would call upon all those here tonight, members and non-members to fully support your Scottish Timber Trade Asscociation,” he said. “I would send out this message even more strongly to those in Scotland who are not members and not here tonight.
“You should be involved. We need you to be fighting side by side for your industry and its products, not sitting on the sidelines watching the efforts of others.”
He welcomed the STTA’s initiative to revamp the organisation into a trade body which could better serve its members and move forward on issues. “For that to happen we must broaden the membership base to make it fully representative of the industry,” he said.
