This year we are witnessing a completely unprecedented demand for horse bedding across the UK and Europe, putting extreme pressure on retailers and on manufacturers of purpose made bedding like Bedmax.
The rise in demand has been compounded by a perfect storm of problems and restrictions in supply, including a major increase in demand for timber, a significant decrease in by-product shavings from wood-based industries, and an almost complete diversion of wood pellets from Europe into domestic biomass energy markets.
Bedmax has been partially protected from problems with raw material supplies because we forward-buy all the timber we use to make our shavings from renewable UK forestry. Over the past year we have also achieved an almost 10% improvement in our efficiency at all three of our shavings production plants and built up significant stocks of Bedmax and Littlemax shavings.
At the same time, we have established our first facility producing Strawmax straw pellets in Northumberland, and recently commissioned a second plant in Hampshire which will increase our Strawmax production capacity by over 130% this winter.
All our production plants in Northumberland, Nottinghamshire, and Hampshire are working at record levels of efficiency and productivity, and all our teams are working tirelessly to keep our customers supplied. In the face of an extraordinary level of new demand, we are dedicated to prioritising our commitment to existing customers, and assure them of at least the same supply of our products as they received last year. We hope this will suffice as we continue to slowly build on our production and look forward to more normal times.
