# Greenwood Investments



## Jane1

_I have split these posts from a thread on Vineyards_

Hi Mcaul,
           I'm trying to look at the thread link you posted on greenwood investments but it won't allow me. A friend asked me what I thought of the investment just yesterday as he has a deposit down to buy land to harvest trees in Canada over a 10yr period. Any info would be great.

Jane1.


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## sam h

*Re: Vineyard Investment*

Jane....I got a call from this company, Greenwood Investments, on Paddy's Day (so alarm bells immediately rang!).  I asked them to post out info, which they were very reluctant to do, kept trying to get us to go to website.  
Info arrived - very unprofessional looking (basic word doc, not well edited, company reg number no longer seemed valid, address was just our town-no number or street name etc)
Got a phone call from a guy & after quizzing him for about 15 mins about who they were and where they got their details from, he got the hump and said "it's a working day and he needed to go & make some money".
_Inappropriate comment deleted_


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## Brendan Burgess

*Re: Vineyard Investment*

There is a Business name* Green Wood Investments *registered with the CRO. It is not a limited company. 

(   A company called* Greenwood Investments Limited *was dissolved back in 1998. I don’t see any connection between it and the trading name Green Wood Investments) 

   The website is [broken link removed] 

  I can’t find any information on the website to indicate who is behind it. There may or may not be a limited company behind it.

  Investing in woodland or wines is an unregulated activity and so I would recommend caution in dealing with them. 

  And as there is no information about the people behind the name, I would recommend against having anything to do with them. 

As they are operating from what appears to be a serviced office, then I would recommend against having anything to do with them.

Update - the business seems to be owned by the same person behind Vineyards Direct which has come in for criticism before on Askaboutmoney.

  Brendan


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## pernickety

I saw this company mentioned on another thread (about vineyard investments) and the name sounded familiar,so I checked my irish forestry services newsletter received today.

Perhaps this has already been mentioned on the site but i couldn't find it.

Irish forestry say: "shareholders have contacted us to say they have been approached by...Greenwood investments... We have absolutely no association with Greenwood.... and (they) should be treated with EXTREME CAUTION"


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## MandaC

There is a link between vineyards direct and greenwood investments at that address in that they are both owned by a Mr. Benjamin Taylor. (different registered addresses for Mr. Taylor, but same date of birth) 

 A company search on Green Wood Investments lists Mr. Taylor 's address at a very similar address (bar one letter, probably a typo on the Vineyards Direct Website) to the UK Contact address for Vineyards Direct.  A search on Vineyards Direct lists a different UK residential address for the owner, Mr. Taylor.


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## MandaC

*Re: Vineyard Investment*



Brendan said:


> *It has been suggested in a separate thread that this is the same company as VineYard Investments, but apart from the same address, there is no other connection. *
> 
> 
> Brendan



Sorry, have made a hames of this post.  See post above outlining the same owner of both Vineyards Direct and Greenwood Investments.  Is there a Vineyard Investments too?  Also, if Mr. Taylor is one and the same, he should be listed at the same residential address for both business names.

Also, the contact telephone and fax numbers numbers listed on the Registration Forms for both Green Wood Investments and Vineyards Direct are the same UK Numbers

Note:

The attached is from the CRO Website in respect of the information that needs to be displayed on any issued correspondence.
2.4.2 What information must be shown on documents on which the business name
appears?
In all business letters, circulars and catalogues on or in which the business name appears, and which
are sent by the owner of the business name to any person, the following must be legibly stated in
relation to the owner:
• in the case of an individual, his/her present name, any former names, and his/her nationality,
if not Irish
• in the case of a firm, the present name and any former names, and the nationality, if not Irish, of
all the partners in the firm, or in the case of a body corporate being a partner, the corporate name
• in the case of a body corporate (other than a company registered under the Companies Acts),
the full name of the company (note that the only permitted abbreviation is “Ltd” for Limited, “PLC”
for “Public Limited Company” etc.), the names and any former names of the directors, and their
nationality, if not Irish

To the original poster...I can't believe that anyone has handed over a deposit without checking out any details, ie who owned the business, trading record and history, experience in business,

Has anyone checked with the person calling them if these business are tax registered?


