Quality Contractors: Colin Brolly Forestry

This month we will be featuring a handful of our quality contractors nominated by our members of staff for their outstanding contributions.

First to be featured is Northern Harvesting Regional Manager Gavin Brown’s chosen contractor Colin Brolly Forestry.

Colin Brolly Forestry was first formed in 1994 by Colin Brolly and his wife Jenny.
Colin was born into forestry and was safely introduced to chainsaws early on before progressing onto winches in his teens.in the early 80’s he was introduced to mechanised harvesting when it was in its infancy in the UK. This started a life-long passion for harvesting machinery.

Over the years, Colin and Jenny raised their family of two boys and two girls for whom being on site and around forestry machines was the norm. Nowadays the entire family are involved in the running of the business.

The Team

Colin can usually be found on site operating a machine, using a chainsaw or passing on his experience to other operators. Jenny deals with the running of the office, organisation of machine transport and fuel. Son Jude is the workshop manager and with a team of three has the unenviable task of keeping all the machines running smoothly. Other son Daniel can usually be found onsite, operating a machine but also involved in the site management. Daughter Rachel deals with all the Health and Safety aspects of the business, visiting sites on a regular basis and other Daughter Denise assists with the office administration.

Rachel Brolly, the company’s Health & Safety Officer said: “We first started working for Tilhill Forestry in 2009 and since then have developed a very good working relationship with all levels of Tilhill Forestry staff.”

Last year Colin Brolly Forestry won the Forest Industry Safety Award from FISA for putting into practice real improvements in safety –a great example of a medium sized company.

Rachel commented on the award: “We were delighted to win the award as it was recognition of the commitment the entire workforce makes to ensure that our workplace is as safe as it possibly can be. We are continuously reviewing our policies and procedures to identify any weaknesses and areas which may need updating and we always welcome feedback (positive or negative) or suggestions, from members of the workforce or Forest Work Managers and always look at ways of making improvements. “

Over the years Colin Brolly Forestry has worked on a number of challenging and rewarding Tilhill Forestry sites.

Rachel mentions two sites that come to mind when thinking of interesting projects:

“There was a Ministry of Defence site which was logistically challenging and the other was a first for Colin Brolly and Tilhill, harvesting timber being sold by the North West Mull Community Woodland Company at Langamull on the Isle of Mull. Over the course of this extensive contract, an excellent rapport was formed with the residents who had purchased the land as a community buy out. In both cases, the operators carrying out the work were chosen because their particular skills were suited to the challenges involved. “