Rod Lawson, Chairman, Oregon Timber Frame Limited, commented:
“We’re very proud of what we have achieved over the last two decades, building a successful company with a fantastic workforce. Now we welcome the next chapter with Barratt who are as committed to quality as we are and have exciting plans for the future of both of our businesses.”
Barratt Developments PLC is pleased to announce the acquisition of 100% of Oregon Timber Frame Limited (‘Oregon’), one of the UK’s largest timber frame manufacturers. Oregon is one of Barratt’s key timber frame suppliers providing high quality products and excellent customer service. Following the acquisition Oregon will remain based in Selkirk, Scotland where its experienced management team will continue to lead the business, complementing the Barratt operations in Scotland. Steven Boyes, Chief Operating Officer, Barratt Developments PLC, commented: “We are delighted to announce that we have successfully acquired Oregon Timber Frame, one of the leading timber frame manufacturers in the UK”.
Oregon reported the order intake for the first half of 2019 has shown an uplift of over 60% compared to this time last year and has exceeded their sales order target for the year in just six months.
Kenny Dunkley, Joint Managing Director, commented “Our order book looks extremely healthy and despite uncertainty with Brexit it’s very much business as usual with all customers expecting a busy time for the remainder of the year. Our second manufacturing facility in Selkirk has space to expand and we are currently recruiting and training to meet our customers growing requirements”.
Last month, we asked all Oregon employees to complete our 2nd annual people engagement survey. As a Company, it’s very important to us to understand how our people are feeling about the environment they work in, the opportunities we give them and the Company itself.
Out of the 25 questions we asked, we have improved in 17 of them from this time last year.
Standing out as a huge improvement for us is how people feel about Oregon itself. We have invested a lot in training and grown the number of our employees over recent months. Confidence has grown in terms of our people feeling more secure about our Company’s future, and feeling much more positivity towards our brand and benefit’s package.
One of our other top performing areas was a recognition that people here are always looking for ways to improve the business. Whether it be Technical changes to ensure we stay at the forefront of new innovation in timber frame structure, or smaller, ad hoc changes to make the processes we undertake more streamlined and effective, we are always striving to continually improve the way we do things.
The Modern Apprenticeship Programme offers the chance to be involved in many aspects of the business and ultimately develop a long term career working for one of the UK’s largest timber frame manufacturers.
Tammy Yourston, Human Resources Manager, (above left) said “We’re incredibly proud of the apprenticeship scheme we offer and the progression that our students have made”. “Two of our first apprentices, Kyle Boyd and Connor Kelly, are key success stories recently completing the Level 2 NVQ in Timber Frame Erection in June – Kyle and Connor are the FIRST students in the whole of the UK to successfully complete this nationally recognised qualification – fantastic achievement.”
Connor also picked up “Apprentice of the Year” in his first year at South Lanarkshire College Graduation event (above right). With this experience under his belt, Connor is now actively looking to further his career and is now signed up for the Advanced Craft course at SLC”.
Oregon continue to work closely with Developing the Young Workforce – Borders and have recently welcomed Jeff Beyers from Skills Development Scotland for his Career Advisor Industry Insight Placement and Factory Tour. Robin Dodyk, Technical Director, pictured below right said “Oregon’s aim is to offer closer links between Industry and Schools/Colleges to provide the best possible blend of learning for young people and to raise awareness of what potential career opportunities are available to them locally”.
#InvestinUs is an initiative being run by Developing the Young Workforce – Borders.
Oregon Timber Frame Limited has completed a buy-out of its non-management shareholders, including the 15% stake in the business held by its largest external shareholder group, Archangel Investors (“Archangels”).
The move brings to a close a near 20 year relationship between Oregon – one of the UK’s largest independent timber frame house manufacturers – and Archangels, the Edinburgh-based business angel investment syndicate.
