Reflections on a successful year
Scottish Woodlands’ Managing Director has reflected on a highly successful 2025 with a short film looking back on the year’s highlights.
Ian Robinson says acquisition of RTS Forestry, completed in December 2024, has gone “really well”. He says: “I think the two companies are complementary. The Scottish Woodlands board of directors, and the RTS directors, have worked well together."
“Their staff seem quite settled. Our staff are settled, and the clients are settled - so basically, we've achieved everything that we wished to achieve, and their profitability has increased.”
Mr Robinson says all parts of the business performed well in 2025: “It’s been a very successful year for the company. We do forest management, timber harvesting, investment work, and our utilities department is a very important part of what we do. And all elements have been effectively firing on all cylinders and doing very well."
“Peatland carbon, and woodland carbon, is an increasing part of what we do, and it's very complementary to what we're doing already. There are projects where we're doing new woodland creation at scale that involves peatland restoration, so the two work hand in hand."
“We had a very good set of results, which we published earlier this year and they showed excellent turnover and profitability.”
Mr Robinson was interviewed in Kyloe Woods, in north Northumberland, which he has managed for almost 40 years. He says: “It is my happy place. So when I've had enough of the computer or driving around the countryside, this is where I would come.”
In the film, he also looks back on the role the company plays in the wider forestry and wood industry:
“We sponsor the forestry arena at the Royal Highland Show and supply the Douglas Fir tree trunks for the pole climate competition, which is always popular. We sponsor Confor’s annual conference at Westminster, and also sponsored their policy conference in Scotland this year."
“It is so important to be part of the big discussions about our industry, because there's so much going on."
Mr Robinson also reflects on the continuing success of the company’s Graduate Development Programme: “We started our graduate programme in 2017; it's been very successful. We identified that we needed more managers [and] they weren't really available, so we decided we'd train our own. We've had over 70 people through the programme now, and out of about 90 managers covering harvesting, forest management, environment, etc, half are probably under 35 - so that's changed the dynamic of the business."
“A third of our managers are female, and that's largely thanks to the graduate programme. It has changed the business - for the better.”
Looking forward to 2026, Mr Robinson says: “For 2026, the work programme is very good across all elements of our business, and we remain confident that we can achieve the goals that have been set. Of course, that relies upon the hard work and diligence of our staff.”
He concludes: “Our industry evolves. Woodlands evolve. And I think Scottish Woodlands will adapt to the industry changes, and I've got no doubt 2026 will be another very successful year for the company.”
Watch the full video on our You Tube channel here: