Scottish Woodlands keeps growing

Published on Monday 16 March 2009 20:14

SCOTTISH Woodlands, the forestry management and timber harvesting business, has carved out a "solid" full-year performance including a 12 per cent rise in turnover to £45.9 million.

Accounts newly filed at Companies House reveal an operating profit of 833,000 in the year to 30 September, slightly below the 950,000 generated a year earlier.

The turnover figure for parent group SWL was also 45.9m, although profits at the operating level totalled 923,000, down from 981,000.

The Edinburgh-based group, which has about 120 employees and also has offices in England and Wales, said the figures for the year were ahead of its budget projections. It also highlighted the strength of its balance sheet, leaving it "well placed" for the current financial year "and beyond".

Finance director and company secretary Geoff Craythorne told The Scotsman: "It has been a solid year for us and we remain optimistic in the face of the credit crunch.

"Naturally there is less of an underlying demand for our raw material – wood. But there are a lot of opportunities in new woodland creation, for example. Forestry also has a nice place in the national climate change agenda."

Much of the company's income derives from cutting and selling timber to sawmills – an area likely to have been hit by the housebuilding and construction slowdown.

The firm also provides a range of forestry management services connected with all forms of woodlands, trees and rural property. Collectively, it manages more than 170,000 hectares of woodland valued at more than 500m for some 1,500 clients.

Just days ago, the SNP Scottish Government shelved a controversial leasing scheme to raise 200m for planting new forests.

Ministers were looking to create 10,000 hectares of woodland a year to absorb carbon dioxide and help meet their goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. However, proposals to lease 25 per cent of the existing publicly owned forest estate in Scotland for 75 years, to raise cash for the vast new areas of woodland, were shelved amid accusations the government was trying to privatise the forests and "sell off the family silver".

Commenting on the development, Craythorne said the ball was still in the SNP's court. "We have to wait and see what is coming next, but I'm sure something will happen," he said.

In the accounts for Scottish Woodlands, the directors said that managing the firm's pension scheme deficit remained "a priority".

The SWL accounts showed the highest-paid director received 107,848 in 2008, up from 106,165 the year before.