Oregon, which was established in 1998, specialises in the design, manufacture and erection of structural timber frame packages to volume house builders and developers. The business is trading strongly and in its most recent accounts, for 2016, reported record turnover of £21.7m and pre-tax profit of £1.9m.
From its headquarters in Selkirk in the Scottish Borders, and an additional manufacturing plant in Burton upon Trent in Staffordshire, Oregon employs 148 people and continues to benefit from strong demand from the UK house building sector for timber framed structures, due to timber’s value as a sustainable, renewable building material.
Rod Lawson, Chairman of Oregon, said:
“Archangels has been a part of Oregon since the early days of the company and we’re truly grateful for the support that they have provided to us.
“Archangels haven’t just been investors, they’ve been friends and mentors too. But the time is right for us to repay that investment and to continue the Oregon growth story with a fantastic team of people and excellent prospects as one of the UK’s largest independent timber frame manufacturers.”
David Ovens, Chief Operating Officer at Archangels, said:
“Oregon has been part of the Archangels portfolio for almost 20 years and we are thrilled to see the business performing so well and making such a strong contribution to the local economy in the Borders. Archangels is proud of the contribution we have made to Oregon’s successful journey and we look forward to seeing Oregon continue to thrive under Rod Lawson and the rest of the management team.
Many thanks to all who took the time to complete our Customer Survey. We really appreciate the feedback and the winner of the draw is Francis Cassidy from CALA homes. A prize will be on its way to you shortly.
At Oregon we pride ourselves on the service we provide to our customers. The results of the survey have told us we are doing well in many different aspects of our service.
• Just over 90% of you think we have a very high, or high, quality product
• 70% of you think we are either extremely or very flexible in changing delivery dates.
• 80% of you are satisfied with the kit erection process on site.
• 100% of you think we are great at maintaining high health and safety standards.
• Nearly 90% are satisfied with the service you have received from Oregon Timber Frame.
• In fact, our average score is 4.17 out of 5 for your overall customer service experience.
We continue to constantly try to improve the way we do things and the service that we offer. The survey has been helpful in pointing out some areas for us to focus on this year.
Although the survey is now closed, we continually welcome feedback, so please do not hesitate to pick up the phone and talk to a member of the team at any time.
With over 20 year’s timber frame experience, Kevin Thomson, design manager has led the design team for the past 2 years.
Kevin told us, `We have a mixture of home grown talent with various backgrounds which enhances our construction knowledge, and our investment into trainee roles contributes to our ongoing success. We are very proud of the long standing relationships we have with our clients which we have achieved by working closely with their design and technical teams and we look forward to establishing new relationships as our clients base grows’.
Exciting times ahead, as well as accommodating our existing client base expansion plans, we have new clients with new house types and we very much looking forward to the challenges 2018 will bring”
“Oregon Timber Frame have ‘partnered’ with the CALA East business for many years. In particular a very interconnected working relationship has grown with their design and technical staff. This has allowed us to develop and fine tune the timber frame elements of our home, making small but significant improvements to the final built product. We find that this approach of working hand-in-hand is a great benefit in tapping into the wealth of knowledge and resource of the Oregon design team. The quality and speed of service they provide has steadily evolved as they have grown in knowledge of our particular demands and needs, to a point where they are now an integral, very successful part of the procurement process, delivering the necessary design information to be shared with other parties in a timely manner”. Phil McCulloch, CALA Homes
At Oregon we pride ourselves on the service we provide to our customers. We are constantly talking to our customers to understand their needs. However, this year we have also decided to launch an on-line customer satisfaction survey.
We will be asking questions about a variety of topics such as:
It is really important to us to get some valuable feedback about how satisfied our customers are, so that we can understand not only what you think we are doing well in, but also whether there are any areas which we need to address in order to improve further.
We are using Survey Monkey which means that you can enter your responses on-line, and completely anonymously. The survey is open from now until Friday 1st December.
If you are a site manager or contracts manager and have utilised Oregon for your timber frame construction needs, please make your opinions known at:
https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Oregoncustomersurvey