The business is celebrating a double milestone in our commitment to manufacturing only with wood from responsibly managed forests.
We have just had confirmation of the re-certification of 11 sites spanning England, France, Germany, Italy and Bulgaria under the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) and Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) accreditation programmes.
That means we have now been members of the schemes for ten years, providing assurance to customers over the sourcing of timber for 2,500 of our furniture products, baths, shower trays, panels and toilets seats.
The FSC and PEFC are the two world-leading independent organisations which jointly responsibly manage 505 million hectares of forests from which our products’ timber initially derives.
Certification is crucial to the business as major customers like B&Q, Screwfix and Homebase have committed to only selling accredited products.
The process is so strict that if there is any doubt cast of the origin of the timber in a particular product, we couldn’t ship it and the customer couldn’t sell a single unit until the re-inspection was completed.
Other retailers signed up to the scheme include Wickes, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, M&S, John Lewis and the Co-operative.
The FSC and PEFC schemes work by tracing the wood through every stage, from the forest to the end retailer. This is known as chain of custody.
It means timber can be traced to a precise forest area which is managed responsibly. This includes planting trees to replace those cut down, protecting ancient lands and indigenous peoples, safeguarding of animals’ natural homes and the protection of endangered species of wildlife and plants.
Quality and Environment Certifications Co-Ordinator Paul Brettell said: “Chain of custody is extremely important to the business because large customers are now demanding that we have certification, and the requirement is growing by the day.
“Our commitment confirms that we will only buy products that contain timber from responsible suppliers that source their raw materials where possible to do so from FSC and PEFC certified forests.
“It also means we have the confidence of knowing that we are working for a company that is working on reducing its impacts on the environment and ensuring that only timber from well managed forests is used it in products.”