TEN YEARS AGO

Thursday March 21, 2013

Logs away as new Fort plant cuts its teeth

The first logs have been processed at BSW Timber’s new Fort William site, marking the completion of the latest phase of the £37 million expansion of the state-of-the-art Lochaber mill.

The investment has ensured the facility, which has a workforce of 152, is now one of the largest and most advanced sawmill sites operating anywhere in the UK.

Designed to enable an annual production of 300,000 cubic metres of sawn timber when the site becomes fully operational later this year, the expansion is a major part of BSW’s £50 million company-wide investment programme over a five-year period to 2015.

Since 2008, the Fort William site has benefited from a wide range of infrastructure and plant investment, including the introduction of 10 new MAHILD kilns and a battery of pressure treatment vessels, as well as 5MW KIV biomass kiln heating plants and a high-speed planning and grading line.

Marking the commissioning of the new mill after almost four years of development, Tony Hackney, chief executive of BSW Timber, said: “These are exciting times for BSW Timber and everyone involved in creating a sawmill of genuine world-class standing at Fort William.

“Great credit must be given to the management team at the mill who have worked tirelessly to make this happen. Strategic investments such as this are a sign of the confidence in the medium-term that BSW has in the UK market.

“We are committed to being a highly competitive manufacturer of sawn timber and associated products and are expanding our portfolio of products and capacity to better serve the demands of our customers, as well as strengthening our partnerships with our chosen key suppliers.”

Photograph: The Write Image. 2013: The only female fish farm manager in Scotland is celebrating reaching a major milestone in her career. Rosie Curtis, from Kilchoan, has clocked up 15 years with Marine Harvest Scotland. She joined the country’s largest aquaculture company as manager of the salmon farm at Loch Sunart in 1997. Rosie said: “Fish farms are wonderful places to work but it is out in the open air in all weathers and we certainly do have ‘weather’ here so it can be a very tough job! I am lucky enough to live in one of the most beautiful parts of the world. I believe that the clean clear waters of my loch produce the most delicious salmon in the world.”