Robert Allinson is a sales executive with the panel products manufacturer Medite, based in Essex and specialising currently in MDF.

“From a family of cabinet makers and carpenters, I had a background in the wood industry before I decided to take a degree in Forestry and Forest Products at Bangor University. Yet my interest in timber is more based on environmental issues – particularly sustainability and it’s this which led me to my first job as technical assistant on the timber certification programme with one of the auditing bodies. I’ve also worked in the panel products sector in Ireland and with builders’ merchant timber sales in East Anglia before seeing an advertisement in Timber Trades Journal for my present job at Medite.

“As a producer of panel products our sales role is much more to do with partnering: creating relationships with our distributors and our manufacturing end-user customers, with whom we develop new channels and new products. It’s part of my job to offer technical support and to investigate the new uses to which our products can potentially be put. It’s much more innovative than you’d realise. I’m also involved in managing accounts, presenting figures and developing customer relationships. Being part of an international company means that I get the opportunity to travel and to meet visiting members of our company from all over the world. I am involved in regular visits to our manufacturing plant in Ireland and have also visited our Dutch sales office.

“It’s a stable job as timber products are always needed for building and renovation. I also enjoy the particular quirk of this sector in that everyone knows each other, and there’s a great sense of camaraderie even amongst competitors. You also get a chance to become involved in everything that happens. As an industry though we have a long way to go to get our message across to consumers: that wood is a sustainable material and that timber products can be used in a variety of unusual and innovative ways.”