It’s Spring Already And Members’ Day Is Approaching Fast

Roy Wakeman OBE, BWF President and Chairman of Performance Timber Products (PTP) Group

Members’ Day is on 24th May this year, put it in your diary now and get yourself booked! I'm also pleased to thank Vetrotech, who are kindly sponsoring the day.

We are pleased to back again at the Loughborough University Campus, Holywell Park, which has proven to be a really successful venue.

This year you will find the agenda both invigorating and dynamic – is designed to help all our members, small or large, deal with the important issues of the day.

Our keynote speech this year will concentrate on the timber and timber products in the built environment. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the joinery bubble, but it’s the architects and specifiers that will drive demand for our products in the future, so it’s important we understand what our customers will be asking for. We’re just in the process of confirming a speaker from an architects practice that has specialised in wood and timber projects to give their view on the future. 

We have included lots of interesting workshops on different topics, which will no doubt benefit you and help grow your business revenues and profits; after all, that is what we are in business for!

In particular, this year will see us deal with the detail in the Green Deal and highlight for you the many opportunities for you to sell your products into the general home improvement market.

There will be useful sessions covering the various disciplines required in your businesses every day from sales and marketing, legislation issues, the technical agenda, and of course, efficiency in the workshop.

We will also be holding BWF Question Time, where members can pose questions to the panel of experts. Judging from last year, this should be an interesting, if not controversial, debate!

Our organisation has coped well in the past twelve months, helping our members deal with an on-going difficult environment for business activity whilst also seeing a change in the senior management.

Richard Lambert left to take up a new post at the British Landlords Association and we were pleased to welcome Iain Mcilwee to the post of Chief Executive. Iain hit the ground running and has added considerable momentum and action to the organisation – we are delighted to see his progress. I am also grateful for the efforts of the BWF staff who filled in admirably in the period between appointments.

Business has still been difficult and whilst it is sad to see companies fail in the industry and we have had some of this, overall we have grown our membership and held our strong financial performance with another year of surplus to add to our reserves.

Overall, subscription revenues outstripped the fall in market activity and we have introduced new recruitment initiatives to help our recruiters get more leads and help the conversion into members.

The undoubted success of our accreditation schemes, and the recognition that they have achieved in the market, has led to some interesting debates as to their long-term objectives and purpose. We need to remind ourselves of the birth of these and the original plans, as they still hold true today.

I have said many times that belonging to the BWF has been beneficial for my businesses and also for my own career, despite a natural lethargy from industry to mucking in for common gain.

Join in at any time because believe me you will find it worthwhile and most enjoyable.

I very much look forward to welcoming as many of you as possible on the 24th May in Loughborough, for what will be a very busy but enjoyable programme.

Members' Day will take place on 24th May at Holywell Park in Loughborough. See the Members' Day Event Page for more information and to book your place.