Royal visit and dual certification for James Jones & Sons
His Majesty King Charles III visited James Jones & Sons Aboyne sawmill in October. He first visited the sawmill in 1999 when he was Prince of Wales, and many employees are still with the company today to witness his second visit to the site. The visit commemorated the completion of the sawmill’s extensive £15million redevelopment programme that has taken place over the last five years.
The tour included the mill’s flood defence system, timber processing plant and the kilns before being introduced to several long-standing employees, apprentices and student placements. His Majesty then signed the company’s visitor book and unveiled a plaque that marked the occasion before being presented with an engraved wooden bowl.
“We were honoured to welcome His Majesty to our Aboyne site to demonstrate the extent of our recent sawmill investments and technology upgrades,” said Tom Bruce Jones, Chairman of James Jones & Sons:
“We discussed the significant benefits of productive forestry acting as carbon sinks and the merits of continuing to meet and exceed annual planting targets across the UK. We were able to showcase the environmental advantages of UK grown structural timber products to support our collective views on building future houses sustainably.”
The King thanked “marvellous” workers for processing timber from Balmoral and said “Well done everybody thank you very much for all the efforts you made. I hadn’t realised what an area you cover around the world, it depends on all the marvellous people who put so much into it.”
James Jones & Sons has also recently announced that from October 2023, all the timber and co-products they supply will be dual certified as FSC and PEFC. This includes all timber delivered from that date, regardless of the date it was produced. “Dual certification offers our customers a greater choice when buying sustainable timber,” said Sales Director Graham Blyth. “The Soil Association, as our certification body, fully approved our ability to offer all our timber and co-products as dual FSC and PEFC certified. Our customers can continue to sell their timber as FSC certified but will now also have the choice to stock and sell as PEFC certified should their customers require it.”
Welcoming the move, PEFC UK Executive
Director, John Kirkby added: “This is great news. This reinforces the strength
and confidence behind PEFC certification and helps meet the growing demand for
PEFC certified sawn timber and co-products in the domestic market. Most of the
commercial forest area in the UK has been dual FSC and PEFC certified since
2010. By selling their products with dual certification, James Jones & Sons
is now leading the way in making the UK forestry supply chain as inclusive as
possible, and offering end users a choice on which certification they want.”
