Pontrilas Sawmills – a crucial player in the timber supply chain
Pontrilas is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for Welsh-grown timber in construction and could be instrumental in supporting Wales’s first Timber Industrial Strategy
Author: Woodknowledge Wales
This case study was authored as part of the Home-grown Homes project and was funded by Welsh Government
Summary
Pontrilas Sawmills, the largest independent sawmills in England and Wales, plays a vital role in the UK timber supply chain. With its cutting-edge technology and commitment to sustainability, the sawmill efficiently processes a wide range of timber products, including construction-grade materials, supporting local industries, carbon sequestration, and economic growth. As a key player, Pontrilas is well-positioned to meet the growing demand for Welsh-grown timber in construction, contributing to both the local economy and the country’s climate goals, and could be instrumental in supporting the implementation of Wales’s first Timber Industrial Strategy.
Background
Bought by the Hickman family in 1947 and located between Abergavenny and Hereford on the England Wales border, Pontrilas Sawmills is part of the Pontrilas Group which also includes Pontrilas Packaging, based near Llanelli and Pontrilas Merchants, a builders’ merchant based close to the sawmills. In 2023 the Group purchased Rainbridge Timber, a packaging firm in Alfreton, Derbyshire. It employs over 450 people at its four sites and over a third of them live in Wales.
Sawmill products include strength graded construction timber, sawn timber for flooring and furniture, fencing, and pallets. Construction timber is principally milled from Sitka spruce and Douglas fir. Oak beams are also milled for a range of purposes including specialist heritage products such as, canal gates. The sawmills produce co-products such as wood chip and saw dust which are used to form medium density fibreboard (MDF) as well as chip board for construction, with bark going for horticultural use. Further to this, biomass boilers use co-products to heat the timber drying kilns, offices and parts of the mill. No part of the log is wasted!
The softwood sawmill processes approximately 385,000 tonnes of sawlogs a year, sourced mainly from Wales, the English borders and the West Country (and often as far away as Scotland). By comparison, the hardwood/large-size softwood sawmill processes approximately 35,000 tonnes a year. The Group employs buyers who source the sawlogs for the mills in parcels of between 250 and 30,000 tonnes and between 65 and 80 articulated lorry loads arrive for processing every day. The main softwood saw line can process the same quantity of timber in one hour as the hardwood saw line does in one day.
Pontrilas Sawmills, along with other large-scale sawmills, are crucial players in the timber supply chain. There is a huge opportunity to use Welsh homegrown timber to build high-performance and affordable timber homes while supporting local manufacturers and suppliers.
Narrative
The sawmills in action
Hauliers transport logs to Pontrilas. The sawmill’s investment into a specialist material handler reduces log unloading times to approximately 4 minutes per truck. Logs are then sorted by length, species and diameter into stacks of same sized logs by a state-of-the-art log sorting line. This highly automated piece of machinery can turn and process approximately 16 individual logs per minute, and sort them into 20 different bins. The logs are debarked before they enter the mill, then 3D scanned and rotated before they are broken down by up to 19 saw blades. The boards from the side of the log are scanned and edged to get the maximum amount of wood from each log. After edging and trimming, these are then graded, planed, (kiln dried depending on the product/customer) and stacked, ready for delivery. Some of the timber is pressure treated, especially material used for fencing and decking.
Grading timber allows customers, timber merchants, and manufacturers to visually identify the strength, and structural properties of the product by means of a code marked on the timber. Though these systems vary internationally, higher grades of timber are generally of higher strength and more valuable. Grading helps to ensure consistency and reliability in the built environment. Home-grown timber in Wales and the UK readily meets grading requirements for use in construction projects and the built environment whilst also effectively mitigating against climate change through the embodied carbon locked up in the timber.
Productivity
It is important to maximise yield in a sawmill, in order to do this a good supply of uniform sawlogs are required. These sawlogs are best supplied from stands of conifers in sustainably managed forests. High yield class forests have faster growth rates and can support more intensive management practices such as clear-felling on rotation. Rotation lengths depend on the tree species, for example, a single species conifer forest (stand) of Sitka spruce has a short rotation length and often a high yield class making it an ideal timber for large-scale sawmills such as Pontrilas which have a high demand for sawlogs. The softwood saw line at Pontrilas maximises yield through innovative timber scanning technologies meaning a single log can be cut into up to 18 pieces whilst offering greater flexibility to meet customer requirements. This saw line utilises cutting-edge technology and has been designed to efficiently process high volumes of timber whilst producing a range of products not usually associated with high-volume saw lines. The greater the yield, the better, as this means greater volumes of higher value timber, less waste, and greater income from the sale of the timber and its co-products.land includes young conifers, shown here, which are now well established
Impact
The sawmills’ role in the timber supply chain
Continued private investment in cutting-edge technology has resulted in the sawmills becoming one of the most advanced and technically automated in the country. The sawmill plays a crucial role in the timber supply chain, efficiently processing raw materials to maximise the value of Welsh timber.
