Family put energy into building biomass supply chains
A Northumberland father and son are driving up demand for their respective businesses after receiving funding to help build companies in the North East’s biomass supply chain.
One North East’s Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE) BioeNErgy Assessment Panel has awarded over £60,000 in two phases to Grahame O’Kane of G T O’Kane Timber who specialises in forestry contracting in small woodlands.
The cash has created two further positions at the Rothbury-based company to date and has allowed investment in various items of forestry equipment that otherwise would not have been possible. This will allow Grahame to increase the production of both hardwood and softwood timber for woodfuel supply chains.
Meanwhile, his son Ryan, 20, of Rokwood Fuels, received £5,000 through the RDPE Micro Business Fund, allowing him to establish a firewood processing yard in Harbottle to meet local demand. Grahame’s improvements will help strengthen Ryan’s firewood business by supplying 250 to 300 tonnes annually of hardwood to be processed into firewood and sold mainly in the local area as well as across Northumberland.
Grahame, 46, has worked in the forestry sector for 26 years, setting up his own business in 1996 specialising in the region’s small woodlands. His main contract is working on woodland owned by the Duke of Northumberland.
He said: "Since taking on extra work following the first round of funding I noticed an increased demand for services to fell and process more hardwood thinnings for domestic firewood and poorer quality timber to be used for bio-mass fuel. So, I decided to invest further in my business to offer additional services and gain more work.
"The new unit will increase productivity by around 20% helping my business be more efficient and productive while opening up new markets and helping me offer different renewable products to the local community."
The biomass project is being run by Rural Development Initiatives Ltd, via Northwoods. Project Manager Will Richardson said: "This funding will have a knock-on effect not just for the applicant but for other local firewood supply hubs in the area – including his son - strengthening this important sector in the region."
The use of biomass – solid plant or animal material – to generate heat and electricity is recognised by the Government as a technology which can deliver immediate carbon and cost savings for homes and businesses. The biomass sector is small but growing in North East England, with the potential to be contributing more than £75m a year to the regional economy by 2015.
However, farms and forestry businesses in the region wanting to expand into biomass are often small or micro enterprises, with limited resources to invest in the training and equipment needed.
This project is investing in facilities and systems for harvesting, processing, storage and distribution; work on biomass fuels such as those from forestry, forestry and timber co-products, and short rotation coppice; training for staff; and work to help more businesses meet industry quality standards.
It is part of the North East’s investment from the Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE), which is jointly funded by the European Union and Defra and managed in the region by One North East, Natural England and the Forestry Commission.
One North East’s RDPE Manager Adrian Sherwood said: "This essential funding is helping to develop and strengthen infrastructure within biomass supply chains in the North East. This is a great example of how proactive people like the O’Kane’s can benefit from RDPE funding to develop their own businesses and offer additional forestry contracting services in the region while also offering an alternative to fossil fuels which will contribute to a reduction in CO2 emissions and therefore help reach climate change targets.
"We need to continue working with rural businesses to ensure they have access to finance to enable them to grow and in turn help the region continue to strive towards Government targets."
Businesses wanting more information on the RDPE biomass project can contact Jill Platten at RDI Northwoods on 01670 790444 or by emailing jill.platten@northwoods.org.uk
The RDPE investment being managed by One North East combines larger projects to help many businesses in different sectors of the rural economy - including bioenergy and land-based skills, and projects adding value to agricultural and forestry products - with smaller investments to help individual businesses to start-up, grow or diversify, and support to develop more sustainable rural communities.
RDPE is part of Solutions for Business, the Government’s package of publicly funded support products offering help to companies to start, grow and succeed. Solutions for Business makes it easier for companies to get the advice and assistance that they need.