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## Brendan Burgess

Lads - well done. I have updated my first post.

Brendan


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## Brendan Burgess

According to today's [broken link removed], the Data Protection Commissioner is investigating Greenwood for cold calling people after receiving a "significant number" of complaints. 

The Commissioner contacted "the British company" asking them to stop and they complied immediately. 

Ben Taylor of Greenwood told The Irish Times that the company was contacted by a marketing company which offered to generate leads for it. "When Ireland's data protection people contacted me...I immediately stopped the marketing company's campaign. I am about to take legal advice about this marketing company and I would rather not reveal their name at present". 

What I find interesting about this is that the Irish Times describes it as "a British company". As there is no information on the site about who is behind it, it's easy to see how The Irish Times can make this mistake. It's also easy to see how posters on Askaboutmoney and boards.ie mix up Ben Taylor with companies of similar names.


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## MandaC

It is just registration of a business name for Mr. Taylor and not a limited company in any way shape or form. 

The paper trail by Greenwood/Vineyard Investments are not mirror images, so unless you searched by date of birth of the individuaol you might not necessarily get matches.

Mr. Taylor should be requested by CRO to
1.  Amend his personal details on "all" his business names  with CRO so that the details match (a) Registered Address (b) Nationality
2. Amend his website on Vineyards Direct so that the registered address is fully correct (even one letter differing might not link to the correct info.) on some searches.  One thing I am not sure about  is if a website is required to show up the personal details of the owner of the business name. If that is the case, both Greenwood and Vineyards websites need revision.
3. Any correspondence, catalogues, etc. issued by Greenwood should show Mr. Taylors details(not sure about websites though)

It is also interesting to note that Director of Corporate Enforcement does not deal with business names and all recourse for complaints are through CRO, whom I would think have a lot less powers in dealing with complaints.

Registration of business name does not give limited liability, business names do not have to lodge accounts with CRO. Again the paper trail here would be very scant.

I am very surprised however,  that the Times did not report correctly on the irish business name as opposed to "british company".  UK  Companies office searches do not show an exact match for Mr. Taylor to that as lodged with CRO.  However, it would appear there is a UK Company Vineyards Direct UK Limited of which Mr. Taylor with the same dob is a director.  Mr. Taylors address almost matches that on CRO in Ireland, however one line would appear to be omitted, perhaps that should be amended so both databases are an exact match too. Perhaps this is the UK Company to which the article refers.

Does anyone know if anybody actually handed over any funds to Greenwood Investments?

My understanding and having read the Irish Times article and posts on another forum is that Greenwoods "marketing company" may appear to have been working from shareholders lists lodged on Annual Returns with CRO for say, IFS.  

I wonder did Mr. Taylor give the name of the "marketing company" to the Data protection commissioner.


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## Westgolf

*Greenwood Management: some type of forestry unit scheme?*

Saw a feature on the above firm in todays Sunday Business Post.The feature was regarding investing in some type of forestry unit scheme.

Does anybody have any experience of them or comments on same ?

Westgolf.


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Cant believe they have surfaced again.  New website and everything.

See here.

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=78968&highlight=greenwood


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## daves

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

I am always very sceptical of "reports" in the Sunday Business Post. I maybe wrong, but i believe that these types of reports are more a form of advertising than the paper investigating the said company....


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## CCOVICH

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*



daves said:


> I am always very sceptical of "reports" in the Sunday Business Post. I maybe wrong, but i believe that these types of reports are more a form of advertising than the paper investigating the said company....


 
Indeed.  It should say 'Commercial Feature' at the top of the page if it is, but if it is all positive, and only one company is mentioned, then read between the lines...


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Hi I work for Greenwood Management, 

I came across this post I have already answered some additional questions raised by other interested readers in this room here:
> http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?p=787849   : Investing in 'Brazilian Eucalyptus' i.e charcoal 

If any readers would like to know more then I will be happy to try to answer your questions, so please feel free to ask me anything in relation to Greenwood Management. 

