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A high-flying engineer and rally-aficionado makes his woodland deliver for economy, environment and – motorsport. Stef Kaiser reports
Multi-purpose forestry – with a twist
L
ooking at Richard Ceen’s biography, one would surely describe him as a successful engineer and entrepreneur with decades of toplevel international business experience. However, Richard’s heart beats for rally cars – and woodlands. Becoming later in life a woodland owner-manager has allowed him to engineer the perfect venue for both motorsport and the sustainable production of a raw material – timber. Hailing from a family with a long tradition in engineering in North Wales and brought up in Holyhead port-town, it was no surprise that Richard was drawn to a career in electronic and marine engineering. Experience gained from the mid-70s was applied by him in developing commercial energy-saving systems for ship propulsion and liquid natural gas safety worldwide. But life was not all work – Richard has always been the outdoors type – he has spent time travelling, orienteering, sailing, cycling and even Scuba diving whenever possible. At Bangor University, pre-eminent in both Forestry and Electronics, he chanced on what became a lifelong passion for rallying. Since then he has competed on and off as a driver or co-driver for 47 years. “I drove a Landrover at Bangor but was unaware of stage rallying. Three Agri and Forestry student friends persuaded me to take them to watch the 1970 RAC Rally passing through Penmachno forest. The impression of works Escorts and Datsun 240Zs sliding and bellowing between the firs had me hooked and soon, I’d begged and bought enough parts to build a rally Hillman Imp. Practising and driving on probably ‘illegal’ 12-car rallies, sometimes on Forestry Commission forest roads at night was then, err…the norm.”
Moving into forestry In 2012, a Swedish multinational bought the marine technology group he had founded and it became time to invest in different assets. Richard saw this as a golden opportunity to turn his passions into his next business venture. As well as the sea, Richard has always felt an affinity for the forest. He recalls how in the late 60s his family had renovated a house on a windswept smallholding just out of town. He spent his first winter holiday from University planting half the 3.5 acres with Jap larch and Scots pines for his mother. Forests have since played a big part of Richard’s life – as the ideal venue for rallying, cycling and orienteering first, and as a family woodland business, Coedwig Pencelyn more recently. From around 2008, he had been closely following the UK private forestry sector through John Clegg’s sales and, having
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been introduced by them to Tim Kirk, decided to invest a proportion of the proceeds of the company sale in forest plantations. To a driver and former orienteer, forests were not only an investment asset, but an opportunity to construct a unique concept of multi-purpose forestry. For Richard, purchasing woodland would see his forestry venture exceed expectations in both growth in land asset value and crop yield. Bwlch y Mynydd (61ha) near Mold, Gorsedd Bran (106ha) at Brenig and Nant y Ffrith (98ha) Bwlchgwyn all within 30 miles of each other were acquired between 2012 and 2016.
A hands-on woodland owner from the start Being an absentee forest owner was out of question for Richard. Keen to re-use his problem-solving skills, he was looking forward to actively managing the estate himself, professionally advised by John Ferguson of Tilhill Forestry who had managed one of the estate’s forests for a previous owner. Gorsedd Bran forest was a Sitka spruce CONFOR.ORG.UK
