PEFC and Scottish Woodlands Score UK First

John Paterson, Wood Purchasing Manager at Egger UK said "We were delighted to take the first deliveries of privately grown PEFC round wood from Scottish Woodlands. As a result of increasing demand for PEFC certified chipboard from our customers, we required a guaranteed supply of PEFC certified round wood. Scottish Woodlands Ltd responded to our request and having obtaining PEFC Chain of Custody was in a position to deliver. We have a long established trading relationship with Scottish Woodlands Ltd and they have once again proved themselves to be responsive to market requirements."

The growth in homegrown UK sourced timber and wood products has been growing quickly since 2010 when over a million hectares of UK forests were dual certified as PEFC and FSC under the United Kingdom Woodland Assurance Standard (UKWAS). This far-reaching development includes all the Forestry Commission forests in England, Scotland and Wales and some 500 privately-owned forest estates, including a number in Northern Ireland, managed through both the Scottish Woodlands and UPM Tilhill forest group certification schemes.

The amount of domestic PEFC certified timber is thriving and becoming more plentiful and more popular. Scottish Woodlands is at the centre of this boom: the company has grown and developed significantly in the last two decades to become a major player in the British forestry and timber industry, delivering over 750,000 tonnes of timber per annum into UK sawmillers, and planting in excess of 25% of the private sector's new woodland expansion. Its annual sales in 2010 exceeded £46 million.

Rob Shaw, SEQ Director for Scottish Woodlands commented "we are delighted to be able to deliver UK domestically produced timber from one of our client's woodlands which we are managing to the UKWAS Standard. Our dual certified status has allowed us to fulfil this order so that the finished products can bear the PEFC label. We look forward to supplying more PEFC certified timber in the future."