“Turnover is vanity and profit is sanity”, plywood trader Derek Fletcher told members of the Plywood Club of London recently.

Mr Fletcher, managing director of Purfleet, UK-based DHH Products and who has been in the timber trade for 53 years, gave his thoughts on the current state of the plywood trade as guest speaker at the club meeting.

“Businesses need to look at profit and not market share, and salesmen should not be saying ‘We are cheapest’ but rather ‘We are the best’,said Mr Fletcher. “You are only as good as your next order,he added.

Mr Fletcher recounted his years in the timber trade, from his early days selling firewood from a barrow, through his time selling hardwood and panel products.