UPM TILHILL HISTORY
Founded by Archie Aitkins in 1948, UPM Tilhill was originally established as a forest nursery and management company.
As Archie's vision took shape his company expanded across the UK and moved into forestry contracting.Today UPM Tilhill operates from 14 principal offices, has almost 500 employees and an annual turnover in excess of £100million.
In 1948 Archie, a native Scotsman whose pre-war occupation had been forestry lecturer at Aberdeen University, was thwarted in his second career choice - Forest Consultant, as he was unable to find suppliers of the tree seedlings he was advising clients to plant. The seed of an idea was sown, and Tilhill the nursery was born.
Originally established at Tilhill House, Tilford, Surrey, the company quickly grew and land was purchased at Tankersford Common. In 1958 Archie bought Greenhills, also at Tilford, along with 140 acres of land - albeit land that had been used as a test range for WWII bombs!
Early employees spent many days clearing spent, and live, munitions from the site - a novel if somewhat unconventional way of cultivating the seed beds.
Following fast expansion the company built on its success and in the early 1960s developed its Scottish interest. Initially based at Old Sauchie in Stirling, as the private forestry sector grew, the company opened additional offices north of the border.
After the nursery, then forestry, the natural progression was to extend the company's technical skills and embrace the landscape industry.
In 1981 Archie retired, selling the company to Rolls Royce Pension Fund. After further strong growth, particularly in the landscaping sector, Booker Plc purchased the company in 1984.
Still known as Tilhill, and under the control of Booker, the company was merged in 1991 with the forestry interest of a group called EFG. The resulting company became Tilhill Economic Forestry.
Spotting the opportunity to develop the supply chain supporting their paper production plant on Deesside, UPM-Kymmene, the Finnish based global forest products company, purchased Tilhill Economic Forestry through Shotton Paper Plc in 1996, and the company name reverted to Tilhill.
Since 2005 the company has used the name UPM Tilhill, in recognition of its links with UPM-Kymmene, its global parent company.
Today UPM Tilhill manages more than 200,000 hectares of woodland on behalf of clients, harvests 1.8million tonnes of timber a year, holds a Queen's Award for Enterprise: International Trade and a RoSPA Gold Award for maintaining high standards in health and safety.
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