A leading North Wales timber company has invested £100,000 in a new ‘green’ business, turning by-products from its main operations into fuels.

Ruthin-based Clifford Jones Timber, which is run by a family from Wrexham, has also taken on four new staff to help run Hunter’s Fuels, the newly-formed company which aims to sell thousands of kilos of kiln-dried logs, kindling, briquettes and firelighters across the UK.

Area sales manager Josh Sambrook-Jones, from Wrexham, who has masterminded the development of the new brand, says it’s another natural step in the growth of the family business, which was founded by his great-grandfather in 1948.

Hunter’s Fuels has developed from the company’s ‘green’ ethos to make the best possible use of its by-products.

Josh, the son of Clifford Jones Timber chairman Richard Jones and the fourth generation of his family to work for the company, said: “Our main business is the supply of fencing posts.

“As we only use the highest quality timber to produce them any logs which don’t make the grade will now be turned into logs and kindling.

“Our production process also leaves us with about 44,000 tonnes of 100 per cent virgin sawdust a year and this will be converted into fuel brickettes.

“Hunter’s Fuels will have its official launch later this year and we estimate that in the first year we’ll be selling 50,000 kilos of briquettes along with 15,000 kilos of kindling and 12,000 kilos of logs.

Josh explained that Clifford Jones had made a substantial investment of £100,000 in the development of Hunter’s Fuels and had already taken on four extra people, all of them local, to work for it.

He said: “The investment has been spent on a new production facility at our Ruthin headquarters, including new log and kindling lines.

“All the logs will be kiln-dried on site because when dried in this way they burn a lot more easily and produce more heat when burnt.

“The process is much quicker than seasoning logs which can take 12 months before they are ready to burn.

“This way we can take a tree down on Monday, machine it, bag it and then have it on sale the following Monday.

“Hunter’s Fuels will be sold right across the UK, including Northern Ireland and through Hunter Wilson in Dumfries, Scotland, which is part of our group.

“We see the market as being mainly domestic but we’ll also be selling to campsites and other places such as pizzerias for use in their ovens.

“In the past, to give that smoky taste to pizzas they’ve used seasoned logs in their ovens but we’re now seeing a trend towards dried logs and briquettes such as the ones we’ll supply.

“Uses like this will mean we won’t just be selling into the traditional winter market but will be supplying customers the whole year round.”

Josh added: “As with everything we do at Clifford Jones, there’s a strong green element to our operations at Hunter’s Fuels, in terms of the logs and sawdust we’ll be using from the fencing post-production process and also our on-site kilns, which are powered by sawdust. This all makes it a completely renewable operation.

“Although we’ve yet to have our official launch, Hunter’s Fuels is already an active business. We’re putting together our client base for the winter rush and also building up our stocks.”