About Deeside Woodland Products
providing confidence and control to its members since 1987
The DWP Harvesting cooperative in the north-east has been providing confidence and control to its members since 1987. The business model is clarity, openness and control with many of the members being active directors, meeting four times a year to review rates.
Timber harvesting schedules are collated to offer more attractive timber volumes to the markets and enable the coop to achieve the highest timber returns. This collation of timber provides a continuity of work for the society’s main contractors, meaning no unfamiliar faces, lower contractor costs, greater contractor working flexibility.
Control starts with assessment of the crops with the member or their forest manager, budgeting costs and incomes. DWP’s harvesting and haulage contractors purchase up-to-date machinery including harvesters equipped with GPS systems linked to the processing head - production can be monitored remotely and matched to weighbridge deliveries with weekly progress reports and felling maps being produced for the members.
In 1987 DWP sold timber to only two outlets – James Cordiners in Banchory and Caberboard. Today over ten regular customers are supplied from the cooperative each with a strong relationship having been forged over the decades.
DWP works closely as part of the management team, not as a lowest-price tenderer seeking to maximise margins at the grower’s expense.
Our Managing Agents
In July 2014 DWP Harvesting appointed the managing agents RTS Forestry, an organisation of skilled foresters with a wide range of experience who provide professional forest management and contracting services. Their involvement is reviewed quarterly at the meeting of the society’s directors.