In response to the article in the Sunday Business post I have not seen this article, but I do understand that we paid for an advert in this publication last week.

I understand that a separate reporter from the Sunday Business Post also contacted the office with a number of questions about the company and that she had an interest in writing an editorial piece about us to run alongside the advert however this article itself was not paid for by Greenwood Management. I think it is important for readers to understand on this point that the reporter would probably have not decided “coincidently” to approach the company in order to write this article if Greenwood Management had decided not to approach the paper in the first place to advertise.

Greenwood Management like many other companies do issue press release’s in order to get interest from reporters as this is a good way to generate revenue, there are a number of genuine “independent” articles written about the company that readers should find on the internet regarding Greenwood Management. 

I will also try to supply on request independent data in order to give a balanced discussion.


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Hi 

Take your point about the press releases and all of that.

A couple of questions for you.

What happened to Greenwood Investments.   I can't see the Business name on CRO any longer.  They were intending setting up a limited company here in Ireland.  Did that happen.

What happened to the people who invested in Green Wood Investments.  How are their returns doing.  There has to be some results now, and why is Greenwood Management doing the same thing?

A search of green wood investments and boards.ie throws up a very interesting thread.  An employee of Greenwood Investments stated that there was going to be a full time operation in Ireland in Cork by last July.  What is the current status of that.

On the website for Greenwood Managment Limited, it does not give the CRO number, which has to be on the website under Company law(if it is an Irish Company)  Maybe it is a UK Company - can you let us have the registered number?

A search of the CRO shows up a Greenwood Management Company (in Limerick) but this is not the same company.

It might also help if you were able to give us a breakdown of the personnel of the Company and their experience of Forestry.


Greenwood Investments were being investigated by the Data protection Commissioner last year (what was the outcome) and IFS issued a warning against them.  It was reported in the Irish Independant that IFS took out an injunction against Greenwood Investments to stop them contacting people on their shareholder lists.  Is this correct.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0903/mike65/Forrestgreenwood.jpg

On the thread you have linked to above Sierra was contacted by he/she had investments with IFF.  This is the exact same reason why Greenwood Investments was investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner.  I would urge Sierra to contact the Data Protection Commissioner if that is the case.  I note you were interested too in how Sierra had been contacted which may be illegal and I hope you resolve the issue.


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Hi I have tried to answer the questions posed for me here MandaC if you need me to elaborate on any point please ask me.


Q1) “What happened to Greenwood Investments. The website is now down? I can't see the Business name on CRO.” 
A2) Green Wood Investments is still running the website it is at the same address www.greenwood-investments.com this is the website for the agent that is representing Greenwood Management in Ireland this is a registered trading name of the agent and I will forward the registration number for you tomorrow (it should still be the same number). 

Q2) “What happened to the people who invested in Green Wood Investments. How are their returns doing.” 
A2) It is still early days (trees do not grow incredibly fast) however the reports from the independent forester should be issued by June and these will of course outline the whole process these will be added to the website. For clients who have purchased forestry sites from through us we act as an agent, much the same as any other property. I will try and get some pictures for you of the plantations posted over the next day or two.

Q3) “On the website for Greenwood Managment Limited, it does not give the CRO number, which has to be on the website under Company law(if it is an Irish Company)
A search of the CRO shows up a Greenwood Management Company (in Limerick) but this is not the same company.”
A4) No you will not have an Irish CRO number as Greenwood Management is a Danish ApS company and not an Irish entity. We do however have registered entities and financial advisors in many countries acting as agents for Greenwood Management. These companies will have their own registration numbers.
Q4 It might also help if you were able to give us a breakdown of the personnel of the Company and their experience of Forestry.
A4 No problem I will get a full list done for you over the next few days.

