News
6 | JUNE 2017
News
Read online at www. proinstaller. co. uk
CLADDING MAKES AN IDEAL HOME
Milestone birthday
St Helens-based PVCu window fabricator Qualplas – a long-standing customer of The VEKA UK Group- celebrates three decades of business this year. The milestone will be marked with a wide range of activities and customer giveaways throughout the year.
Since the beginning, Qualplas has been providing top quality products and customer service to all its trade, retail and commercial clients. This commitment was cemented when the young company chose The VEKA UK Group as its number one supplier of PVCu profile just one year into trading, before later also joining Network VEKA, which has quality craftsmanship and customer satisfaction at its core.
In January 2016, ST Group Ltd – the parent company of Qualplas – was taken over by Huws Gray, the largest independent builders’ merchants in Wales and the north west of England.
Largely the company has continued as previously, albeit with a slight change in the management team. One major change is the miles the Qualplas delivery vehicles are now covering, particularly within North Wales, resulting in an ever-widening customer base.
Aron McMahon, manager at Qualplas said:“ There have been many highlights for Qualplas since 1987, mainly growing from small premises in Peasley Cross to a 10,000 sq ft site in Knowsley Road. There have also been some tough times along the way, with recessions in the early 1990s and late 2000s. However, our commitment to quality and service has never changed and we continue to thrive and offer a premium service to new and existing customers alike.”
He thanked past and present staff, customers over the past 30 years and The VEKA UK Group.
www. vekauk. com
DECADE OF MANUFACTURING
Edgetech is celebrating a decade of manufacturing at its UK headquarters in Coventry.
Launched in 2007 after a £ 2.5m investment, the site became the UK’ s first dedicated warm edge technology manufacturing facility, serving as Edgetech UK’ s main base during a decade of rapid change. In 2008, further investment saw the company double its capacity in response to surging sales, and, after
three more years of impressive growth, Edgetech was acquired by billion-dollar building products giant
Every year one of the most popular elements of the Ideal Home Show at Olympia, London, is the fullsize show homes. Visitors to this year’ s show were treated to two stunning properties, both featuring Freefoam Fortex cladding.
Pale Gold Double Shiplap cladding formed the exterior finish of a three-apartment structure designed to reflect the three stages in life, first time buyer, new family home and downsizing. Visitors were invited to‘ climb the property ladder’ apartments to navigate first-hand the design and practical challenges
Chris Alderson, Edgetech UK Managing Director faced by designers and city dwellers alike as they move through these stages.
David Richards, director of David Richard Associates, commissions the homes each year and explained the background to this year’ s projects:“ We wanted to showcase the flexibility of modern PVCu building materials and to show how they can be used on both contemporary and traditional developments. We have been delighted with the Freefoam cladding range and its performance throughout the project.”
www. freefoam. com
Quanex. Soon after, Quanex merged Edgetech with its existing spacer company Truseal to become the largest warm edge manufacturer in the world, producing 300 million metres of spacer every year.
Chris Alderson, Edgetech UK’ s managing director said:“ We’ ll be inviting friends throughout the industry to Coventry, we can’ t wait to mark everything we’ ve achieved here in the past ten years, and look forward to sharing our vision of what the next ten will bring.”
www. edgetechig. co. uk
FAREWELL TO BRIAN
The Glass and Glazing Federation( GGF) has said a fond farewell to Brian Baker, who has been the GGF’ s interim chief executive since the start of this year.
Brian’ s connection to the GGF goes back to 1983 when as an employee of GGF Member Solaglas( now Glassolutions Saint- Gobain) he attended the GGF Laminators Group.
In the last ten years, Brian’ s involvement in the GGF and subsidiary companies has been instrumental and at one point Brian was a regular contributor to over 25 GGF specialist technical groups, committees, technical working parties and regions( as chairman and vice-chair) and as a board director. In 2014, Brian was elected GGF president and after his two-year tenure, then returned as interim president in the latter half of 2016.
In recent times, Brian has overseen many changes at the Federation including the move in October 2016 to the GGF’ s present offices in Southwark, the GGF group’ s restructure and the setting up of the Helix Group as the umbrella company for the GGF’ s subsidiaries.
www. ggf. org. uk www. MyGlazing. com