Pro Installer April 2020 - Issue 85 | Page 16

16 | APRIL 2020 News Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk BUILDING REGULATIONS PART L CHANGES TO BE A KEY TOPIC AS BFRC FABRICATORS FORUM RETURNS Birmingham City Football Club will be the venue for the second outing of the BFRC Fabricators Forum when it takes place this year on June 16th, with a second event, the BFRC’s Annual Simulators Meeting, taking place the next day, June 17th, at the same venue. A wide-reaching pro- gramme led by some of the win- dow and door industry’s leading experts will include a series of panel debates, Q&A sessions and networking opportunities, with new BFRC product launches and initiatives also to be announced. Revisions to Part L of the Build- ing Regulations expected this year are likely to be a key topic and discussions will be directed towards clarifying the impact these will have on the UK win- dow and door sector. Attendance to the BFRC Fabricators Forum will be limited with free places allocated on a first come, first serve basis. With the interest in Part L, demand is expected to be high. The BFRC is the UK’s most trusted and widely used in- dependent ratings system for verifying the energy performance of windows and doors, using the well-known rainbow system to raise standards across the glazing industry. The first-ever Fabricators Forum in Reading last year proved a constructive and VEKA UK Temporarily Closes Operations due to COVID-19 Dave Jones, Managing Director of VEKA UK explains “For over 30 years, VEKA UK, our customers and our people have faced a fair few challenges. And we’ve come through them, by acting quickly, supporting each other and working together. “We are taking our responsibility during this Pandemic very seriously and as the situation con- tinues to change rapidly so must we. The wellbeing of our employees, customers, suppliers and community is our highest priority, which is why we have made the difficult decision to temporarily close our operations in the UK from Sunday 29th March and ceased to make deliveries after Weds 25th March 2020. “Due to the dynamic na- ture of the Pandemic, we do not know when we will be able to open our busi- ness once more, but we will review this in 3 weeks in-line with Government advice. As soon as we have any new information, we will share this with you via our website and social media channels in the first instance.” www.vekauk.com valuable meeting for profession- als across the window and door supply chain, and the strong em- phasis on audience participation during the discussions on key issues vital to the industry will be repeated at this year’s event. “We’re thrilled to be hosting our second Fabricators Forum,” said Lis Clarke, BFRC Operations Director. “Following the feed- back received off the back of last year’s event we have organised the Birmingham programme, which will focus on intensive discussions with the goal of reaching conclusions and bring- ing them to reality through BFRC and other GGF organisations on a range of issues. “To achieve this, we are assem- bling a panel of some of the UK’s foremost experts and respected panellists to lead discussions about key industry topics and bring valuable insights into what the next year has in store for our industry.” The event is followed by a sec- ond day organised for Certified Simulators, who carry out fenes- tration ratings calculations on behalf of BFRC and its registered members. Further details of the pro- gramme will be announced over the next few weeks. Tickets are free but numbers are limited: please register to attend at https:// www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/ bfrc-fabricators-forum- tickets-93948978925 UK Glazing Group Saves £350,000 With Customade Group Celebrations have been taking place at UK Glazing Group Ltd as it marks a very successful year of trading as a PVCu and aluminium supplier for the commer- cial market. Since ceasing manufacturing and choosing Customade Group as its fab- ricator 12 months ago, the firm has made incredible savings of £350,000 and boosted output by 25%. As well as toasting to its success, the company, which has installed windows and doors on some of the north west’s most prestigious buildings, has now invested £100,000 to convert its former 3,500 square foot factory in North Man- chester into a showroom; which includes aluminium windows and doors from REAL Aluminium, glazed roof lanterns from Atlas Glazed Roof Solutions, PVCu windows from Polyframe and composite doors from Virtuoso Doors. Based in Heywood, Lancashire, UK Glaz- ing Group is an established commercial supplier of PVCu and aluminium products for new-build residential and commer- cial projects. The firm supplies up to 200 frames a week and employs five fitting teams to install on commercial contracts. www.customade.co.uk