An Irish adventure

Irish arboriculture has been enjoying something of a renaissance in recent years. Although tree work has always been carried out - the country has a long-established forestry industry after all - dedicated arborists have been somewhat thin on the ground. With more new entrants coming into arboriculture, opportunities have been created in both the provision of goods and services to the arborist and the delivery of training and assessment. In parallel to these new opportunities established companies have consolidated their position and opened up new and diversified markets for themselves. Euroarb visited three such companies in late May, two were in the North and the third in the South and whilst there was much in common it is apparent that two different systems operate almost in tandem.

Des Wightman has been trading at Ballynahinch, County Down for more than16 years. The business was born from Des’s youthful tinkering with small engines and agricultural plant. It wasn’t long before he was being asked to carry out repairs and it quickly became his full time occupation. As well as repairing machinery, the business quickly began to supply equipment too. Initially the stock carried was of general garden machinery, mowers, lawn vacuums etc, with chainsaws and brush cutters making up only a small proportion of the turnover. Gradually this proportion increased. More and more companies and individuals were moving into the arboricultural sector and were looking to source equipment from one outlet, taking advantage of the ‘economies of scale’.

Des could see that his existing customers - and many potential new ones - would enjoy the facility to examine a range of kit in one location. In order to deliver this range the business needed to grow whilst not ignoring the established customer base in the garden machinery sector. It was recognised that the Internet could be a useful tool in establishing a distinct identity for the arboricultural supplies element of the business, and as a result ARBIreland was created. This is operated from within the overall business as a separate profit centre. Des acknowledges the assistance of financial planning in making the business grow and having seen an increase in turnover of over 100% in the last two years, this has been vital in the areas of cost and credit control.

The ARBIreland website shows the full range of machinery and equipment available, but does not at present support online purchasing. However this will shortly be incorporated. ARBIreland has a database of more that 1200 clients and it hoped that this could be incorporated into a full web based sales suite in the near future. The web is also seen as an important tool in promoting the new ranges that are planned to be introduced in the near future. These include woodchippers and cut and collect mower systems that are aimed squarely at the Local Authority and professional landscaper markets.
One surprise was the lack of formal training available to entrants to arboriculture at all levels in both the contracting and repair and maintenance of equipment. Whilst private trainers do operate there were apparently no college-based courses available, either specifically in tree work or in horticultural engineering. This is surprising as Ireland as a whole has traditionally been a country with a huge agricultural base. It must be presumed that much of the education and training has its roots in agriculture, but a number of comments were made concerning the lack of tailored courses for tree-workers. It appears that if you wish to take up full time education in the arboricultural sector you need to cross the water.

Just a few miles away in the village of Ballytrim is an old customer of Des Wightman who started his business at about the same time. CCTM Ltd was established at Ballytrim, Killyleagh in 1982 by Clarke Cunningham as a small two-man tree care team. Now a major employer within the arboricultural industry, operating throughout Northern Ireland on a daily basis, the business is an object lesson in diversity and forward thinking.

As one of Ireland’s premier Tree Care companies, CCTM Ltd. offers the commercial and business sector a full range of Arboricultural services to service their tree care requirements, making a point of utilising the latest methods and techniques available.

All works are carried out by fully qualified and equipped arborists, who whilst working for the client are fully covered by £10m Employers and Public Liability Insurance.

In the course of working with the major utilities, i.e., N.I.E., B.T., and D.R.D. Roads Service, CCTM have found they have on occasions needed specialist equipment, which at the time was not readily available. The tracked chipper shown in the photograph is a good example of necessity being the mother of invention. Now with an extensive fleet of specialist vehicles and equipment, CCTM Ltd. is able to deal with timber and branch debris produced from arboricultural work. The company carries out its business in an environmentally sensitive manner, ensuring a clean and tidy site at the conclusion of operations.

