Egger's Timberpak marks 25 years supplying recycled wood to UK chipboard plants

Timberpak Limited, the wood recycling subsidiary of EGGER (UK) Ltd, has marked 25 years of supplying recycled wood to Egger's chipboard plants, reporting 4.1 million tonnes of waste wood processed since it was set up in January 2000.

Egger said the business now processes about 350,000 tonnes of wood a year across four sites in Leeds, Washington, Bellshill and St Albans, and holds licensed recycling capacity of 625,000 tonnes a year across all sites.

The company said headcount has grown from five people in 2000 to 77 direct employees, plus a further 52 full-time equivalent staff and 52 agency workers through its joint venture in St Albans.

Mark Hayton, Egger's Head of Wood Purchasing and Director for Timberpak, who has led the business since 2003, said: "My drive was to be the most reliable and cost effective business partner for the disposal of wood waste in the areas we operate, and we deliver on that promise every day."

Hayton also said the country needed to make the most of a resource that will reduce in availability if it is not managed properly.

Supply to Hexham and Barony

According to Egger, Timberpak handled 315,000 tonnes of wood last year. Of that, 289,000 tonnes went to Egger's chipboard plants at Hexham in Northumberland and Barony in East Ayrshire, and 25,500 tonnes of wood residues went to biomass for energy generation. Egger said residues are only sent to biomass when they can no longer be used in its production.

For the wider sector, the Wood Recyclers' Association (WRA) said waste wood used in UK panel board production rose 0.7% to 927,000 tonnes in 2025.

The WRA said 4.013 million tonnes of UK waste wood, or 89% of arisings, went to reuse, recycling or recovery in 2025. It said a series of unplanned outages at end-use facilities during the year created oversupply and put pressure on storage capacity.

Julia Turner, Executive Director of the WRA, said: "our sector proved resilient in 2025 in the face of very challenging and unprecedented market conditions."

In 2024, the WRA said, 4.33 million tonnes of the UK's 4.5 million tonnes of waste wood arisings went to reuse, recycling or recovery. The panel board industry used over 920,000 tonnes, or 21% of processed material, while large-scale biomass took 2.8 million tonnes, or 65%.

Sites and investment

Egger said the Leeds2 site, which opened in August 2023, holds a licence for 300,000 tonnes. Peter Baker, site supervisor at Leeds, who joined in 2004, said the Leeds operation now runs a fleet of more than 12 trucks collecting wood from a 35-mile radius, a new electric shredder and 500 solar panels on the roof.

Timberpak's environmental investments include solar energy, electric shredders and forklifts, and the use of well water for dust suppression, Egger said.

In Leeds, Timberpak has described a 20-year partnership with Leeds City Council and said it had won the tender for a further four-year contract with the council.

Timberpak's St Albans presence dates from its acquisition of a 50% share in Pearce Recycling Company Ltd, a dry waste recycling business, which Egger said completed on 1 November 2023. Egger said the two companies' relationship had included the launch of Timberpak Pearce Ltd in 2016.

At the time of the deal, Egger said it would lift recycled wood processing at the St Albans site to up to 100,000 tonnes a year and broaden Timberpak's portfolio to paper, cardboard, plastic, glass and metal. Egger's Timberpak Pearce page currently describes the site as processing about 50,000 tonnes of recycled wood a year, with a materials recycling facility able to handle up to 120,000 tonnes of dry mixed recyclables a year. Pearce Recycling Group Ltd, a fibre recycling and animal bedding business in Luton and Milton Keynes, was not part of the investment.

Hayton said at the time of the Pearce deal that a presence in the South East was vital to Timberpak's recycled wood strategy.

Companies House records show Timberpak Limited was incorporated on 7 January 2000, with its registered office at Anick Road, Hexham, Northumberland. Egger said the recycled material goes into new Egger products for the furniture and interior design markets, which it said are themselves recyclable.