Securing British woodlands for generations
ercol is proud to partner with Grown in Britain (GiB) to re-launch the iconic Marino chair and sofa, the Pebble nest of tables and coffee tables. These iconic products are now available in British-certified ash.
The longevity of ercol products, through their design and quality enables embodied carbon to be captured across generations.
For decades, there have been concerns in Britain around homegrown timber supplies, particularly of hardwoods. In1944, ercol's founder Lucian Ercolani’s first major contract was to make 100,.. more
For decades, there have been concerns in Britain around homegrown timber supplies, particularly of hardwoods. In1944, ercol's founder Lucian Ercolani’s first major contract was to make 100,000 Windsor chairs for the Utility Furniture scheme, which had been introduced to cope with wartime shortages and rationing of raw materials.
Eighty years later, Britain remains the world’s second-largest net importer of timber products after China, with over £8 billion-worth of wood products shipped in every year. It’s not that we don’t have woodlands here, of course: forests occupy around 13% of the UK’s land area, and over 14,000 hectares (around 35,000 acres) of new woodlands were added in 2020/21 alone. The problem is that large swathes of these woods are under-managed. As well as being far less productive overall than they used to be, they no longer produce wood of the right quality in sufficient quantities for furniture-making – in fact, over 85% of locally-sourced hardwood is simply burnt as fuel.
Grown in Britain (GiB) was founded 10 years ago to strengthen the domestic supply chain and reduce dependence on imports through improved forest practices. This is a mission close to ercol's hearts, so they are delighted to be the first UK furniture maker to work with GiB to make products from homegrown timber in at scale quantities.
