BALCAS TIMBER Ltd is one of Britain and Ireland’s largest wood product suppliers, with a turnover of circa £100 million. The group has some 380 direct employees; in addition, 300 people are engaged in forest harvesting and haulage. Balcas has two manufacturing sites at Enniskillen and Invergordon with both operating combined heat and power plants.
The company was first established in 1962 and built on the success of its sawmill at Enniskillen. The company diversified into the manufacture of wood pellets by utilising the co-products (sustainable virgin wood residues) from its sawmilling process. Balcas business is increasingly capitalising on renewable energy and it supplies more than 11 MWh of ‘green’ electricity form biomass.
In 2018 Balcas acquired the wood pellet trade and assets of the leading GB wood pellet distributor Forever Fuels Ltd., enabling Balcas to further strengthen its position as a principal supplier in the UK and Ireland wood pellet industry.
Being a large rural employer is important for Balcas, attracting talent by creating and sustaining high quality opportunities in a highly technological, truly renewable industry. We continuously strive to innovate and estimate that our aggregate investment since 2000 is £100 million. Employment has completely transformed – processes are becoming increasingly automated and staff are now more focused on managing information and measuring performance.Particularly over the past 10 years; digitisation has reinvented manufacturing operations, bearing little resemblance to the traditional sawmills of the past.
Thankfully we still need the human touch throughout our 79-acre site and are seeking additional hardworking team members as we expand our business. Balcas is a sustainable, secure, local business; operating in a global industry. Wood is at the heart of what we do. 100% of our raw material comes from managed forests in Ireland and Britain. The raw ingredients are rain, sun, soil and CO2. This makes wood the most environmentally friendly building material on the planet – its 100% renewable, and for every tree we use, more are being planted.
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