Scottish Woodlands, the UK’s largest forest management company, has posted a record turnover of £143.74 million for the year to 30 September 2025, up from £118.16 million, and said the country must grow far more of its own timber to curb a reliance on imports. That is according to the Edinburgh-based group’s annual results, which credit the December acquisition of Crieff forestry firm RTS Forestry for much of the year’s growth.
Managing director Ian Robinson attributed the result to the RTS takeover and a strong showing from the parent company, with the enlarged business now employing more than 280 staff across 19 Scottish Woodlands offices. Those offices span Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales, with the company trading as Flintshire Woodlands in Wales and parts of the west of England.
“The underlying performance of the parent company was very strong,” Robinson said.
The company planted 2,750 hectares of new woodland in Scotland during 2025, about one-third of the national total, and expects to hold a similar share even though Scotland’s overall planting is forecast to fall in 2026. Its strategic report argues that Scottish Woodlands is well-placed to deliver the productive forests the UK needs, describing new planting as essential to reduce the country’s dependence on imported timber.
Robinson said new woodland creation in Scotland had become difficult, and the company is working with the forestry trade body Confor to remove the barriers slowing it, an effort the wider industry sees as central to meeting climate and housebuilding targets. The UK is the second-largest net importer of timber in the world after China, a position the sector argues leaves domestic supply exposed to overseas price shocks.
The enlarged business remains 80 per cent owned by its employees, with the remaining 20 per cent held by sawmiller James Jones & Sons, and has run a graduate development programme for the past decade to address a shortage of forestry skills. RTS Forestry brought bases in Crieff, Inverurie, Inverness and Hexham into the group, adding a wood-fuel business and infrastructure team that Robinson expects to strengthen its service range.