Q5 “Greenwood Investments were being investigated by the Data protection Commissioner last year (what was the outcome).”
A5 There has been no court action between the data protection commissioner and our agent. An investigation by them should have unearthed the required evidence to take this to court to prove wrong doing and this would of been shown in the decision of the courts. Indecently I find it incredible that the Data Protection Commissioner decided to contact a reporter on the subject of a preliminary investigation. I would presume that they probably have to make a large number of preliminary enquires about companies on a daily basis?
Q6 “and IFS issued a warning against them. It was reported in the Irish Independent that IFS took out an injunction against Greenwood Investments to stop them contacting people on their shareholder lists. Is this correct.”
A7 I find it equally amazing that a reporter from the Irish Independant would have the time to go to court to watch an "interim injuction" proceeding regarding an individual who may or may not of marketed a number of other individuals until a court date was set to determine if this was indeed the case? I think that it is early days and not right of me to comment on this at this stage. I would suggest however that any wrong doing by the agent to either IFS or their shareholders will be settled by the court decision and I should imagine that the findings of the jury will be anounced in due course.
Q8 On the thread you have linked to above Sierra was contacted by he/she had investments with IFF. This is the exact same reason why Greenwood Investments was investigated by the Data Protection Commissioner. I would urge Sierra to contact the Data Protection Commissioner if that is the case. I note you were interested too in how Sierra had been contacted which may be illegal and I hope you resolve the issue.
A8 We only deal with incoming enquires and as such we have Opt in applications for marketing our products. And an extensive database detailing the source of our incoming enquires. If Sierra would like to contact me privately I will trace the source for her in order to help with her complaint should she wish to take this further.
I hope this helps answer your questions but please feel free to ask me anything else you need clarification on MandaC.


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## Westgolf

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Hi lads

More information in 6 posts/responses than I would find out in a fortnight !!

Thanks again,

Westgolf


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Thanks for clarifying.

Just wondering what happened to the Irish Business Name Greenwood Investments registered to Mr. Benjamin Taylor.  I cant find that name any longer under a Companies Office Search here in Ireland.  That is quite worrying, given that it was only registered last year and is no longer live.  Is Mr. Taylor involved with Greenwood Management too?


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

I will try to get the copy of the registration for you tomorrow from the CRO if it helps.
PS its Benjamin Taylor T/A Green Wood Investments and yes he is still an agent for Greenwood Management.


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*



Greenwood said:


> I will try to get the copy of the registration for you tomorrow from the CRO if it helps.
> PS its Benjamin Taylor T/A Green Wood Investments and yes he is still an agent for Greenwood Management.



No, its fine...I was actually searching for Greenwood as opposed to Green Wood.  There are actually two of them, it seems to be registered twice under different numbers!


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## special

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Somebody needs to know that this crew have set up office in Mallorca no. 21 room 701 avenida Jaime 3 Palma


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

Yes this is completely correct you can find the new address on our letterheads, for any other interested readers I will be happy to supply the details of our other offices we are looking at opening several more in southern Europe including one soon in Lisbon Portugal.


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management ??*

People need to seriously check into the implications of investing with companies that are not registered here in Ireland.  Even with our limited protection, it will be next to impossible to have any protection whatsoever for a company not registered here.  Last year it was Greenwood Investments aim to set up a limited company here and they were looking for premises etc.  That does not appear to have happened and I would be asking questions why before investing in another trading arm.

Also, from what I can make out the registered offices are all in po boxes etc and I would not hand over any money until I saw an established history of trading, personnell and their qualifications, previous returns etc.

Please be aware of this before making any decisions.


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management*

Hi MandaC, Greenwood decided to postpone the office in Ireland for a number of reasons primarily that Ireland is a particularly small market for the company amongst a number of other issues.
The office in Dublin is of course a postal address, a trading name was registered with the CRO this structure was set up initially for an easy transition.
We  recommend that clients seek independent advice from a qualified professional.


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## MandaC

*Re: Greenwood Management*

Absolutely agree that investors intending to invest in any form of investment should have independent advice.

Just wondering if the APS Limited company is located in a serviced office or PO Box either?


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## Greenwood

*Re: Greenwood Management*

No the ApS is located in a manned office, the luxembourg office is for the reason of company structure, The singapore office is manned as well.