As timber processors, Pontrilas can serve as the vital link between the forest and the manufacturers, who transform the timber into general building practices including frames and panels allowing carbon to be embedded within the built environment.
Meeting the demand for construction timber
Construction grade timber is supplied to several advanced timber manufacturers across Wales, including SO (Sevenoaks) Modular (Neath) and Williams Homes (Bala). Because the timber is all UK grown and much of it is sourced from forests in Wales this means home-grown Welsh timber can be specifically selected and supplied to meet customer requirements.
The Pontrilas Group, which includes a builders’ merchants, has a strong understanding of the challenges and needs of the wider general building and timber sector. In response, they have worked to be flexible and responsive to the requirements of Wales’s timber manufacturers. Woodknowledge Wales has facilitated connections between the Pontrilas Group and key stakeholders, including housing associations such as Tai Tarian and Pobl, as well as local authorities and other industry members. These engagements have included site visits to the sawmills, allowing participants to gain a first-hand understanding of operations and explore opportunities for collaboration.
Several timber manufacturers have worked closely with the sawmill to secure high-quality, locally sourced products tailored to their specifications in terms of size, profile, and grade. While home-grown timber can present certain challenges, such as a higher tendency to twist, ongoing dialogue and process refinements are helping to mitigate these issues.
Local authority, Powys County Council, adopted a Wood Encouragement Policy in 2017 (renewed in 2023) [insert hyper link to policy page], with the mission to build better, more energy efficient houses, support the local forest industry and to create jobs. The policy sets out that all new council housing projects will look to use wood as the preferred material for both construction and fit-out purposes.
The Pontrilas Group has demonstrated its ability to supply timber sourced from Welsh forests and tracked through the sawmill process for housing associations and local authorities committed to using Welsh-grown timber in construction. This supports local supply chains, carbon sequestration, and economic growth.
Home-grown timber supply
The Welsh Government is responsible for 40% of Wales’s forests in the Welsh Government Woodland Estate (WGWE). According to Natural Resources Wales’s (NRW) Timber Sales and Marketing Plan (2021-2026), the WGWE is projected to supply between 735, 000 to 835,000 m3 of timber each year, within that period, directly supporting thousands of jobs and contributing to the Welsh economy. NRW is the largest land manager and the largest supplier of certified timber in Wales. Ensuring the projected volumes are met will ensure more of this timber is processed into construction products which will in turn capture more value in the supply chain. This will also mean that more of the carbon stored by growing trees is stored in the built environment rather than being used in short-life products or burned. Supporting higher-value use of this resource will ensure a greater contribution to Wales’s climate change goals, and the decarbonisation of our built environment. The Pontrilas Group is interested in supporting these outcomes and being involved in a scheme to source logs from the WGWE which could be used for processing as construction material for use in Welsh construction projects.
The future
Large-scale sawmills, such as Pontrilas, play a pivotal role in advancing the Timber Industrial Strategy for Wales. Their investments in cutting-edge technologies increase efficiency through enhanced sorting, grading, cutting, and processing capabilities. These investments not only support the sustainable use of Wales’s and the UK’s timber resources but also foster job creation, stimulate economic growth, and ensure high standards of quality control and product standardisation. Furthermore, their integration with the wider timber supply chain ensures cost efficiency and supports the production of a diverse range of products.
As the use of Welsh-grown timber in Welsh homes to meet housing demands becomes more of a priority, it is essential that stakeholders across the timber value chain adopt a hierarchy of usage that prioritises construction timber and steers away from short-lived timber products. A concerted effort to boost not only Welsh but British timber use in construction will support local industries and also enhance the environmental and economic benefits of timber as a sustainable building material. An increased requirement for timber usage will need to be supported by increased timber production from home-grown sources.
