New owners reopen closed sawmill

Gwyddelwern Saw Mill had debts of up to £500,000

The site and assets of a Denbighshire sawmill which closed in March with the loss of 52 jobs have been bought by Corwen Forestry for £600,000.

The firm has said it will initially employ around 20 people at the site of the Gwyddelwern Saw Mill near Corwen, with a view to expanding the workforce.

The closure in March was blamed by Gwyddelwern on a shortage of felled trees. It had debts of up to £500,000.

But Corwen director Harry Lloyd said the mill would expand their operation.

The company currently produces a range of timber products, and the sawmill in Gwyddelwern will add a new capability to their processing of raw material trees, said Mr Lloyd.

There is a lot of work to be done and issues to be sorted outl Harry Lloyd, Corwen Forestry

Corwen Forestry currently employs 30 people and already owns one sawmill in Llandrillo, Corwen.

But its new sawmill will be used to process a different part of the tree so the two plants will not be in competition with each other, Mr Lloyd explained.

The re-opened mill, which will carry the Corwen Forestry name, has already taken on 10 employees.

"There is a lot of work to be done and issues to be sorted out because we won't be running it in the same way as Gwyddelwern Saw Mill," said Mr Lloyd.

"But we hope to be at full efficiency within the next six months."

Gwyddelwern Saw Mill ceased trading and went into liquidation with debts of up to £500,000 in March.

It processed round logs into planks but the firm's directors said it could not get enough raw logs from its mainly UK sources to put in the saw mill.

The closure was said to have come out of the blue for workers.