CONFOR - FTA AMALGAMATION COMPLETED 01 SEPTEMBER 2006

The physical integration of Forestry & Timber Asssociation and ConFor took place on 01 September.

David Crichton, chief executive of ConFor, said:

"We are delighted that the amalgamation of ConFor and the FTA is now complete and we are operating as a single organisation. It has been a long and occasionally challenging journey to get to this point, and I want to pay tribute to the FTA board, staff and membership who have shown such commitment to the cause. We are already seeing the benefits of a more 'joined up' approach on the industry's behalf, but the completion of legal and financial integration will release a great deal more of our time and energy to concentrate on the real market and policy issues where we can make a difference."

The previous FTA board is now the Growing Sector Council within ConFor, providing direction and advice on behalf of the timber-growing sector.
The Council will nominate members to the ConFor Board, with the initial directors being John Firn, Nick Hoare and Chris Inglis. It will work in parallel with the Processors Council that is already in place and operating very effectively.

In many respects it is business as usual, as the ConFor and FTA teams have already been working together closely for almost two years.
Full integration means a simple, clear unified face to members and policy-makers, as well as offering the extra advantages and operational efficiency of a single organisation.

Contact details for Chris Inglis and other FTA staff remain as before, although email addresses are now on the pattern of firstname.secondname@confor.org.uk. The merging of the websites is not yet complete. The two websites remain intact for the time being, although the FTA website now shows the ConFor brand.

Anyone looking for the content of the FTA site can still access it through www.forestryandtimber.org directly or via www.confor.org.uk.
Forestry and Timber News continues with the same name but under the ConFor banner.