Modified timber featured a great deal in my diary last week.  It is probably more than just a coincidence that this complex subject somehow cropped up on my agenda just about every day. 

What is modified timber then?  Well, it seems that by either heating it or altering it with chemicals timber can be made more stable, durable and resistant to decay.  The science is not new by any means but it has come on at a pace in the past few years.  Combined with timber engineering, modified timbers can be applied in all sorts of previously unthought-of timber applications, such as, windows made from beech, cladding from whitewood, decking from ash.  The list is along as your imagination will stretch.

Although the products can have downsides - cost, waste disposal, strength and colour can all weaken the offering - rapid scientific development is beating away the critics.  For many applications it's only a matter of time before modified timbers will take hold.  Especially for the hardwood market this promises to be a development of internet scale proportions that will reshape the industry.

While there will always be a market for top quality hardwoods, there are sectors of the industry that are ripe for change, especially outdoor hardwood joinery, which is still far too attached to often dubious tropical species that it would be better to avoid.

I think the most interesting technologies are the heat treated products.  Baking timber at 190° Celsius does remarkable things to it.   Timbmet will soon be introducing several modified products to market that take the breath away.  There is a little further to go on the testing and performance verification front but it's only a question of time. 
But don't just take my word for it.  Take a look at the pre finished, modified beech windows that are now a regular feature in the Dutch market.  There, see, I told you.  My advice: don't worry about it, join it!

Business just seems to be getting harder at the moment.  In addition to a shocking industrial downturn our latest blight is the exchange rate.  Over the years we have gotten used to calm and stability where the pound sterling is concerned.  When movements have come they have been relatively gentle and manageable. 

Not now they ain’t!  Over the past few weeks we have watched the pound yoyo, not just against the headline grabbing American dollar, but against a host of other timber trading currencies as well.  Over a few weeks the fluctuations have been greater than some of our bulk trading margins.  It's a nightmare for a stock carrying importer, with prices having to be adjusted literally daily.

For slow moving stocks like hardwoods the maths becomes impossible with new stock bought when the pound was down being mixed with old stock bought spending higher value pounds.  When the variation pings by 20% what does one do?  Today we decided to just give up being scientific about it and just price as competitively as we can for the current market – not the most profitable way to run a business perhaps but better for our customers and less of a headache for us.

Customers are calling me up asking me what I think of the current situation.  Not good I suppose, but hey, we are still here.  I don't like to complain because on the whole I have been dealt good cards.  Times like this are a challenge to all of us and with a bit of luck, and a surge of hard work, one just has to fathom out the new rules for the trade and apply them as best as one can.  Not for the faint hearted.

Just back from a business trip to America.  There, one is treated to Wall St to Wall St coverage of stock market crash news.  Most news bulletins beam live coverage of the opening of trading every morning at 09.30.  The market indexes are broadcast in a continuous box on the TV screens, and average Americans speculate, often with almost hourly trades, as though they were betting on the horses at Newmarket.

I was attending a convention for senior figures from the US hardwood industry.  If you think we have a recession here in the UK then there needs to be a new word invented for what most of them are going through.  Considering that the output of hardwoods has halved in three years and there is an equity crash one would expect an atmosphere of utter gloom. 

Even though they are all watching a daily massacre of their personal pension plans they all remained remarkably buoyant.  I can only put that down to the old maxim that you should never gamble more than you can afford to lose.  If my American friends are sticking to that then considering some of the sums people admitted to me that were down they must be remarkably rich to start with.

With similar economic gloom almost bound to follow here in the UK what should one do to remain happy?  Count our blessings is my recommendation.  One needs to look at what one has, not at what one has lost.  On that score I am a lucky man and I hope I never fail to remember that fact when I am tempted to have a moan about the state of my company/ finances/pension plan or expenses. 

There are so many people in the world that have little or nothing to begin with.  Remarkably, many individuals I have met in the developing world have given me inspiration by maintaining their health and happiness regardless of continuous economic woes. 

I went to a sort of focus group session last week between senior representatives of the timber trade and executives representing large building contractors.  The idea was to investigate what more could be done by our industry to promote the use of timber in building.  It went something like this;

We could write more technical manuals about timber frame.

Naa, simplify environmental certification

We could create a technical helpline to guide customers on selection of the right species

Naa, improve your environmental performance

We could sell our timber cheap and offer free chocolate bars with every order

Naa, really we love timber (and chocolate) but can you guarantee to keep green protestors off our projects?

And so it went on...and on...and on.  Every discussion came back to environmental issues.  One has to ask, as a trade, are we stumped? If it isn't enough to try and explain the very complex point that deforestation and usage of timber are not necessarily linked it is almost impossible to navigate busy people, with better things to do, through the quagmire of competing certification schemes that are supposed to offer the solution.

It would be helpful if environmental campaigners could just stop for a moment and target other rival building materials.  Fat chance!  Timber, the only genuinely renewable building material, is a sitting duck, especially hardwoods. 

The only way forward for the timber industry is to promote itself with professional marketing efforts - like Wood for Good (www.woodforgood.com) - that can effectively counter these very negative impressions.  Without a large budget WFG has little chance.  In these tough economic times it takes some courage to sponsor grand scale marketing but that is what we must do if we are ever to move on from meetings like last week.    If you run any kind of timber related business and you want to honestly promote the only truly sustainable building material you had better get your cheque book out!

Once again it’s timber industry award time.  I am not the Oscar type so I never attend but it's always nice to hear of a win.  I have rarely been left disappointed.  It was especially rewarding a couple of years ago when government trade minister and former head of the CBI, Baron Jones of Birmingham (better known as Digby Jones) suggested that the industry had much to learn from Timbmet.

