Following the cancellation of APF 2020, Fuelwood opted to host a demonstration week at its refurbished site in Warwick in September and at the Fuelwood Scotland site near Edinburgh in early October. Hilary Burke reports on how the events went.
AN opportunity to see kindling, firewood and related commercial machinery operating in an as-near-as-possible working environment – and an especially rare opportunity, in this COVID era – Fuelwood’s demonstration week was held at its newly refurbished site in Warwick from Monday 21st to Saturday 26th September.
By spreading the event over a full working week with prior registration of visitors, footfall at the Warwickshire-based forestry and firewood machinery concern’s headquarters was kept well within the bounds of the UK government’s coronavirus guidelines. Machinery demonstrations were still able to produce saleable produce from Fuelwood’s own round timber supplies and all the products could be stored at the Beausale yard. Just as importantly, Fuelwood’s own fabrication teams were able to continue unhindered with the production of the company’s own British-built products.
The Australian Lucas Mill was in action and Richard Slatem was at the controls. He had an order to supply boards for decking for one of his local neighbours.
“I love this machine,” Richard said. “It is so easy and rewarding to work.” The swing blade, he admitted, takes a wider kerf than a narrow bandsaw blade, but its perfect accuracy and the operator’s direct control of the cutting can reduce waste to a minimum.
Richard starts his cuts at the smaller end of the log and has his logs delivered to the mill accordingly. A quick glance at the blade lowered for the next cut informs him of the dimension of lumber he can obtain from the edge of the log. On uniform timber he can be confident that the blade will run true to the far end and produce a high-quality saleable board.
An added bonus for Richard was the fact that the timber he was milling was a 4 m log of Scots pine from his own woodland. 30 acres of established woodland was purchased three decades ago and subsequent thinning operations – while favouring hardwoods – have resulted in some impressive softwood production. The growth of the Douglas firs has been particularly encouraging.
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When lockdown loomed earlier this year, Jeremy Slatem, who now runs Fuelwood, needed to quickly formulate a contingency business plan. Initially paring the Fuelwood team down to a core of five – with three working from home – commitments could be fulfilled to both suppliers and customers.
Although the regular round of forestry and agricultural events was cancelled or postponed, Jeremy still spent plenty of time out on the road – at the wheel of Fuelwood’s Mercedes-Benz Arocs road haulage unit with the low-loading semi-trailer in tow. Visits to Europe to bring back new machinery for stock and customer orders were one part of the ‘new normal’; delivering imported and Warwickshire-built forestry and firewood plant to Fuelwood’s loyal dealers in the British Isles was another.
Nevertheless, orders emanating from sales manager Ben Billing’s home-based computer showed no signs of diminishing. Jeremy and his wife Bonnie were able to co-ordinate Ben’s sales, the workload of service manager Peter Lucas and the sourcing of essential parts remotely from the Fuelwood office. A heavy investment in the service-side infrastructure has transformed the offering the company can make in terms of customer support. Valtra and Fendt tractors have extended the machinery pool available to assist the growing number of large-scale producers that rely on Fuelwood’s wide range of products.
As the dust appeared to settle after the initial turbulence, production manager Peter Slatem was tasked with bringing the fabrication side of the business back into operation.
“After an initial lull we were able to bring back our engineers to fulfil the large number of orders taken since the start of the lockdown period,” said Peter. The working practices had to be modified to comply with COVID-19 guidelines, and social interaction between personnel was limited to a minimum. “WhatsApp kept the whole of the team fully informed of the upbeat nature of the demands,” Peter added. “It really did boost the morale of the whole business.”
Peter is able to report that the Splitta 400 has been particularly well received by contractors, and its ability to process larger and longer rings into consistently uniform firewood, he has been told, increases customer satisfaction. The contractor can vary the size of the logs produced and it can even be used for kindling production. Its high production rate – up to 12 cubic metres an hour in ideal circumstances – has made it a very attractive proposition to many firewood producers. Global sales of kindling machines have also continued apace. Demand from fuel producers in New Zealand and Australia remains particularly strong.
A new arrival was booked in to feature at Fuelwood’s Warwickshire event. German producer Heizomat has recently seen increased demand for one of its latest developments, the HeizoTruck. The Mercedes-Benz Arocs 2051 has been designed as a long-wheelbase 4x4 version for use in agriculture and forestry. The first of the Heizotrucks ordered in the UK is the forestry version, equipped with a Palfinger Epsilon M70F loader for chipper feeding.
Fuelwood’s partners in Scotland, Treeline Woodlands, hosted a couple of demonstration days following the English dates. The business was founded by Gavin Marshall almost three decades ago as a farm diversification project on the family holding in the Pentland Hills. Concentrating at first on woodland establishment, the venture expanded into timber harvesting and firewood sales.
The arrival of Gavin’s son Nick, a qualified engineer, into Treeline Woodlands, provided a new vigour to the concern. Nick’s interest in machinery supply has stimulated development of all aspects of the business and ensured it was in an extremely healthy position when lockdown kicked in. Orders for firewood rocketed and there was no shortage of enquiries from forestry contractors interested in upgrading their equipment.
The fencing and decking sector saw a massive upsurge in demand as Scots in the Central Belt invested time and money in improving their gardens as well as their homes. The demand was so great that Nick’s brother Keith was drafted in to take charge of that burgeoning aspect of the business.
For firewood production, Treeline Woodlands runs Fuelwood’s own Transaw 350XLS, Fuel Factory (Wood Cutta/Splitta 400 combination) and Kindlet machines. They are always available for demonstrations in the working environment where prospective customers can truly gauge their potential productivity. Jeremy Slatem had driven north with the low-loader to ensure that Treeline’s machines were complemented with a comprehensive selection of Fuelwood’s imported and domestically produced ranges.
Earlier, at the Warwickshire event, Danny Shepard (technical sales) had explained that customers’ waiting time for machinery would not be extended. The team at Fuelwood had agreed that stock levels would need to be increased to ensure the supply would meet demand – even in the event of imports suffering delays at the turn of the year.
Jeremy Slatem was a little more circumspect: “I just don’t know where the year has gone! I can’t make long-term predictions. I cannot play the pound/euro game. The books say we are doing well, but I do not want to be overly optimistic on the back of the orders.”
Down in the English Midlands he is acutely aware that some sectors of the economy have been hit extremely hard, and others face a very uncertain future.
Fuelwood seems to have weathered the storm well, and another hand will soon be signed on to the crewlist. “We have 17 employees in total,” said Jeremy. “A good team with good guys coming through.
“Martin has just finished an extended apprenticeship and Tom is now in his second year. But we are still totally committed to taking on another apprentice.”
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