Supplying Timber Issue 9 0 - Autumn 2025 - Flipbook - Page 43
management to 昀椀nished timber
products – BSW can provide
greater certainty and supply
security to its major partners.
“Many of the businesses we
acquired, such as Powersheds
and Scott Pallets in more
recent times, were already our
customers or suppliers,” says
James. “Now we’re not only
delivering that same value, but
striving to enhance it within one
uni昀椀ed business.”
Investment and innovation
Much of BSW’s transformation
has been driven by a focus
on e昀케ciency, sustainability,
and long-term thinking.
Under binderholz’s ownership,
signi昀椀cant investment has been
channelled into modernising
昀氀agship sites like Dalbeattie
and Fort William, as well as
consolidating production at
higher-output, better-equipped
locations.
“binderholz has introduced
that Austrian and German
mindset for process, quality and
e昀케ciency,” says James. “The
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43
business has had to make some
really di昀케cult decisions, but our
output remains the same – or
better – because we’re doing
more with the best facilities.”
Nowhere is this more
visible than in BSW’s forestry
operations. Through their
nursery sites in northern
Scotland and on the Welsh
border, Maelor Forest
Nurseries produces around
35 million saplings each year,
with a growing emphasis on
advanced tree genetics. “We’re
crossbreeding trees in a similar
way to livestock – looking
to create better, straighter,
stronger, faster-growing
timber,” James explains. “This
can allow us to reduce time
to maturity from 40 years to
35, for instance, which could
be transformational for the
industry.”
BSW is also researching which
tree species are best suited to
future UK climates – basing
their assessments on regions of
France that currently mirror the
climate the UK is expected to
AUTUMN 2025
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Image: © BSW.
BSW's site at Fort
William.
STOCKING TIMBER
enhance the value chain.
This integration has included
combining historic standalone
operations under one legal and
operational umbrella. Maelor
Forest Nurseries, Dick Brothers
Forestry, and Tilhill Forestry,
for example, now function
cohesively as Tilhill Forestry,
BSW’s forestry division.
Where once these businesses
operated independently,
they now communicate
more collaboratively – with
transplants grown by Maelor
planted by Tilhill Forestry and
harvested by Tilhill Harvesting
(formerly Dick Brothers) – all
part of one strategic plan.
“What being part of the
group has allowed individual
businesses to do is lean on the
expertise and capabilities of
other areas,” explains James.
“That kind of joined-up thinking
just wasn’t possible in the same
way previously.”
This cohesion is also enhancing
customer relationships.
By o昀昀ering a full-service
perspective – from forest
