Fencing and garden buildings supplier Grange has won 60 new stockists already this year, thanks, it says, to its positive handling of last year's storm damage crisis.
With a shortage of timber still a factor in the market, Grange has also put plans in place to mitigate against any similarly bad weather conditions in 2015. These include storm management provision to ensure that trade customers' stocks are maintained.

Product manager Antony Barrett said: "Last year's enormous demand for replacement fencing has had a knock-on effect in the timber industry as a whole, and this proactive storm management is designed to ensure that this does not create problems for Grange customers."

Business development director Richard Wardle added: "The industry now has an underlying issue of materials shortage - ironically being exacerbated by the overall economic upturn - which means we need to be extra far-sighted. By planning ahead like this we can ensure that we maintain good supplies of products like trellis and fence panels, even if there are more damaging storms this year."