Leading specialist timber supplier Russwood Ltd is investing £150,000 in a new state of the art painting facility with additional funding of up to £37,908 from Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).

Employing 32 staff, Russwood supplies high quality sawn timber, decking, flooring and cladding nationwide from its base at Station Sawmill in Newtonmore. The funding will be used towards the construction of the painting facility as part of the timber cladding operation at the Sawmill.

Russwood was one of the first businesses in Badenoch and Strathspey to install a biomass heating system and the new developments will also support environmental sustainability. This includes the use of Russwood's locally sourced Scotlarch® for the recently constructed drying shed and building on an existing brown field site allowing the re-use of land. Carbon-neutral renewable fuel will be used for the heating system, sourced from waste wood from the Station Sawmill.

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John Russell, Managing Director of Russwood said: "This investment in a specialist bespoke paint facility, expanding on the paint line we installed two years ago, will ensure we can develop new products. Coating for timber is already a strong market in Europe and has huge potential across Scotland and the UK."

HIE's Anne Williamson commented: "Russwood Ltd is one of our account managed businesses and as such we are working very closely with them to help them with their ambitious plans. There are currently no other companies producing factory painted cladding in Scotland and this new paint facility will support Russwood to enter new markets across both Scotland and England. The company is known for being a market-leader and this project will help reaffirm this position."

Russwood Ltd works closely with the Forest Products Research Institute (FPRI) at Edinburgh Napier University.

(GK)