Wood Fuel Cooperative – About Us
The Wood Fuel Co-operative was started in 2011. Bringing together a group of like-minded people to combine resources for an economical supply of dry firewood. Our objective is simple: to supply premium quality wood fuel at the most economic prices.
From our national distribution hub in Dumfries, our online shop now supplies wood briquettes to customers across the whole of the UK mainland.
The Dumfries shop continues to serve Dumfries & Galloway. Ensuring that everyone can benefit from our great range of wood briquettes, wood pellets, traditional logs and top quality wild bird food.
In 2019, the Wood Fuel Co-operative changed from a Members’ Co-operative to become a Workers’ Co-operative. For customers and members, this doesn’t change anything – instead it gives our hard-working staff a chance to take a share in the running of the business and of any profits generated.
We stock the widest range of wood briquettes in the UK. Concentrating on those fuels that provide the best balance of heat, convenience and value for money. This means we have to test a lot of different briquettes but our hard-working team is up to the challenge!
Meet our Wood Fuel Team
Based in Dumfries, our team are all members of the Workers’ Co-operative.
If you phone, order online, or drop in to see us at our Dumfries shop, here are some of the names and faces you’ll come across:
Rowland Parke – Wood Fuel Director
Rowland founded the Wood Fuel-Co-operative in 2011 and is still the driving force behind it. After realising how difficult it is to find both consistently dry firewood, and reliable information about it, he began to test briquettes as an alternative to seasoned logs. The benefits of briquettes quickly became apparent and the idea for the Wood Fuel Co-operative was born.
Rowland’s professional background is in conservation and forestry and his understanding of this industry has helped him source the very best range of briquettes in the UK. While also staying true to his environmental roots. We think of him fondly as our benevolent dictator, but don’t tell him that.
Sue Taylor – Director
Sue is Rowland’s twin sister and has been part of the Wood Fuel Co-operative from the very early days. Running our office and working with Kat, Sue ensures your online orders are processed quickly and efficiently.
Our Sue is one of the main people you are likely to speak to when you place an order with us, and as such we hold her almost single-handedly responsible for our outstandingly good Trustpilot reviews!
Ashley Parke – Director
MA (Hons) Liberal Arts
Ashley is Rowland’s daughter, and she joined the Co-operative in 2016, after a decade of working in Scottish universities.
Rowland’s right-hand woman, Ashley works closely with him on sourcing stock, website content, and the general running of the Co-operative.
After so many years stuck in offices, she’s more likely to be found in the yard than the office though, and, much like her three terriers, escapes at every opportunity.
Sue R – Online Order Processing
Sue joined the Wood Fuel team in 2021 and has quickly become invaluable in the office, working with Sue T. to process online orders. She liaises with customers and the hauliers, and works hard to keep your orders on track right up to the point they’re loaded onto the lorry for dispatch. Sue and her very chilled out Lurcher , Jake, bring much-needed sunshine, calm and humour to the office!
Steven – Dispatch Manager
Steven is our good-natured, hard-working Dispatch Manager. He runs our pack and dispatch department, organising stock and keeping the warehouse running smoothly. He is responsible for the beautifully packed pallets we send out – he takes great personal pride in making sure your pallets leave us in the best possible condition. Steven’s a multi-tasker though and also helps with local deliveries and in the shop as well.
Mark – Office Manager
Mark joined us in October 2020 and is now taking over the day-to-day management of the shop including stock ordering and logistics. In theory, this is to allow Rowland more time away from his desk (we don’t use the retirement word here…). Mark also has a dog but thankfully doesn’t bring his own Welsh Terrier, Thomas, into work as life really is just too short.
As much stock as possible comes from the UK. This is to both minimise the carbon footprint of our briquettes and to support UK industry. However, because the UK doesn’t produce anything like the quantity of products we need, and because of the exceptional quality available from overseas, we also stock a lot of excellent products from Europe. These products come in full containers, to maximise travel efficiency.
Woodfuel Coop only buy briquettes made responsibly, from sustainably-sourced timber. For more information on the environmental sustainability of briquettes, check out our blog.
We’re also encouraging our suppliers to reduce plastic use and explore alternative packaging. This is a long, slow process but we’re committed to making a difference.
Two of our UK suppliers have moved to cardboard/paper packaging as a direct result of our request to reduce plastics.
Our Environmental responsibility
As a co-operative, we have a responsibility to the community we work in. For this reason, we work with local charities to support people suffering from fuel poverty as well as with our local foodbank.
Our Charity Work
Helping and talking to our customers is one of the best parts of the job. We’re a small team and we set very high standards for ourselves. The team take complaints very seriously and will always follow up if you experience issues. So please do get in touch – we’ll always go the extra mile to help.
Call us on 01387 731 210 or email us.
Don’t just trust us, take a look at the reviews our clients have left us on Trustpilot.
