home · about · news · blogs · resources · partners · contact
Tim is Carpenter Oak & Woodland’s managing director. Tim has extensive experience of managing companies of all sizes, in many business sectors, including construction and building. Tim’s no-nonsense hands-on approach, coupled with his outstanding management experience and commercial acumen, make him the ideal complement to the craft-based skills of the rest of the team.
|
I’ve just been reminded that I haven’t written any blogs recently – so here goes.
Just before Christmas I was expressing my concerns over the state of the economy and our industry in particular. 2009 has indeed heralded a lot of turmoil and uncertainty, and I guess to a large extent many of us are still watching and waiting to see how things will pan out. (For what it’s worth I’m still convinced that things will get very much worse, and that we still seem to be very much in denial. And surely I can’t be the only one thinking that having got into this mess by huge swathes of the population borrowing more than they could afford, the obvious solution is to encourage us all to borrow more????? Are they serious????).
Allegorically, the flow of CV’s into us demonstrates just how hard people are finding things, and a lack of work is being widely reported. But this is where we can afford ourselves a wry if tentative smile. We have never been busier! Our Scottish yard is nearing full capacity for the year, and the English yards have fuller order books than I can ever remember. In addition, we are only choosing to price one tenth of the timber engineering enquiries that come into us.
So are we exempt from the problems? Well obviously not, but what we are seeing is that the construction slump is providing opportunities to many (lower contractors prices, increased availability of land etc), and that we are being trusted as a known and reputable safe pair of hands. Having expected these problems, we were able to build cash reserves, and these are now standing us in good stead and allowing us to continue in our quality and training programmes – one of the key factors that differentiates us from others. It also gives us the stability that provides the safe home for our customer’s cherished projects.
In a year’s time where will any of us be? I’ve honestly no idea, but for now the future, against all odds, looks surprisingly bright. In the meantime our greatest defence is to continue to strive to be the best that there is. There can be no better qualification for survival…
Copyright © 1993–2010 Carpenter Oak & Woodland Limited · site map · legal notices · accessibility |