Establishing of a marketing and distribution network for wood chips

Abstract

Austrian forests are steadily growing, reaching an all time high of over one billion solid cubic meters of timber theoretically available for utilization. Big parts are not accessible (e.g. mountainous regions) or are not considered as working forest due to the protecting function of the forest. A main characteristic of the Austrian forest environment is its ownership constellation. More than 50% of the total timber stock is farmed by so called small scaled owners possessing less than 200 ha of forest. In total more than 170.000 different forest owners are present in Austria. Fuel wood has a long tradition in Austria and since oil and gas prices are heading upwards, wood heating energy sources relive a real renaissance since their big decline between the 1960ies and 80ies. A major force for this development is the big increase in comfort and reliability of automated wood fuel heating systems, which pellets and wood chips offer. Especially wood chips would have a much bigger potential in market penetration for certain furnace sizes if the supply chain would improve. Some calculations show that for the future wood chips have to be preferred compared to pellets, as the pellets raw material is somehow limited. Whereas wood chips quantity is up to now only limited by the willingness of forest owners to produce and sell them. The first part of this work investigates Austria?s forest inventory and wood production numbers. The second part of this work puts a strong focus on general wood chips marketing considerations and their applicability in the wood chips market. The very beginning of any marketing campaign is a product (quality) definition, which is also discussed and explained for wood chips. In the third part participating market partners forming the grid of the network are analyzed and the market environment uncovered. Today one good method to start a network on a low budged level could be the internet. With the pre-feasibly research done in part one and two, a business plan for such a web based network is presented in the last chapter. After analyzing the market, the main goal in this chapter is the presentation of thoughts, drawbacks and methods to be considered in order to start up such a network successfully.<br />