After the gold rush, it’s the firewood rush in Haute-Saône. Pellet and pellet suppliers haven’t stopped for weeks. But wood is also popular, since it remains the means of heating one of the cheapest on the market in our wooded area. But the fear for some professionals is the shortage.
At La Buche Fresnoise located in Fresne-Saint-Mamès, deliveries of firewood have multiplied in recent weeks, as with Laurent, a regular who lives in Port-sur-Saône. He has not changed his habits. “I took 6 cubic meters. That’s what I usually take. I want more in winter”assures the commercial. A more than exemplary client according to Alexandre Hublard, the manager of the company which has existed for 14 years. “He’s a rare customer. Today people ask for double what he usually ordered. They take it all of a sudden. They are afraid of running out during the winter. I don’t limit them, but if I know that a customer consumes 15 cubic meters and that he asks for 30, I would say no”.
– Virginie Vandeville
A cork in front of a store
The professional must also deal with an upsurge in new clients. “For the past month, we have had between 20 and 30% of new customers who were either gas, electric or pellets.. As the pellet has become horribly expensive, they come to the firewood”, specifies Arthur. “We also have new customers, we had a traffic jam in front of our store last week. It’s unheard of,” adds Elodie Drouhard, the manager of ADS Bois in Beaumotte-Aubertans.
Wood remains a safe bet. However, it too has increased. It has risen at ADS Bois from 50-55 euros on average last year to 70-75 today. Plus 7% at Alexandre Hublard. “To try to keep the margins, it becomes complicated. We cut corners to continue to deliver to customers. If we passed on the full increase, some of our customers would not have the means to heat themselves“, adds the professional who specifies that the increase is due to the price of transport, cutting and the purchase of wood in the forest which took 12%.
A risk of shortage?
This will depend on the overconsumption of customers underlines the professional. Elodie Drouhard, she remains much more worried. “We are a department where there is a lot of wood but the neighboring regions come to us precisely because they are facing a shortage, so we will have to put our hands in our pockets. We hope to be able to hold on, we do everything for, but with what is happening, the developments, we are not sure to cope.
