Harvesting and roundwood purchasing

Our mills need approximately 1,000,000 tonnes of roundwood timber each year to meet our sawmill production requirements. This is purchased from a mixture of private and state sector forests in Scotland and the North of England.

We also handle an additional 350,000 tonnes of roundwood on behalf of third parties. This makes us one of the largest timber harvesting companies in the UK and the only major sawmilling company in Scotland to operate its own harvesting programme. 

James Jones & Sons harvesting operations are FSC and ISO 14001 certified, underscoring our commitment to our customers and the environment. 

Roundwood timber is purchased through three buying arrangements: 

• Standing: James Jones will offer to purchase timber standing directly from the grower or his/her agent. Timber will be harvested on the grower’s behalf with payment on a lump sum, fixed outturn or category basis according to the contract arrangement for the operation
• Roadside: James Jones will purchase roundwood timber at roadside subject to agreement on price and specification for individual timber products which will be uplifted for delivery to the company’s sawmills or other markets as agreed
• Delivered: James Jones will purchase millwood, palletwood and fencing timbers within the various sawmill roundwood specifications, through short/medium and long term supply and price arrangements

Timber harvesting, haulage and roundwood purchasing is managed through James Jones and Sons Harvesting Division from the Group’s head office and our five mill sites in Scotland.

Safety is at the forefront of everything we do and we are a founder member of the Forest Industry Safety Accord, which is working towards making forestry a safer industry in which to work.

You can see a video about the work being undertaken to improve industry safety standards here