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## mohammed1234

Hello, funnily enough i requested further info from greenwood after seeing an advert by them. i have had a look at the brochure and all looks well...im just a little unsure why they are not regulated. i spoke to them last year and they said they were in the process of becoming a fund, yet when i spoke to a broke the other month, they said they were still in the process. also, they use an irish bank account, registerd in denmark, or holland...cant rememeber which and have an office in south spain,

can anyone explain...


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## mohammed1234

my broker was very aggressive if i am honest with you. spoke in a very rough london  accent, his grammar and syntax was appalling. almost felt threatened by him.... but i cant jude the product by a bad broker.


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## Tentman

If you read the thread, I think you will come to the conclusion that the other posters came to. If in doubt etc., etc.


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## mohammed1234

sure, thanks for your answer. i just wanted an definitive answer, i called the fsa who directed me to the danish fsa, they weren't much help and couldn't tell me if they had applied...or tell me much of anything really.


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## Greenwood

Hi in response to your postings, I don't know what I can do to prove to you guys that the projects are what we say they are!! but for a balanced discussion I am happy to answer all your questions and I will also happily provide information to you regarding the projects and there viability.


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## Greenwood

In response to Mohamed we had an initial interview with the Danish FSA regarding regulation this is a service that they conduct so the requirements are known before the official application is made. The outcome of the meeting is that the product will have to be restructured slightly to be eligible for regulation and this is something we will be actively seeking to conclude, whilst the waiting time after the official application is made is between 3-6 months. At the moment the company is structured in a similar way to a lot of property investment companies [although we deal in agriculture as opposed to residential or commercial properties] this is also a structure that agricultural companies have been running in places such as New Zealand successfully for a number of years although it has never really been developed in Europe.
The company is a registered Danish ApS and this works well for the tax structure allowing money to go in and out of Brazil without higher taxes being applied due to the tax treaties between Denmark and Brazil. You would have had the details for the Irish bank account due to your location we have several agents in several countries and again it is dependent on your location which agent you would of spoken to. Also if you could pm me the name of the agent you spoke to I would be grateful.


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## mohammed1234

Thankyou Greenwood, you have been most helpful. I am happy what you have said and am happy with everything so far. i am looking about now to see what takes my fancy, so i will be in touch soon. buit i think i will phone direct as i dont want a hard sell like last time.


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## Greenwood

Hi Mohammed,

I would say that it might be a good idea for you to send me a private message with your full name [ as long as you are happy] and then I will be able to search the system for your details to avoid any potential further calls. It will also be helpful for me so that I can find the call logs.

Regards


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## MandaC

All posters should do their homework very thoroughly before investing in anything.  

I would be very wary of investing one red cent into anything that cannot be regulated in Ireland.

This is an irish site and the company we are discussing is not regulated in ireland. There was talk of setting up a limited company in Cork as far as I can recall, but I am not sure that materialised.

Unless Greenwood are able to show proven results to date, you would be as well off betting your money on the 3.10 at Punchestown.


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## Greenwood

Hi MandaC,

I think that it is important to state that there are a number of similar investments in Ireland that are also unregulated.

I think that it is important to also state that although this is an Irish site it is also read by many people in many other countries. Our website shows several  resources freely available from independent professionals and viability studies that have been conducted regarding the projects from experts in the exact locations.

 If I can possibly  supply you with anymore information to prove that Geenwood is doing what it has said it would then I will be happy to supply this however other than this I am at a loss of what I can say or do to prove this!

So that we can discuss this in a neutral light is there anything in particular MandaC that I can provide?


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## ajapale

Very specific question concerning Greenwoods Copenhagen office and whether it is manned has been split off to a seperate thread.


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## ajapale

Greenwood said:


> .. however on our website [unfortunately I cannot post the link on this site but it is gwmtv .com] all projections can be found clearly for the project in question. The information sources for the projections are also found on this website and it states clearly the rates used for inflation ..



Whyever not post the link?

