On a recent trip to SCA’s facilities in Sweden, a group of customers from Huws Gray and Buildbase were given the opportunity to observe thye company's full supply chain. The aim of the trip was to give SCA's customers a unique insight into where the products they sell are produced.

Present on the trip was BMF Young Achiever Award winner, George Palmer from Buildbase. The award, sponsored by SCA, aims to recognise and reward talent, commitment, innovation and achievement among merchants and their suppliers. SCA sponsors this award each year, with the prize being a trip to its Swedish facilities.

Participants were shown around SCA’s Bogrundet tree nursery where SCA grows around 100m saplings each year to replace the trees they harvest – a number that would cover just over 50,000 hectares or an area as large as 100,000 football pitches.

The group also visited SCA’s privately-owned forests where whitewood and redwood trees are grown and harvested. They were then shown how timber is sorted, graded and sawn at SCA’s Bollsta Mill. A visit to SCA’s Tunadal Mill showed how sawn timber is then planed to produce the finished goods, which are then sent out to merchants in Sweden.

Dafydd Williams, a buyer at Huws Gray, said: “The trip gave us a fantastic opportunity to learn more about where our timber comes from. Seeing the complete supply chain and processing involved before we obtain our timber will hopefully better our ability to effectively sell timber products.”