Five Scottish sites have been shut as the collapse of National Timber Group gathers pace, pushing total job losses in Scotland to more than 200 and 500 across the United Kingdom, deepening one of the most significant setbacks to hit the UK’s timber sector in years.
The closures — in Baldovie, Coatbridge, Glasgow, Inverness, and Inverurie — follow six Scottish shutdowns announced in late November, when the company was first placed into administration. Administrators confirmed that 33 additional roles have now been made redundant across the five newly closed branches, with a further 11 jobs lost at Dumbarton, Forfar, and Grangemouth.
National Timber Group, which operated well‑known brands including Rembrand, Scotia Roofing, and Orchard Timber Products, had employed around 1,200 people across 47 sites and generated annual revenues of £350 million. But months of deteriorating trading conditions, tightening liquidity, and unsuccessful efforts to secure new investment left the business unable to continue operating as a going concern.
Administrators from Alvarez & Marsal, appointed across five NTG entities, have begun dismantling the group’s footprint, closing sites where no viable offers have emerged and negotiating the sale of others to preserve what remains of the business. They said they had received interest in individual sites but no credible offers for the company as a whole.
In a statement, the administrators said further redundancies had been unavoidable. They added that central support functions had also been reduced to reflect the organisation’s shrinking size, though they remain in negotiations to complete several site‑level transactions before Christmas that could transfer remaining employees to new owners.
The collapse has hit Scotland particularly hard.
NTG’s 25‑site Scottish network formed the backbone of the country’s timber and roofing‑materials supply chain, and its rapid contraction has raised concerns among builders, merchants, and contractors who relied on the group for just‑in‑time deliveries.
Industry leaders say NTG’s failure reflects the broader pressures facing the UK timber and building‑materials sector, where high interest rates, weak construction activity, and prolonged economic uncertainty have created the harshest trading environment in more than a decade. David Hopkins, chief executive of Timber Development UK, described conditions as “utterly brutal” for distributors and processors alike, adding that the collapse represented a significant loss for the industry and for the long‑established brands that formed the group.
Founded in Sheffield in 1920, NTG expanded aggressively from 2018 under private‑equity ownership, acquiring regional timber merchants and consolidating them into a national network. The strategy delivered scale but also left the group heavily exposed to debt, rising borrowing costs, and a sharp downturn in demand.
While some NTG facilities have been mothballed pending sale, others continue to operate under administrator control. The fate of the remaining sites will depend on the outcome of ongoing negotiations with prospective buyers, but for hundreds of workers already made redundant — and the communities that relied on NTG’s presence — the collapse marks a profound shift in the UK’s timber supply landscape and a stark indicator of the pressures reshaping the construction materials sector.