When you google gwmtv you get the following :

*Greenwood Management - Forestry Investment | Invest in Timber ...*

Forestry investments with average returns of between 10 and 16 percent per annum. Greenwood Management will help you invest in timber and sustainable *...*
*gwmtv.com*/ -  - 





Greenwood said:


> I think in reply to this statement it would be good  for you to private message me with the names of the two agents you spoke  to as these work independently however all agents are financial  professionals in there jurisdictions this will also allow us to look  back at information such as call recordings etc,



AAM is an Irish consumer public website and we dont encourage offline discussion via PM.

aj
moderator


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## Greenwood

ajapale said:


> Why ever not post the link?


 Unfortunately unless you have posted 15 items or more on askaboutmoney you cannot post a link I therefore have not posted more than 15 items so I am not allowed to post a direct link to the information required.



ajapale said:


> When you google gwmtv you get the following :
> 
> Greenwood Management - Forestry Investment | Invest in Timber ...
> 
> Forestry investments with average returns of between 10 and 16 percent per annum. Greenwood Management will help you invest in timber and sustainable ...
> gwmtv.com/ - Cached - Similar



This is a catch line taken from internet references historically direct forestry investments have shown returns of 10%-16% over the last 30 years however it is not directly relevant and is generic information regarding the industry as a whole it shows up on most search engines due to the amount of information stating these historical figure and the keywords associated with this industry it is important to state however that we do not promote these figures as targets for any particular project.



ajapale said:


> AAM is an Irish consumer public website and we dont encourage offline discussion via PM.


 I understand this however due to the poster probably not wanting to disclose private information [understandably] such as the name of themselves or the names of representatives they have spoken to I suggested this as an option to avoid a possible uncomfortable situation for either the poster or the representative. If it helps to publicly post this information then we may well have access to additional information  required to have a balanced discussion on the subject, having said this I do understand that privacy is an important point so I do not wish to push this point if the poster is uncomfortable with this.


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## Brendan Burgess

I understand that these guys are still advertising online and calling Irish customers.

If anyone has a link to one of their ads I would appreciate it.

Brendan


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## mercman

Brendan,

How about this: 

PM me if you want further details

mercman


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## Rory Gillen

Anyone interested in Forestry/Timber investing might be better advised to look for quoted funds on the London Stock Exchange that specialise in timber growing and production. A listed (or quoted) fund is a regulated entity, has transparency, no entry or exit costs, good liquidity and no fixed holding period. Email me at r.gillen@investrcentre.com for a list if you have an interest.

Rory Gillen


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## mercman

Lapince, there are plenty of posts on AAM about this outfit. They continually contact me and they are thick. My last conversation last week, I was forced to ask they what part of NO did they have difficulty with, was it the N or the O. 

Some people who give money to people like this need their heads examined.


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## neomorf

Any news on this? It seems the company is still alive and running. 

flickr. com/ photos/ greenwood-management/

Anyone invested in it?


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## Red.King

Hello All,
I am an investor with Greenwood Mgt since 2008/9. I can probably answer some queries from a customer perspective and would gladly share my experiences to-date.

Quick Summary:
1. I have harvesting rights for Xmas trees in New Brunswick in Canada
2. I also have an investment in Brazil (eucalyptus trees for charcoal production).
3. I have received 1 payout for the Canadian investment already (representing approx 25% of my initial investment layout)
4. Good products... but holy cow... the worst customer relationship management I have ever come across. 
5. Non-reachable Account Manager.. despite persistent attempts from my side.
6. Slow with the payments... last year my Xmas tree crop was sold by end of Dec 2015.... I am still waiting for payment almost 6 months later..
7. The investment plan explained to me seems to have changed without consultation with me as a customer.
8. No clear communication on anything except when they want to sell me more products...

Overall a solid 2/10 in terms performance, engagement and satisfaction.

PM me for more details, I will be happy to share communication trails, documents etc...


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## Red.King

Just on the off chance anyone wants to follow this topic in more detail, I am updating details on an Irish board (_boards.ie_ under a thread called Greenwood Management).

Hope I am not breaking any rules by referring to another forum?


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