W.L. West & Sons Ltd.
Timber Talks - June 2008

FIRST - An Apology. To those of you who are regular readers. Due to new systems being implemented, this newsletter has been neglected. It will now be updated regularly. Sorry!!

 The Economy still a concern

Is there an economic slow down or not?
The softwood companies are definitely feeling the bite and fast, a colleague in the trade who works in the West Midlands looks after three major house builders, one of which has only 15 of their 49 sites working, the rest have been ‘Made Safe’ and made water tight, this is now a common story through the UK.

Restoration companies and refurbishment companies seem less affected. The ‘Top End’ customers, those few at the top of the demand curve are starting to buy again after a sharp halt. Orders are filtering in slowly and steadily.  

Since the debacle of the Northern Rock Fiasco the Banks have put the brakes on and stopped the volume of lending to other banks and to house buyers. The Credit Crunch we read about has come fast. The rising prices on fuel & basic food stuffs have made for an economic fight to maintain growth. We have been telling our readers of rising prices for some time and to beware of long term price fixing. The cost of fuel has made the delivery cost to our customers rise substantially and we will have to raise the minimum order value from the 1st August to £600.00+vat for free deliveries into our normal areas, excluding parts of London. The delivery cost at the moment is £61.00 on every drop irrespective, (if taken as a straight forward calculation per drop).

Other merchants in the market are getting very nervous, believe it or not, most competitors in our industrial sector only return single figure bottom lines, some do not even make 5%. Increased costs are everywhere and need to be factored in to see continued growth of profits.  Everyone needs profit in order to invest into the future.

 People News

John Howell, who we are sure  many of our customers will know, is leaving us to move in to the Northamptonshire Area. He and Sue, his wife have become grandparents and with their son and daughter now in the Midlands, John has decided to move after a long period of decision making . We wish them well and hope their new life in the area to be a good one. John is still going to be in the trade, we will miss him and he will be a real class act to follow. He left the company on 1st July. In the interim, Simon will be taking over the area until we have found a suitable successor. We are currently advertising in the Timber Trades Journal, and we have already started the process of interviews.

Joyce is still on hand and ready to make the move over as seamless as possible.
News from the Yard, no not ‘Scotland Yard’ but here in Selham. We have some new team members joining the yard team, this will bring numbers back to where they were. There will be a period of training to get the new people up to speed with the job. The restructure of the teams will be further enhanced by Cheryl Slade moving to the yard office from mid to late August. On the 1st July a new desk salesman Karl Jennings started. Karl has a timber and building background and knows a great deal, but to start to learn how things work he will be working briefly in the yard picking timber and then he will move into the sawmill to understand the principals of conversion with Peter Alderson. Finally he will get a view of the machine shop and kilning. He will be looking after sales area 9.

In short, the level of Service is going to improve. We have taken steps to increase customer satisfaction. You have helped us to identify problem areas and we are working hard to correct them. The machine shop has an additional team member, this will improve turn around times for machined orders. We are all looking forward, and pleased to have found some quality people to enhance the great team we already have here.

 Trade News

Currently arriving is some American Stair string Oak 38 x 225mm + in good lengths, please speak to the team for information and prices, all FAS 80/20 kiln dried.
We have machined for a company in Ireland,  21 x 97mm Euro Oak in random lengths approx 5.00m³. They have run into a problem and we would be delighted to sell this material at a very competitive price, all kiln dried,  PAR, 1st quality with a small percentage of 1–2 grade, we now would like to clear this stock. This was to go into kitchens, can any of our customers use this dimension? Please see the special offer list for details.

The current trend for Fresh sawn Constructional Oak is still firm, please note that Gerard and Peter are fully qualified graders to BS 5756 so if you have a need for this service please do not hesitate to ask.
We are currently moving approx 25m³ a month in smaller order work, feather edge and other Oak cladding requirements. Larger volumes are sourced direct from France where appropriate.
There is a definite air of optimism here which is great, changes for the better, improvements in the system. Let us try to look after your needs better than any of the others.

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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