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BSW Group

BSW was founded in Earlston in Scotland in 1848 and is the largest forestry and sawmill company on the British market. The Group runs seven sawmills and production sites in Great Britain as well as one sawmill in Latvia. BSW Timber Ltd.’s acquisition by the binderholz Group made the latter the largest sawmill and solid wood processing corporation in Europe.

The company operates along the entire sawmill industry value creation chain. Starting with sustainable forest management and forest maintenance – with a capacity to replant up to 50 million high quality seedlings per year – through timber harvesting to sawmill operations, timber processing and its distribution, and biomass energy generation.

The BSW Group comprises Maelor Forest Nurseries, Tilhill, Dick Brothers, BSW Timber, BSW Timber Solutions, Bayram Timber, IRO Timber and BSW Energy. It also runs CarbonStore, a division of Tilhill that helps companies offset carbon emissions.

Power Sheds became part of BSW Group in August 2022 and manufactures wooden garden buildings such as (garden) sheds. The company has become one of the biggest disruptors in the industry, offering customers products that have a 25-year service life and are the most adaptable garden buildings in the world.

In December 2022, the Scott Group was acquired. The latter is a leading supplier of wooden pallets and bespoke wooden packaging solutions, providing a wide range of goods and services to industry, the public sector and manufacturing.


Tree nurseries - Maelor Forest Nurseries

Acquired by BSW in 2019, Maelor are the UK’s foremost growers of coniferous and broadleaf trees, growing in excess of 50 m trees per year in UK-based nurseries supplied by their own seed orchards. With a 450-acre site on the Welsh border and a 148-acre site in Scotland, it helps to ensure the sustainability of UK forestry and is the country’s largest wholesale tree nursery, producing bare root trees and shrubs suitable for forestry, Christmas trees, hedging and native woodland planting.

For every tree BSW harvests, a minimum of three trees are planted in its place, through BSW’s own seed generation, which is a fast-growing market and has the potential to be a trading commodity in the future. Maelor is viewed as 'best-in-class' technically, due to its in-house laboratory facilities developing and established seed orchards.


Forest management and harvesting - Tilhill

Acquired by BSW in 2015, Tilhill is the UK’s leading harvesting and forestry management business. It manages in excess of 200,000 hectares of woodlands and oversees the harvesting of approximately 1.7 million tonnes per annum, trading 2.5 million tonnes of timber per annum.
Tilhill have been active for almost 70 years and represent a significant proportion of all UK-managed forestry. They employ in-house ecologists who carry out Environmental Impact Assessments and plan the pre-harvesting stage to ensure protection of the forest asset and to avoid harvesting delays. Tilhill are also one of the UK’s leading landscapers, working for the likes of Highways England.
Tilhill has a strong position in forestry management services and harvesting, with clients including landowners, large corporations, non-governmental organisations, pension funds, investment vehicles and the Forestry Commissions.
Headquartered in Stirling, UK, with 17 regional offices throughout the UK, Tilhill offers a 'Value+' service, where it manages the standing timber and assumes all associated costs, harvests material and provides replanting for a guaranteed price. Tilhill also offers landscaping services in order to capitalise on increased market demand projects, such as the National Rail HS2 Link.
Tilhill recently launched a division called CarbonStore, working with companies and landowners to design, plant and manage new woodlands which, by absorbing carbon dioxide, help alleviate climate change for businesses.


CarbonStore

CarbonStore works with companies and landowners to design, plant and manage new woodlands or to plan, implement, and oversee peatland restoration projects, with the goal of helping to offset carbon emissions. Operating alongside its partners, Tilhill and Maelor Forest Nurseries, the business sets industry-leading standards in the marketing of Carbon Units. CarbonStore provides an open and transparent platform for companies and landowners to buy and sell Carbon Units while helping companies to offset their carbon and maximise the benefits associated with woodlands and restoring our peatlands.


Timber harvesting - Dick Brothers

Acquired by BSW in November 2020, Dick Brothers is the largest forestry harvesting business in the UK, harvesting in excess of 700,000 tonnes per annum, with state-of-the-art forestry equipment and market-leading capabilities, to harvest some of the largest and most complex forests in the UK.
Dick Brothers’ head office and maintenance hub is in Moffat, Scotland, which is well located for its harvesting operations. Their strong reputation and steep ground harvesting capability, gives the business a competitive advantage in the market. Dick Brothers have fast become the UK’s go-to experts in difficult harvesting, operating harvesters and forwarders.


