About Wood Wide

THE WOOD SECTOR IS A WORLD OF POSSIBILITIES,
A WORLD OF IMMENSITY AND AN IMMENSITY OF WORLDS...

Isabelle HUET

The name Wood Wide stems from the world of possibilities that wood offers.

I am Isabelle Huet and we at Wood Wide have focused on selling roundwood from the formerly family business Huet Bois, in Manhay, Belgium, for more than twenty years. Other doors have now opened for Wood Wide, since today EVERYTHING is possible!

Thanks to my large network of contacts outside the specific sector of roundwood and solid relations forged over the years with historical partners, Johnny, Wood Wide and I have to meet the challenge of finding absolutely everything you could imagine made of wood.

The world of wood is vast, and the Wood Wide philosophy is to do more and better together. That means creating win-win wood buying and selling relationships with partners who count.

Wood Wide has selected all its suppliers with a fine-toothed comb based on criteria of quality, professionalism, seriousness and respect for deadlines. Our price deals are struck on the basis of large purchasing volumes and shipping is always optimised with a view to keeping costs down and respecting the planet.

A 360° VISION OF THE WOOD SECTOR

The idea is to consider the wood sector from all angles – a 360° view – and to take a broad perspective (Wood Wide!). With serious partnerships and extensive knowledge of the market and suppliers, Wood Wide can meet requests for tens of thousands of pieces or thousands of cubic metres of wood! Customers will no longer have to worry about monitoring production or organising transport. They will deal with just a single interlocutor who takes charge of everything, from the quote to delivery, with customs clearance in between, if necessary.

Wood Wide stands by your side and advises you as you think and progress in making your purchases of wood.

Once the order is validated, you’ll be able to go on to other things, as Wood Wide promises to deliver your order in line with its quality and deadline commitments. Customer satisfaction is Wood Wide’s ultimate goal.

A WOOD SUPPLIER WHO CAN ADVISE YOU

A need can be met fully only if it has been well understood at its root. Today, customers themselves often do not know what they truly want, what might best meet their needs, drowning as we all are in an astronomical amount of contradictory and vague information from Internet generally and from the media.
My first job as an expert is to ask the right questions and increasingly specific ones, to funnel all the information little by little and reach a point where it is possible to determine exactly the right mix for a customer at time T. Then all that has to be done is to kick off the process, to be organised and to coordinate the various operations through to delivery.

WHO ARE WE?

ISABELLE HUET
EXPERT AND CONSULTANT

I am Isabelle and the author of this Internet site content, so I shall speak in the first person.

I have 23 years’ experience in the wood sector.

A trained economist (degree in Trade and Consular Studies from HEC Liège in 1999), I have had a passion for discovery, travel and cultural interactions since childhood. I have many voyages under my belt, mostly in Europe and Asia. I speak four languages fluently and use them daily, like my daily sport routine.

I am continuing to engage in language training and professional and personal training, as each new day is a theatre of new experiences that are sources of learning, playing, joy and also failure.

With my positive temperament I am highly resilient and characterised by great dynamism, humour and spontaneity.

I am very technical, direct and precise. My principle are clear and not negotiable. My values of truth, fairness and justice are very important to me.

I love my work, life in general and MY life, which I continue to build each day on a path that I hope will lead to even more light and Love.

Each partner (customer/supplier/subcontractor) is important to me, and each request is treated individually. In making my quotes I constantly seek excellence in terms of customer satisfaction and the best quality for the money, the optimisation of resources and minimisation of costly and/or harmful means. They never reflect a lack of courage or willpower, for I tenacity is my middle name!

I want to give each customer the best, after first understanding their precise needs, expectations, imperatives and priorities. Customers’ high-level requirements and impatience are never barriers. On the contrary, they are drivers and challenges that give me the possibility to outdo myself.

I like challenges, but they must be part of a consistent view, the right trajectory, permanence and a shared long-term vision. One-shot deals hold no interest for me, for they will be able to find suitable partners other than Wood Wide.

My choice of relations is part and parcel of a general view of life, that of discipline and precision to build society and a better world alone and together. I feel responsible for our future, which I want to be healthier, cleaner, more balanced, less aggressive and more temperate. This all ties in with a deep personal journey and way of behaving as well.

JOHNNY TOUCHARD
PARTNER & SHAREHOLDER

Johnny (a fan of Johnny Halliday), is more discrete. He is responsible for purchasing spruce (Picea abies) and other softwoods, for the most part, in privately and publicly owned forests. He oversees the harvesting and first step in processing the timber of Wallonia.

We buy our timber without intermediaries and as close to Paliseul as possible for obvious ecological and economic reasons. “Joh” organizes the felling and transport to the production facility at Paliseul, near the train station. Once there, he crosscuts the long logs into shorter pieces called shortwood or bolts.

This shortwood then undergoes various second processing operations done by our subcontractors and friends, who are bigger than we are. These partners have been chosen on the basis of strict criteria of proximity, seriousness and quality. They work well and deliver to schedule. Our relations are cordial and uncomplicated.

The first second processing operations carried out on the raw timber (with its bark) are to debark and calibrate (sand down) the shortwood. This changes the appearance of the wood. Stripped of its bark, it becomes peeled timber that keeps its natural taper and profile. The other option is to put it through a calibrating or milling machine to produce sanded, machined timber. In that case, it has a constant diameter from one and to the other and is very smooth.

Joh is responsible for buying standing timber. He is the steward and felling manager. He is in touch daily with our subcontractors: foresters, tree fellers, delimber operators, extractors and road hauliers. He is also the point of contact for public and private forest owners, forestry experts, rangers and Wildlife & Forestry Department personnel. We are open to meeting everyone, large and small, but above all those who are small, like us. For little strokes fell great oaks and it is by working together that we can grow.

Johnny organises the transfer of shortwood to the second processing facilities. He is also in charge of quality assurance and checks shipments systematically before green-lighting their departure.

Finally, as an expert he is also and above all complementary and indispensable when it comes to taking daily strategic, operational and tactical decisions, those that affect our current sound management and plans for the future. Interactions with this great, intelligent man with a passion for life are sources of constant renewal, persistent growth and happy dynamics.