ETC History

For almost 60 years timber has been our passion. Today we take harvested softwood timbers from responsibly managed UK resources to provide a range of high performance products from our Ellesmere sawmill for the fencing, landscaping and pallet industries. From our nearby Chirk retail centre we also offer a wide range of fencing and landscaping products to fencing and landscaping contractors, tradesmen and the general public.

First established as the “Ellesmere Timber Company” in 1957 the main products in the early years were still cut from home-grown timber, both softwoods and hardwoods, and were sold to a wide range of markets such as general fencing, pallet boards, cable drums and the mining industry. A great deal of the oak went to make fence posts and the remaining hardwoods went into the mines as chocks, pillar woods and lids.

As the sawmill prospered, so did other ventures and during the 1960’s and 1970’s other companies joined the “ETC GROUP”, amongst which was a similar sawmill at Conwy in North Wales and a new round timber fencing company, trading at a convenient site on the A5 at Gledrid, near Chirk. The Conwy operation was sold in 1979, along with other parts of the group.

The remaining sites are as you see them today, the sawmill at Ellesmere and the retail site at Chirk.

The site at Ellesmere now has two main sawmill systems, one processing larger cross sections of timber from logs and the other designed to supplement this, processing smaller cross sections of square sawn timbers. Together this now makes ETC Sawmills one of the largest manufacturers of softwoods for the fencing and pallet industries in England.

Our 37 acre site currently employs 90 people and produces approximately 60,000m3 of sawn timber per year from around 100,000 m3 of round timber intake. Our on-site Machine shop offers a wide range of machined products such as weathering, rounding, morticing, ‘V’ notching, recessing, capping, pointing, planing and many more specific requirements.

We also have our own high pressure treatment vessels on site for the preservative protection of our timbers. Using next generation TANALITH E wood preservative, we can offer both green and brown coloured treatments that effectively extend the service life of our timber products and allow our customers to use them with real confidence.

Using a dedicated and flexible local haulier, we are able to offer a nationwide delivery service and in most instances we can deliver part as well as full articulated lorry loads.

The company is Forest Stewardship Council® (FSC®) mixed credit approved in terms our responsible use of timber.