Blacklock Harvesting, based in Northumberland, was established by John Blacklock in the early 1990’s. Through the successful awarding of direct production harvesting contracts for the state sector, the business steadily expanded. John developed his business with Euroforest from the mid 90’s and became a key harvesting contractor with a reputation for providing a practical and cooperative approach for Euroforest and our landowners.
In 2019 Euroforest acquired Blacklock Harvesting, at which point the business was operating a modern fleet of 3 harvesters and 3 forwarders. It was Euroforests intention that Blacklock Harvesting could be scaled up over time, whilst beginning to tackle the issue of dwindling operator resource and driver availability; a major issue for the harvesting sector for many years.
Euroforest quickly began the process of expanding the fleet in reaction to high demand in the timber industry and as of September 2021 the modern fleet, in line with a regular replacement programme, stood at:
Led by John Blacklock we have established a strong management team with a new office in Wark, where modern harvesting machine telemetry is used to enhance our client services. The level of detail available to clients from modern machines is incredible and we are only now beginning to unlock the advanced information available in machine computers.
As part of our programme of modernising the business we have recently added ISO 14001 (Environment) and ISO 45001 (Health and Safety) meaning our business is subject to a rigorous regime of both internal and external audit in both of these important areas.
Blacklock have begun the process of moving self-employed drivers to an employed status, offering all the benefits of direct employment. Over half of Blacklock’s drivers are now full-time employees and enjoy the competitive benefit package on offer including a company vehicle, salary with annual increase, bonus system, pension and annual leave allowance. By coupling this package with regular annual recruitment of new entrants to the industry, Euroforest continue to lift standards in the industry ensuring more efficient use of machinery and a better service delivered to our clients.
Blacklock Harvesting is now fully established across Scotland as well as northern England with a fleet of modern equipment, capable of delivering a high quality service from small scale thinning’s to large clear fells.
For more information on Blacklock Harvesting please contact head office on 01228 217517 or admin@blacklockharvesting.co.uk
