James Latham director Chris Sutton made an important journey to the Far East recently to observe how logging practices in China had developed since his last visit in 2006, and to look for mills that could manufacture to Lathams’ environmental requirements and standards of quality.

Chris was looking for hardwood plywood, Birch plywood, overlaid plywood and veneered panel mills. He also visited mills that produce high quality solid and engineered flooring, furniture components and shaped plywood.

He commented: "A couple of the mills I visited are working towards genuine FSC certification, and I was encouraged to find that a lot of mills are looking to add value rather than produce lower quality plywood."

Chris visited Cui Hong in Guangzhou who are working with SGS to get 2000 hectares of Eucalyptus forest FSC certified. He added: "I was taken into the depths of the forest to see logging camps and loggers at work. It was a fantastic day for us because Lathams is the first importer to visit the forest, and it really was an incredible sight."

Chris commented: "After my visit last year, I knew not to believe everything I was told, but I also didn’t want to judge a book by its cover so I went with an open mind and was willing to hear what the mills had to say. Some of the mills were very interesting indeed and I look forward to developing our relationship with them."

During his time in China, he also attended the China Wood Based Panel and Furniture International Trade Fair in Pizhou, and the Second China International Wood and Wood Products Trade Conference in Beijing, which was sponsored by the Chinese Forestry Industry Association.

Chris then travelled to Korea to meet with senior managers of LG to strengthen Lathams’ working relationship with them and to discuss long term development plans. He added: "We also discussed new HI-Macs décor’s for the European market and I visited the factory to look at other products that may be of interest to us."

For further information about James Latham, contact the marketing department on 0116 257 3415 or  email marketing@lathams.co.uk.

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For further media information contact Rebecca Jones or Tim Roberts on 0161 817 4200 or email Rebecca.jones@connectpoint.co.uk