The past winter has seen a significant increase in demand of firewood due to a number of events, the colder winter than recent years and how that many people are heating their homes more due to spending more time there and lots working from home due to the pandemic. Also the majority of suppliers in the UK and Ireland that import their firewood had such limited and unreliable supply due to problems with the container shipping lines. This showed up the problem with their sole reliance on importing their stock from Eastern Europe. A freak situation arouse that kiln dried firewood was a rare commodity! A number of these traders have started looking at local supply lines because of this along with the current increase in shipping costs. This has added further pressures to securing the already limited locally grown hardwood raw material.
So, with all the above factors in play at the same time, it was inevitable that raw material timber prices would increase. Whether it is a short-term blip or a trend is difficult to say, but historically timber prices generally follow a cycle.
A very simply way to maintain prices is to start processing cheaper less dense species like Birch or reduce drying times, problem is we would not be content. Our unique drying expertise is core because moisture content is key to efficiency and producing low emissions which will be even more important to meet air quality legalisation which is happening in GB and Daera is currently developing our Clean Air Strategy
So we have had to review our prices to continue supplying the quality of wood and levels of drying that we have become known for.
A price increase of 13% has been added to the small and large bulk bags from 1st April 2021.