Sawmilling - BSW Timber

BSW’s sawmills form the core of the company’s operations, providing the raw material for many of the group’s divisions. It operates the most technologically advanced sawmilling business in the UK, with 7 sites across the UK - in Southampton, Newbridge-on-Wye, Carlisle, Dalbeattie, Petersmuir, Boat of Garten and Fort William - and one in Latvia.
BSW Timber offers a wide range of FSC-certified sawn products for the construction, fencing, landscaping, DIY, and pallet and packaging sectors. BSW Timber typically produce products such graded timber, fence posts, sleepers and decking but have recently started to venture into added-value markets with the likes of Alchemy composite decking and its IRO Timber range, which is a charred, brushed and treated product inspired by the Japanese process of Yakisugi.


Value-added processing and distribution - BSW Timber Solutions and Bayram Timber

Acquired in late 2020, BSW Timber Solutions, formerly SCA Wood UK, specialises in manufacturing and distributing timber and associated products to the DIY, home improvement and builders’ merchant sectors. In May 2021, BSW also acquired Bayram Timber, which further enhanced its value-added timber processing and distribution capabilities into new market segments.
BSW Timber Solutions operates from four locations; its headquarters and distribution centre in Stoke-on-Trent, its planing and distribution centre at Welshpool, its production and distribution facilities in Melton and its distribution centre in Cumbernauld soon to be relocated and scaled up in the Port of Grangemouth.
Bayram Timber also operates in Melton, and manufacturing and supplying bespoke components for a variety of markets and products. BSW Timber Solutions and Bayram Timber’s markets include garden buildings, animal housing, stables, fencing, furniture, windows, kitchens, packaging, modular buildings, flooring, cladding, caravans, lodges, park homes, box and crate makers, woodturning, stairs, gates, doors, sign makers, timber merchants, exterior cladding and decking.


Energy and co-products - BSW Energy

Based at BSW Timber’s flagship sawmill in Fort William, BSW Energy manufactures a range of renewable wood fuel products that are distributed into domestic and trade markets. BSW Energy are Woodsure accredited by HETAS, which means their fuels are certified to be safe, clean and efficient.


IRO Timber

IRO Timber is a unique range of internal cladding, external cladding, and decking developed by BSW Timber. The range is available in a suite of 10 different colours from charcoal black to lagoon blue. Inspired by the ancient Japanese wood preservation process of Yakisugi, IRO - which is Japanese for 'colour' - is created using an intricate process that uses the most innovative timber technology. IRO’s journey begins with one stage of kiln drying, which is followed by heat enhancement (charring), brushing, high pressure treatment (for external products), and another stage of kiln drying. There is then the application of a protective wood cream which gives IRO its unique colour and further protection. Each stage of the process contributes towards the texture, durability, and appearance of our products. In addition to being a low-maintenance but long-lasting alternative to traditional decking and cladding, IRO is UV stable and 100% HVOC-free, meaning it is child-friendly and pet-friendly. The exciting product range has featured on ITV’s Love Your Garden with Alan Titchmarsh and BBC’s DIY SOS.

Power Sheds

With headquarters in Yorkshire, the garden shed manufacturer has only been in operation since 2019 and originally started building wooden (garden) sheds. A mere three years later, the Bradford-based company won a number of industry awards, among them the title of “Start Up of the Year 2022”. Power Sheds was founded by Jack Sutcliffe and Simon Hobson with the goal of becoming the online benchmark for quality and durability by offering a product of unrivalled simplicity supported by a brand that customers can trust. Power Sheds has become one of the biggest disruptors in the industry, offering customers products that have a 25-year service life and are the most adaptable garden buildings in the world.

Scott Group

Based close to Dunfermline in Scotland, the Scott Group is an award-winning sustainable producer of new, customised and recycled wooden pallets as well as customised wood packaging solutions. The firm offers a wide range of goods and services to the industry, the public sector and manufacturing, marking a British company with the presence of a local supplier leading the market through innovation, quality and service. The Scott Group was founded in 1987 and serves an area stretching from the Shetland Islands to Devon. The company works closely with its customers to promote a circular economy, a promise that is underlined by its pallet recycling, repair and reuse service. The company also operates a sawn timber procurement division in Latvia.

binderholz Sägewerk Fort William

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