W.L. West & Sons Ltd.
Timber Talks - September 2007

Trading a little quieter than normal?

Traditionally September October and November are the three trade months when everybody in the trade should be busy; suppliers, importers, merchants and makers.
The scares in the money markets plus the possible over stretched credit loans are making the climate a little quieter than we would expect. The retail public are starting to hang on to their money, and potentially keep it under the mattress, despite the Government coming in late in the day to offer a degree of saving protection. Has this dinted consumer spending? Will this have an adverse effect just when we all need the sales?

American prices hold firm

The USA’s economy has had to squeeze its credit lending and the housing markets in key areas have stagnated and fallen. Despite the exchange rates being in our favour, prices have held firm, if not slightly pushed ahead on the key hardwoods such as white oak, poplar, and walnut.

Glut of Am Red Oak

There are a lot of shippers currently offering Am Red Oak, because the home demand has turned against this species. Because a national Burger chain have used it exclusively in all their hundreds of outlets,  the burger buying public have started to see it as a low value commodity hardwood and as a result the demand for red oak has taken a nose dive. Consequently, shippers now want to off-load red oak into the UK and other European markets.

Sapele price rises slow doen

Sapele prices from Africa have increased, but at a decreasing rate.  Idigbo is still very difficult. We are carrying more FIP Iroko these days and the quality of it we think is second to none, please do ask about this material.

Order placed with Progressive Solutions

As reported earlier, we have placed a contract for a new computer system, to be live by April 2008. This system is widely used by the trade and some of our good competitors have the BisTrak system. One aspect of this new system is that it can offer stock information quickly and efficiently, this will give the customer a more accurate timber knowledge of the timber in stock ready for the selection process. e.g. the Sufficient To Make [STM] orders.

New structure for LSP 

We can still offer Lump sum Prices (LSP) which are endemic in the trade now,  but these will be calculated from the stocked timber allocated and identified at the time of order based on the cubic metre price. Each stock item will be listed and prices shown against each item making up the lump sum price.  As you know, we give a guide of the likely cost of a list of components to be got from the T/T, for example, based on the £m3 rates already.

This new feature will be very relevant to the Trade and Merchant account customers that we have and hold most close to us. This is more transparent and will help all concerned.

The waste factors, as ever, are the key issues here but we are always willing to help and/or coach people in their estimating, by offering  information which will help them estimate properly based on the cubic metre rates. In fact if this is popular, then we will hold symposiums to discuss how this works. We will be able to offer linear metre rates for all machining jobs as before, Cut To Size [CTS] component cutting as now and all forms could be offered in a linear or area rate..

We are All looking forward to a new system where stock information is more readily at hand.

New Projects 

We have won a very large project to run from January 2008 onwards for the New Kew Gardens building. More information to follow.  This month has also seen our Grader Peter Alderson working on a very large sections job of Fresh sawn European Oak for a project local to us. This job requires stiff grading and the need for BS5756 has come into its own. As a merchant, we are told there are now very few companies that can offer this service

Shows

Bentley Wood Show near Lewes was a great success for us. It was good  to see so many old customers, many whom we saw at our Wood Show in May this year. Please pencil in 2nd & 3rd May 2008 for our next one.

Record Power.

You will be able to see much of the range at our RECORD POWER days on Thursday 25 & Friday 26 October 2007.

We are working with Record Power to bring you a showcase of their machines, from band saws to planer/thicknessers. Demonstrations will take place with some of the machines.

DeWalt and Black & Decker. To further bolster the ranges of machines and power tools that are available through us, we will stock a limited a range of DeWalt and Black & Decker hand power tools. Items that are not stocked will generally be available in 2-3 days

W.L. WEST & SONS LTD
Selham, Petworth, West Sussex GU28 0PJ
United Kingdom

Tel: 01798 861611   
Fax: 01798 861633   
E-mail: sales@wlwest.co.uk

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