As well as contracting the company offers a complete range of arboricultural consultancy services. All consultancy work is carried out by fully qualified and experienced personnel and is covered by £1million of professional indemnity insurance. In order to maintain trees in a sustainable and healthy manner the impact of the surrounding environment on the trees must be evaluated. This includes tree inspections, both ground and aerial, tree surveys, hazard identification and maintenance schedules. CCTM also offer a woodland management planning service.

Ballytrim Sawmill operates as a subsidiary of CCTM Ltd., and is one of the few small sawmills operating in Ireland, specialising in accommodating individual client’s requirements for species and quantity of timber. Its products include a range of kiln dried sawn timber. The business has just taken delivery of a new Bavarian Serra sawmill supplied by Marshall Engineering of East Sussex who have been their main machine suppliers for many years, since Alan Marshall sold them a Bedford lorry fitted with a crane and winch.

The sawmill boasts a large stock of all native species waiting processing and welcomes enquiries from trade, commercial and private clients alike. Some of its production is sold on whilst some is used in the onsite joinery works. Bespoke furniture is made here either to customer’s specifications or from a series of detailed plans. Customers can choose the type of wood from which their furniture will be made from a range of samples in the showroom.

The sawmill also produces firewood for domestic use and holds a large stock of composted woodchip that is sold as natural mulch.

In many ways CCTM is an example of diversification at its purest. The decision to move into saw milling came about because the use of large timber, resulting from the arboricultural contracting, for logs was seen as wasteful. The key to measuring its success was monitoring the cash flow generated by saw milling and identifying the peaks and troughs. Now all of the separate divisions of the company, although operating under the CCTM Ltd grouping have to show an individual profit.
The same could probably be said of Tree Care Ireland. Based in County Carlow. The company, run by Kevin Birchall and Chris Cassidy, began life as a training organisation offering the LANTRA Awards and NPTC suite of qualifications to the Land based sector. The business is based on the Lisnavagh Estate, and training and assessments are carried out here and at five other sites in Ireland. Southern Ireland has no body comparable to either LANTRA or the NPTC of its own and tends to use UK training and assessment modules. TCI’s success meant that it was regularly being asked where various sundry items could be sourced and after initially referring customers to UK based retailers, realised that a significant level of business was being passed on when they were ideally placed to supply the goods themselves. Once the potential was realised it was a relatively simple process to open up a retail outlet on the existing site of the training operation. In common with CCTM analysis of the profit and loss of the individual elements of the business ensure that appropriate allowances are made to counter any cash flow issues. The company recognises the advantage of using one part of the business to support another but also recognise that it should never be to the detriment of the whole.

The company recently hosted the ISA Irish Open tree climbing competition, organised by Kevin Birchall. The site is ideal for competition as well as training purposes as it has more than 250 acres of broadleaved woodland, including fully mature beech and oak with a good, open habit.

Tree Care Ireland has been working closely with the Irish equivalent of our HSE, and educational bodies such as the Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC), to put together a strategy that will encourage a higher level of qualification and skills amongst arborists in the Republic.
At present the HSA, (Health and Safety Authority), are mainly reactive, but are starting to become more proactive as they are faced with a higher level of accidents from arboricultural works. This is rising, even though there is an acknowledged culture of under reporting accidents and injuries in all sectors.

The force behind the drive to raise safety awareness and standards is actually the clients themselves. For example, the Electricity Supply Board insists that risk assessments are carried out by contractors working on its behalf, while the HSA makes not even a recommendation concerning them. This is in contrast to the North which operates as part of the UK and has to abide by the Health and Safety at Work Act, and enforces it accordingly.

This can cause confusion when you remember that the border is now totally porous and your nearest tree surgeon may actually be in another country!

It would seem likely however that the Republic will adopt a system of regulation very similar to, and based upon, that which operates in the UK.

ARBIreland 02897 563175
Clark Cunningham 02844 828210
Tree Care Ireland 00353 599161899
Marshall Engineering 01892 770788