Donaldson Group

James Donaldson and Sons is delighted to announce its shortlisting for the ‘Scottish Family Business of the Year’ award at this year’s Herald Family Business Awards.

The Scottish Family Business of the Year award recognises businesses with over 100 employees, who have enjoyed outstanding success. Now in its 7^th year, the Herald Family Business Awards celebrate the success of the family business sector and the contribution these firms make to the wider communities that they operate in. James Donaldson and Sons have been shortlisted for its ongoing successes within the Timber Industry.

Scott Cairns, Managing Director for the group commented on the shortlisting, “James Donaldson and Sons have been operating as a family business for over 150 years, and it is always an achievement to be recognised for our hard work and strong family values. After winning the ‘Rural Family Business’ category at last year’s awards, we are honored to be recognised again this year.”

The awards ceremony will be held on Wednesday 5^th December at the Radisson Blu Hotel, Glasgow where the winners will be announced.

JDS Group are committed to giving customers the highest level of quality across all 5 of their businesses and the group has executed this commitment by ensuring that all businesses now comply with ISO9001 international standards.

In September 2018, James Donaldson Group announced that all 5 of its business subsidiaries are now ISO9001:2015 accredited. ISO9001 is an internationally recognised standard with a focus on quality management systems and performance.

Nu-Style Products, MGM Timber and James Donaldson Insulation were the latest subsidiaries to gain their ISO9001:2015 accreditation last month.

Integrated Systems Manager, Mark Murphy commented, “With the new release of ISO 9001 to 2015 standard, and I am pleased that after the implementation and improvement of various management systems that this has now been achieved. Group-wide ISO9001 accreditation shows our commitment to our customers, putting them first in everything we do.”

James Donaldson Group welcomed over 60 of their shareholders, family, friends, pensioners and employees at their head office in Glenrothes, Fife to unveil a portrait of late Honorary President of the group, George Donaldson.

George Donaldson, one of the Timber Industry’s most highly regarded professionals joined James Donaldson & Sons in 1948 and was appointed as Managing Director in 1969. He became Chairman in 1971 and served in this role until 2001, when he retired and was appointed as Honorary President.

George was also President of the Timber Trade Federation and Chairman of TRADA, (Timber Research and Development Association) during his career. In 2000, George attended Buckingham Palace and was awarded with a CBE for his outstanding services to the Timber Industry.

The portrait was painted by a local Dundee artist, Maggie Milne who captured George at James Donaldson Timber’s Sawmill at Elmpark in Leven. The painting was unveiled by Non-Executive Chairman and son of George, Neil Donaldson at the event on Thursday 4^th October. Neil commented on the unveiling: “This portrait is a great tribute to my late father and will hang in our head office in Glenrothes for all employees and visitors to commemorate his many years of service, not only to James Donaldson & Sons, but the Timber Industry as a whole. I would like to say a huge thank you to Maggie for all her hard work in creating the painting, it looks exactly like him!”

We are excited to announce that James Donaldson Group has been shortlisted for Website of the Year in this year’s TTJ awards.

The website of the year award recognises achievement in the development and use of websites by companies in the timber industry. James Donaldson Group have been shortlisted for their work on the new group website, launched in December 2017.

Jean Paul Malum, Group Marketing Manager at James Donaldson Group says “We are delighted to be shortlisted for the Website of the year award in this year’s TTJ awards. Creating the group website was a real team effort and gave us the opportunity to capture our rich heritage, values and showcased what working for the group is like.’’

The winners will be announced at the awards event on Friday 21^st September at The InterContinental Park Lane, London.

The visit to JDS was organised by Scottish Enterprise, who have been helping JDS with access to experience and supporting the business’ growth.

Commenting on the visit, Jenny said

‘I was delighted to visit James Donaldson Group at their Glenrothes-based headquarters. The JDS group are a key employer in my constituency and it was particularly heartening to learn more about the company’s Fife heritage.

The company’s commitment to integrity has been a key driver in their economic success story. The brand of James Donaldson is today nationally renowned and I am extremely proud to have them based in my constituency’

Scott Cairns, Group Managing Director for the Group also commented,

”It was great to show Jenny around our headquarters on Friday, and reaffirm our commitment to providing employment opportunities for the local community as well as the wider UK.

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd are very proud of their history and heritage in the local area, which spans more than 150 years.”

After months of meeting, planning and writing, we are delighted to finally unveil our new website!

While the various businesses have been focusing on delivering excellent products and services, the team at JDS have also been beavering away in the background to bring the group to life online.

