As it is FSC Friday, “the annual celebration of
responsible forestry”, Duchy Timber thought we would celebrate by taking stock
of the best summer season this company has ever had.
Duchy Timber makes an
ongoing effort to continuously improve the sustainable sourcing of its saw-logs
and imported products. The company is registered with the FSC and the Programme
for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) programmes. As a result, Duchy
Timber sources 70% of its timber from registered sustainable woodland.
These efforts in conjunction with campaigns like Grown
in Britain ensure that local, national and international sustainability is
addressed when you purchase Duchy Timber products.
In the Westcountry it’s hard to forget how lucky we
are to live and work in such a beautiful part of the world. Cornwall and Devon
share a fantastic countryside.
Of course, it’s not so long ago that we were cursing
one of the longest, coldest and wettest winters on record, but wasn't that
glorious summer sun worth the wait? We've certainly been busy down at the
sawmill this year, supplying more customers with more products to make 2013 our
best year to date.
You may remember from earlier blog posts throughout
the winter and early spring that we were busy creating a new range of garden
furniture to complement the pieces that people already know us for. We didn't tell you the whole story... Whilst designing new garden furniture pieces for
the first time for almost a decade, we were busy with an even bigger project
that has proven to be a great success; one that has created new jobs, new
demand for home grown timber from the Southwest and has brought new customers
to Duchy Timber.
The company last made its own sheds and summerhouses around
2003 and in the intervening time between then and 2012 we sold sheds built by other
local companies. Whilst these sheds were a good value, local product, it was
decided that if Duchy Timber were to build its own sheds and summerhouses, they
would need to be amongst the best sheds and summerhouses available.
Chris Maynard, our new Marketing Coordinator was
tasked with conducting market research to see what kind of specifications and
prices are available locally and nationally and how our competitors deal with
delivery and erection. He found that there is a wide range of prices and
specifications available and that there are many solutions to the issue of
delivery and erection in a customer’s garden. A strategy was formulated, a
specification created and a launch at the Royal Cornwall Show was agreed.
We looked back through the archive and found that the old
plans had been discarded at some point in the last ten years, so the company got
to work with some CAD software and began designing the cornerstone of the new
range, the 2.4m x 1.8m apex shed and a 3.0m x 2.4m summerhouse.
Soon the Royal Cornwall Show was upon us and over 20 summerhouse
and shed orders were taken in all shapes and sizes, along with a great number
of orders for our new and existing garden furniture ranges.
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| Duchy Timber at the Royal Cornwall Show. |
Overall the show
was our most successful ever and the interest, hype and enquiries generated by
this one event has driven and extended our summer season through to the middle
of November!
We won’t be resting on our laurels either; new
products and new opportunities across the Southwest region will be coming along
during 2014. Watch this space!
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