Case Studies

Industry standard certification funded by NBSL helped Quay Timber to win new contracts and increase turnover. This is their story.

Quay Timber – founded in 1998, is an independent timber company selling to trade and the public.

Business Need

The company was planning to expand. Attainment of the Forestry Services Commission's (FSC) environmental quality standard was a vital focus of the plan as it would demonstrate their strong commitment to the ecological standards in the timber industry. In return this would help Quay Timber expand their sustainable product range leading to an increase in their customer base.

Solutions

Attainment of any Quality Standard necessitates a hugely detailed audit process. Invariably, smaller companies do not have their own in-house expertise and should seek external specialist advice; otherwise it could prove a long, costly but unsuccessful journey.

Quay Timber was successful in their application to NBSL for part-funding the costs of this specialist advice through the ERDF programme known locally as North East Business Support Fund. Quay Timber short-listed a number of specialists and chose one that they felt they could work well with. The specialist helped them review and change (where necessary) their processes, their documents, accuracy and consistency throughout all areas of the business, until they were confident and happy to invite inspection.

Impact

Quay Timber attained FSC accreditation and are winning contracts on the back of the FCS quality kite. Despite the recession, Quay Timber has been able to grow and develop and is currently flourishing. Its motivated staff now work in shifts to cover the newly extended opening hours of 7:30 am – 7:00 pm, have frequent staff meetings and continue (with advice from their experienced business consultant) to improve their strong and customer focused team-work – another key to their success!! Increase in turnover will allow the company to ultimately increase their staff numbers.