Comment May June 2008

Coillte must be congratulated on yet another successful year, reporting record profits. Chief Executive David Gunning must be particularly pleased with the results after his first full year in the job. Looking to the future, the Coillte Group is particularly well placed to add significantly to its profitability, as the country's largest landowner, with plenty of sites suitable for a very wide range of developments including wind farms. Of course they also have that timber asset! - with huge current value and even more substantial potential value into the future.

There is however one area that should be of concern to Coillte and that is its relationship with the contracting sector. As reported elsewhere, company top management believes there are very few disgruntled contractors. However, having talked with contractors on the ground and coupled with comments from IFCA Chairman, Christy Nolan, the quality of this relationship is questionable to say the least. In my opinion, it is very clear that some serious work needs to be done to establish a clear method of communication between the two parties, particularly at local contractor / Coillte manager level, where disputes occur. Failure to rectify this issue could ultimately lead to the loss of the company's SFM certificate, which verifies that its forests are managed sustainably.

Presently, a contractor's ability to source work in his local area appears to revolve around his relationship with local Coillte managers: if there are dialogue difficulties between the two parties, the forest manager may be able to source another contractor, but the contractor may not be able to source another employer! And I suspect that very few in the forestry sector will have attended courses in communications. Certainly I know some in the contracting sector who would speak their minds without politic reservations. Of course these poor relationships can lead to loss of that vital contract, which can have serious financial implications, not only for the contractor, but for many others: the contractors's employees, family, children, etc.   

Business Management
Separately from the Coillte contractor relationship, there is the issue of pricing. I believe that part of the new training initiative should include some basic business management course that would include setting strategy and pricing. Perhaps, Coillte, who have proven so good at generating substantial profits for themselves could assist others in the 'forestry family' by providing such a service! While some contractors have excellent skills in this area, many others will never have had the opportunity of any formal or worthwhile training or education in running capital intensive businesses, which many companies involved in timber harvesting have become.  This training, I believe, would ultimately lead to a more solid contractor base that would obviously be beneficial to the contractors themselves, in addition to the industry generally.

Coillte & the State
Coillte was established to make money for the State from its forest resource and the company is certainly fulfilling that directive with great success. But one wonders, if Coillte, which is really part of the State, has a duty of care to every citizen who works for the company, whether as a direct employee, contractor, or sub contractor. If Coillte were a private company with such considerable dominance in the market, I'm sure the State would ensure there were guidelines in place to prevent it from accidentally discriminating against any person or business. But as Coillte is really part of the State, surely this needs to apply to an even higher standard.
I should add here that Coillte has a large number of employees and similarly there are a lot of forestry contractors. I think it's fair to say that each represents an average cross section of society. As such, I don't think either 'side' is out to make life difficult for the other, as some would have one believe! The current situation appears to be the result of one large company requiring the services of a lot of smaller ones and vice versa. A new contractor / Coillte protocol should be very beneficial to both parties in terms of avoiding / resolving issues that might arise.
Finally, I think there is great potential to build a much happier forestry family, but it's going to take some compromise and new systems. Hopefully some building blocks can be put in place soon. A positive gesture from Coillte to the harvesting contractors on protest would be a really great starting point. Would you agree?