BSW Timber Group (BSW Timber) which has belonged to the Binderholz group since the start of this year, recently took over the pallet manufacturer Scott Group. According to a release published by BSW Timber on 5 December, CEO Tony Hackney and CFO Alan Milne are joining the Scott Group’s board of directors, of which Norman Scott, James Bishop, Robert MacLean, and Tracy Trotter are still members.
Scott Group, founded in 1987, is represented at 32 facilities geared to producing and repairing pallets in the UK. The group also operates a buying office for sawnwood in Latvia. The takeover raises the number of BSW Timber’s employees by 1,300 to 3,000 and increases sales revenue by £250m to around £900m. The Binderholz group’s sales revenue rises to almost €2.8bn.
According to Hackney, BSW Timber has only been using around 70% of its production capacity for several months due to the slack demand for sawnwood. Sawmills’ stocks of softwood lumber have continued to grow, nonetheless. Under these circumstances, production at the Boat of Garten facility, geared to an annual capacity of 56,000 m³ of sawn softwood, was discontinued on 30 September. The works’ closure affected 40 employees. Jobs were also cut at the Carlisle sawmill and at the Melton facility of the value-adding and sales division BSW Timber Solutions Ltd. of Stoke-on-Trent.