When ones peers and competitors acknowledge that one is doing well it feels good but does it actually change anything commercially?  Trust me; the answer is not that obvious.  Importing forest products is complex and challenging but my feeling is that it's a backroom service; essential but largely hidden.  Rewarding excellence to timber importers is on a par with say 'Power Generator of the Year' or 'Top Refuse Collector'...who really cares unless the lights go off or the garbage piles up in the street?

For a timber industry award ceremony of real meaning look to the Wood Awards.  When the creative manufacturing genius of some of our customers is combined with fantastic design and the natural beauty of wood then we have something to shout from the rooftops about.  The Wood Awards showcases the best in timber.  With some good marketing for the winners (and some of the other fantastic entries) it opens the eyes of the whole population to the timeless splendors of wood. 

It always tickles me that amongst those who get credited for these amazing creations are the timber importers...as though they/we created the wood!  Best, I think, to credit Mother Nature and confine the suppliers to their own award ceremony, which outside the timber industry raises precious few eyebrows. 

I'm told its bad PR to admit that the hardwood market is down, so let's just say it's changing.  This is quite a good way of putting it actually.  I so often hear the question "when do you think there will be a recovery?"  My answer...never.  In my experience markets do not recover, they change. 

In an economic downturn even robust markets like those for hardwoods will drop off.  Stakeholders have a choice; they can either sit back and wait for the recovery or they can search for new opportunities.  In a traditional industry there is always a belief that it's only a matter of time.  Optimists sit back, waiting on the return of the good old days.  The brave go for a more adventurous strategy and stand or fall on the outcome.

To me, survival in business is all about adaptation.  As I say, markets don't recover, they change.  What emerges after a downturn is a new business environment and it's never the same as it once was.  Markets are forever in a state of flux with new products, trends, fashions and technology changing the shape of trade for ever more.  If you wait for the recovery you miss the boat even if the market for your product does pick back up a little.  I say it will never recover - not to previous levels anyhow.

The greatest trading companies change with the times.  Even their core products can gradually fade away to be replaced by new ranges, that themselves will possibly only last until the next great downturn.  The secret is to discover the right blend and keep your business vibrant and adaptive.  This does not necessarily spell the end for traditional markets, like those for hardwoods, but it does position them firmly in the descent mode.

Timbmet has always employed an environmental manager.  This person’s main task has been to deal with customer questions about the environmental credentials of our hardwoods. 

In the early days, before widespread certification, individual customers would phone in with their questions.  With the evolution of credible third party certification schemes the parameters have changed.  Today, the main task is simply auditing our suppliers, and even that task is becoming less and less relevant.  The plain fact is that if consumers of timber products want comfort in the sustainability of the product the only proof to rely on is certification.  As a responsible importer our challenge is to offer the market as much certified timber as possible at competitive prices. 

Frankly, much as we would like to sell exclusively certified timbers we understand that if the price differentials are too high nobody will pay.  That said, we have still managed to cover an amazing 46% of our inventory with competitively priced certified timbers. 

Ooh!  What of the rest I hear you ask?  It’s coming gradually but the major region that would push us towards 100% is undoubtedly the USA.  Although our American cousins have a fine track record at preserving and expanding hardwood forests they are behind when it comes to proving it through certification.  I am told that may all change quite soon.  It can’t happen a day too early so far as I am concerned.

In the meantime I take comfort in our certified inventory safe in the knowledge that our customers have the most straightforward of choices, do you want certified or not?  Making a responsible choice has never been easier.

As CEO of one of Europe’s largest hardwood importers the price of timber never ceases to amaze me.  Today one can buy pack volumes of American, African or Asian hardwoods at pretty much the same price levels as twenty years ago.  We could speculate for ever about the supply chain, however, the angle that most interests me is how can businesses such as Timbmet survive with hardly any price inflation, yet ever increasing costs?
 
The answer is largely through scale, efficiency and technology.  The service we offer today is just astonishing in comparison with twenty years ago.  We are a much bigger business yet a fraction of the number of people generates a superior service; mostly based on next day delivery, vastly superior working practices and, of course, state of the art data systems. 
 
Today Timbmet is virtually able to offer a yet more efficient service - timber for sale on line.  The only real restraint is our valued customers who actually don’t appear to be that interested in buying on the internet.  I am sure that will soon change and I expect in a few years from now e-timber commerce will be the norm.  For now though, with hardly any change in price, we carry on doing it the traditional way, but better.

As the media proclaims the death of the housing market, what hope is there for our beleaguered timber industry which is supposed to rely on new home building for a market?  Well more than you may think actually.  Ever heard of the Olympics?  If you have you will know it’s quite a sizable project. 
 
Actually, I can name a cluster of projects that are of equal or greater size featuring new hospitals, schools, MOD accommodation, railways, and hotel buildings…and that’s just in the UK.  Each one directly or indirectly employs thousands of building workers and is sucking in new business for, amongst others, the timber industry.  Venture abroad, especially to the Middle East, and one can easily find booming oil-fired economies desperate for yet more timber products.
 
Even the UK residential market may not be a completely lost cause.  For a decade now we have been bombarded with stories of housing shortages, especially in the South East.  Has there been an overnight change or is there still a shortage?  Well, there is a shortage for social housing, so is it too far-fetched to think that in some back office of Westminster there is a mandarin dreaming up a clever scheme right now?  Surely the government is as aware as we are that the major house builders are sitting on sizeable land banks – many already with planning permission – that they would love to offload now, at bargain prices. 

Stand up all those housing associations and NGOs who have spent the last decade complaining in the media about a shortage of affordable homes.  Now is your chance.  Let’s buy that land and build some houses.  All that’s needed is some spare cash from central government and there has never been a better time to kick start a policy.  Will it happen…don’t know. But it’s an idea surely???