JDS has achieved a lot since we last built a website, and we wanted something to really showcase our values, businesses and people. That’s why you’ll find lots of interesting areas on the site, including our history timeline, people profiles of different experts and professionals who work in the businesses and of course our values tree.

So please explore the site – you may discover things about the JDS group you never knew!

A big thanks to everyone who helped with this project – including the staff who allowed us to shoot photography and video while they worked away in the background, those who contributed to the planning and those who helped with content. It was a real team effort and we are delighted with the result.

For the first time in the company’s history, JDS made it into the Sunday Times Top Track 250 companies in the UK.

‘Honestly, in my own head I was smiling!’ – Scott Cains

For the first time JDS made it into the Sunday Times Top Track 250 companies in the UK and I attended the awards dinner in London last night. To give you an idea of the calibre of some of the companies on the list I have noted a few below….It’ll give you a flavour of the prestigious company we are now in when I tell you that the winner was a little know car manufacturer called McLaren.

We were number 207 but to be credited on the list at all is a great achievement. I met some amazingly talented and well quoted people last night, some of them household names and the message from all the speakers and guests about British business was one of positivity, can do and encouragement….something I hope is echoed for our industry by the chancellor in the budget this afternoon.

So, trust me I was smiling inside, in fact I was/am pretty chuffed and you all should be as well. The recognition is for all of us.

I’ll work on showing some teeth when I smile in future…at least turn up the edges of my mouth!

Cala, Robertson, Miller, Avant Homes, MKM, Walkers, Howarth Group, Story Homes, Ridgeons. Chelsea Football Club, Rocco Forte Hotels, Caffe Nero, Aston Martin, Sky Betting and Gaming, Baxters, Walkers Shortbread, Fat Face, Timpson, Edinburgh Airport, London City Airport, Dobbies Garden Centres to name but a few.

When planning our new website, it was really important to us that we featured real JDS people and sites – so we commissioned a photographer to visit four sites, including MGM Timber, JDS Group, James Donaldson Timber and Donaldson Timber Engineering, to capture some photography.

The day started bright and early at 8:30am, and for our first stop we visited DTE to see the team in action. We were so lucky with the autumn weather as it turned out to be a bright and sunny day. This made photographing the outside areas far easier (and a bit more comfortable for those who were our models for the day)!One of our favourite shots is of sparks flying in the workshop which features Billy from the DTE team.

Before long, we were in full swing. We went on to visit three more sites – MGM Timber, JDT and JDS Headquarters, capturing the staff and the surrounding areas. We definitely have a few could-be models in our company – because some people were more than happy to pose away!

We managed to capture a huge variety of photos, from machines being operated to forklifts being driven.

A huge thank you to everyone who helped organise the photoshoot, and to those who agreed to be in our pictures – we really appreciate it.

We’ve featured some of our favourite pictures here for you to take a look at.

Fife-based timber specialist, James Donaldson & Sons Ltd has announced its end of year results. Turnover for the year ending 31st March 2017 increased from £127m to £137m and pre tax profit increased by almost 31% to £7.8m.

Non-Executive Chairman, Neil Donaldson commented, “The business has recorded another year of stellar growth and, alongside a difficult but positive market for house building and construction, we are pleased to see our market share continuing to grow.”

Scott Cairns (Group Managing Director) said, “This is our fourth successive year of strong growth and a testament to an incredibly talented workforce and record levels of investment since we emerged from the downturn.

Early negative market reactions to the Brexit vote of June 2016 quickly passed and all sectors and all of our businesses performed well in the year, cumulating in our strongest year of our 157 year history,

One stark result from the June 2016 vote was the immediate weakness in sterling which continues today. Raw material prices have increased sharply as a result and we and our clients alike are having to deal with these new cost realities.

During the year we acquired Nu-Style Products Ltd in Aberdeen which has been an excellent enhancement to our Group.

This year has started positively, however, there is no doubt that the General Election result and political machinations generally relating to Brexit, partisan politics or the omnipresent Scottish Independence question have and continue to dent consumer and business confidence and we can see early economic warning signs in our market as a result.

The Group today face those challenges from a position of strength and, macro factors aside, we remain committed to our clients and to being their supplier of choice.”

James Donaldson & Sons Ltd incorporates James Donaldson Timber Ltd, Donaldson Timber Engineering Ltd, MGM Timber (Scotland) Ltd, James Donaldson Insulation Ltd and Nu-Style (Products) Ltd and operates from 28 sites across the UK.