Verified Timber Promotions
03 May 2006
Over the last few weeks we have been travelling the country in conjunction with Woodmark treated timber promoting the Verified Timber programme and trademark. We have held a couple of builders breakfasts at merchant stores and visited numerous architects, engineers and building inspectors. The aim has been to educate key players on the changes to structural timber grading, as well as to promote our programme and trademark.
The photo below was taken from a builders breakfast held at Mitre 10 Mega Dunedin. Mitre 10 Mega organised a local radio station to attend the event. The radio station provided a couple of their promotional aids and this proved popular, along with the BBQ food supplied. The event was attended by over 50 builders and it was a good forum to chat and hand out information. A similar event was also run at Bunnings Warehouse North Shore.
We have also visited other merchant stores and provided training to their timber yard staff. This has been received well by the stores and we have developed relationships and contacts for future educational and promotional work.
Architects and engineers have also been visited on our travels and they are another important audience requiring education on the correct use of timber.
We visited a number of city councils and spoke with their building inspectors. With all the confusion surrounding changes to timber treatment and now structural grading, it is important that councils and building inspectors are aware of the requirements regarding the use of timber. We also want the Verified Timber trademark to be recognised as an assurance that timber has met the requirements of the building code.
This sort of promotional work will be ongoing and will be stepped up once the amended standards are cited in the building code, which at this stage is likely to be the end of July 2006.