Founded in 1993 by Terry Edgell, Dilwyn Howells and Nigel Williams, Premier Forest has grown to become one of the UK’s leading independent timber companies, we spoke to CEO Terry Edgell.
Premier has an extensive product range encompassing panel products, softwoods, hardwoods and fencing materials – imported or produced in bulk. “We effectively offer a one-stop-shop for all things timber related with a focus on choice, quality and added value,” says Terry. This makes us highly competitive and unlike other specialists in our market space. Our distribution infrastructure across the UK, including a large fleet of owned vehicles, gives us the capability to deliver nationally with ease and speed.”
Supply chain security
Premier has grown by acquisition in recent years and recently brought Decorpanel into the Group which seems an excellent fit for Premier Forest and adding geographic expansion into the north of England. “This simultaneously enhances our processing and machining capability and capacity to meet growing customer demand,” says Terry. “Decorpanel brings additional sheet material processing capability to our cutting and CNC facility, along with additional wholesale customers and for both organisations the benefit of increased purchasing power. Additional synergies include Decorpanel utilising Premier’s sales force of an extra 46 individuals along with access to enhanced IT and operational infrastructure.”
Processing power
Premier’s processing divisions include the processing of timber into mouldings and claddings from three sites – Merlwood (Haverfordwest), Duchy Timber (Cornwall) and Mon Timber (Newport) – while its sheet material processing operation is from two sites – Premier Processing (Newport) and Decorpanel (Tyne & Wear). Terry adds: “Value is added with the wholesale capability of taking standard materials and producing components from them, whether that’s laminating, CNC machining, profiling or edgebanding. Our timber engineering division is growing, with timber roof trusses and I-beam manufacture having doubled and our production capacity trebled in the space of just 18 months, thanks to a heavy investment in new machinery and warehousing. These value-added processes allow us to provide our customers with a fully rounded offering.”
“In the last two years we’ve seen a big shift and timber cladding becoming extremely fashionable in the construction of both domestic and industrial buildings. We felt it was a fantastic opportunity to expand our offering into a bigger, increasingly receptive marketplace. Our new in-house manufacturing facilities mean that we aren’t reliant on other suppliers to fulfil orders and have been able to streamline our process to the benefit of our customers, with investment in kilning, treatment and our moulding capacity. The choice of timber species used for cladding has also expanded – we recently added Douglas Fir to the Premier Claddings range, which is proving very popular. This is in addition to homegrown larch, homegrown cedar, Thermowood® and Shou-Sugi Ban.”
The future is looking busy for Premier Forest as it reaches its 30th year in business this year, but what does the development of the wider timber and merchant sector look like over the next 18 months? “We see the outlook for the wider timber market as very positive,” says Terry. “Timber’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and carbon locking credentials gaining traction, environmental sustainability, incredible thermal properties and pure beauty ensuring demand for the long term.
You can read the full feature in the Spring Timber Trader UK magazine
