A good client of ours just emailed me in response to a quotation, “Wow, that sounds expensive for smallish boards. It sounds like a wide board price”.
As a China-based high-end producer we are really up against it. We are a lot cheaper than our European competitors like-for-like, but we are far more expensive than our Chinese competitors. That is because in China we are not up against like-for-like. Here is a story to illustrate the point.
A Chinese friend, let’s call him Mr Z, asked us to process some Oak into panels for him. The material supplied was supposed to be AB and we undertook to machine and assemble the panels for a production fee.
The material turned out to be rubbish. The obvious colour variation was the least of the problems. Knots and cracks that shouldn’t exist in AB grade had to be repaired, there was yellow doze (mould), lots of internal cracking and generally just a lot of ugly wood. And the MC was all over the place, and from the cracking it was obvious that it had not been dried properly.
The thing is that this wood is cheap. Unfortunately for him, Mr Z’s customer came to our factory with him to see the product. The customer rejected it. He also told my manager that he was very surprised to see Ecquality produce such a low-grade product, grading it as AB. “Mr Terry has been in China too long”, he commented to my manager. I just walked into the factory from the rear as they drove off, so I don’t know who the buyer was, but he knew me. I am the only foreign wood factory owner around here. This sort of thing could be really bad for our reputation. Luckily my manager quickly pointed out that we were just doing toll production for Mr Z, and that the wood had nothing to do with us. He explained that we already told Mr Z that this was well below grade, and that we had called Mr Z and asked him to come to take a good look.
Low grade Oak. (Colour variation was the least of its problems.)
I guess that, to the untrained eye, our product below does not look a lot different, and that is especially true when coated. But our material is properly seasoned and kiln dried in Western Europe and has no cracking, rot or mould. The colour is also more even. Our raw material costs twice as much as the Oak bought in the Chinese market. The difference is that the Chinese buy logs and then saw and dry in China. The wood is not seasoned at all, it is goes straight into the kiln. Furthermore, they do not follow strict kiln schedules, they simply dry down as quickly as they dare to about 12% and shut off the kiln. There is no waiting until everything gets to about 7-8% and then reconditioning to 10%, which stabilises the wood and makes sure everything is within the desired moisture content range. The wood bought cheaply in this market is unstable and, as a result of the drying process, the colour is not very nice.
Out competitors here may laugh at us, but I think the fact that the visitor knew our grade and was so surprised at the grade of this material, shows that we do have a reputation. It takes years to build a reputation and it is very difficult to do here, but we have clients, mostly foreign, who do understand, and that is why we keep swimming against the tide. As we build a loyal customer base I think that our position will get stronger even in tough times. I hope so anyway.
I don’t like to post negative stories, and this is not posted as a criticism of other companies, it is more a rumination about our predicament in a market where price is everything. We take pride in our quality. The main takeaway here is that in timber products, as with so many things, quality begins with the material. As my grandmother used to say; “You can’t make a silk purse from a sow’s left ear”.
