A SOCIAL enterprise giving the unemployed work recycling old wood has found a new home in Abingdon.

Now managers hope they can expand Oxford Wood Recycling to start making furniture for sale and grow their business.

Its new warehouse at Ashville Trading Estate is 6,350 sq ft, compared to its old one which was 4,000sq ft.

Chief executive Richard Snow said: “We got the keys just before Christmas and it’s been very exciting.

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“This is a great opportunity for us, we can recover more waste wood, work with more volunteers and employ more people.”

He said he hoped the company could start making tables and shelves for sale and complete more interesting projects.

Founded in 2005, Oxford Wood Recycling is a private company that aims to help the long-term unemployed get back into work and promote recycling.

The company “rescues” wood from construction sites and old buildings and sells it on for timber, as wood chippings or kindling. Over the years it has given more than 60 people work experience and provided 18 of them a full-time job.

It found out in the summer that it needed to move 20 tonnes of timber out of its old warehouse at Milton Park, near Didcot, by January 2.

The warehouse is set to be demolished as part of a major redevelopment.

The group originally had negotiations to move to a warehouse in Botley, Oxford, but said that plan fell through in December.

General manager and director Kim Styles said: “It’s another step forward for us, taking us to another level.”

Mr Snow, 58, from Appleton, near Didcot, said the company had been getting a discount on its rent at Milton Park as it was a social enterprise.

But at the new base it was “a straightforward commercial arrangement”.

He added: “We are now standing on our own two feet.

“It will be quite a challenge but we do feel by developing our current services and adding new ones we’ll be able to continue to grow.”

Mr Snow said he also hoped to be able to offer wood working classes.

Find out more at oxfordwoodrecycling.org.uk

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