Gill & Robinson’s traditional supply base has always been Sweden, Finland and Norway and up to the 1980’s these were our only sources of supply. As new markets opened up we decided to investigate their potential for our customers. This required extensive market research and although this was time consuming, we were always cautious not to neglect our core Nordic sources of supply. In the late 1980’s we developed a very successful partner in Eastern Canada which lasted until the plant health problem of the early 1990’s. At that time the Baltic States were opening up and after diligent research we are now dealing with the major reliable Shippers from Latvia and Estonia. Germany is now a serious supplier to the UK market, not only for the traditional large sections and scaffold boards but increasingly for kiln dried and graded carcassing mainly in long lengths. Russia has for many decades been a valued supplier to the UK and although the market was somewhat chaotic after the collapse of Exportles, new channels have emerged and we have formed a partnership with one of the leading Russian exporters in order to offer the landed stock facility required by our customers. To complete our portfolio, we source timber from Chile, Ireland and Portugal.  We are also agents for manufacturers of lamminated boards in Holland and Sweden.  Recently we have started to sell good volumes from some of the leading UK mills.  2009 was a difficult trading period and our Swedish terminal operation proved a great benefit to our buyers.

At the time of our Centenary in 1989, Canada was an emerging market with huge potential but now its export to the UK is almost zero. Sources of supply come and go for a number of different reasons but we at Gill & Robinson will always investigate their potential for the benefit of our customers.