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CMS Window Systems, Scotland’s leading designer, manufacturer and installer of windows, doors and curtain walling, has once again been named as one of the best British businesses with excellent growth potential, by making the influential Top 1000 ‘Companies to Inspire Britain’ 2017 report published by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

It is the second year in a row that the company has featured in the report, which is a celebration of the UK’s fastest-growing and most dynamic small and medium sized businesses across the UK.

Based near Glasgow, CMS Window Systems has grown rapidly to now employ more than 250 people in just over a decade. It has established a unique position in the UK fenestration market through its highly sustainable, ‘closed loop’ approach to business and client projects, as well as the way it provides employment opportunities and its support for the local communities in which it operates.

CMS manufactures all its energy-efficient windows, doors and curtain walling products in a resource-efficient way, with landfill waste virtually eliminated, and it recycles all the windows and doors it extracts during replacement projects. These post-use products are separated by CMS into their constituent materials at its two recycling plants, ensuring waste PVC, timber and metal is re-processed rather than being simply sent to landfill.

CMS is one of just 41 companies in Scotland to make the Top 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain report, and one of only a handful in the windows, doors and building envelope sector. This recognition comes only a few weeks after CMS was awarded a prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise for its sustainable management achievements.

Andy Kerr, Managing Director of CMS Window Systems, says, “We’re delighted to be named as one of the UK’s most inspirational companies again. It’s high-profile recognition of the whole team’s continued hard work and an independent confirmation that our business development is on track as the demand for genuinely sustainable, high quality windows and doors continues to grow.”

Commenting on the report, the Rt Hon Greg Clark, Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy said: “I want to congratulate the 1000 companies from across the UK featured in London Stock Exchange Group’s pioneering 1000 Companies to Inspire Britain report. Championing high growth innovative SMEs is crucial for the continued success of the UK economy and a country that works for everyone.”

Based at Castlecary near Cumbernauld, CMS Window Systems is one of Scotland’s fastest growing manufacturing businesses. Operating from a 15-acre main manufacturing and recycling facility and HQ, plus its branch in Kirkcaldy, the company provides social housing providers, housebuilders and developers with a range of high performance windows, doors and curtain walling solutions designed to maximise energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and deliver comfort for householders and building users.

Find out more at www.cmswindows.com

Contract awards on major regeneration and infrastructure projects have seen ‘hotspot’ pockets of construction emerge across Great Britain as investment in housebuilding, infrastructure and commercial shifts away from London and the South East.

The ‘Regional Construction Hotspots in Great Britain 2017’ report from industry analysts Barbour ABI and the Construction Products Association, highlights the levels of construction contract values awarded in 2016 across all regions of Great Britain, with the majority of the work taking place in 2017 onwards. A number of districts are experiencing unprecedented growth; however regionally only Scotland and the West Midlands saw any total annual growth in construction value.

Norwich and East Norfolk led all districts across the UK in 2016 (see Figure 1.1), with more than £2.7 billion worth of construction contracts, helped greatly by the year’s largest contract award, the £1.8 billion East Anglia ONE offshore wind farm. Only two London regions made it into the top ten – Tower Hamlets and Camden and City of London, fourth and eighth respectively.
The report compared regional construction contract values in 2016 against the average of the last four years, resulting in ‘hotspots’ and ‘coldspots’ for last year’s commissioned projects in the residential, commercial and infrastructure sectors.

In past years, London dominated the ‘hotspot’ pockets of construction activity, however the report for 2016 indicates a spread across Great Britain, with London only holding six of the 61 hotspots. Scotland was the leading region with nine hotspots after doubling its contracts awarded value for infrastructure to £3.8 billion.

Birmingham was the only UK region that experienced a combined ‘hotspot’ for commercial, residential and infrastructure construction contract values last year when compared to 2015. This was primarily driven by the award of contracts for the regeneration of the city centre, including a combined 1,500 flats at the Connaught Square and Exchange Square redevelopments and high-profile new office space at Paradise Circus, Arena Central and Snowhill.

The majority of the ‘coldspots’ are clustered in the residential sector and replicated across the country, as contract award values fell from the highs registered in 2015, falling below long-term averages.

In the South East, Yorkshire & Humber and the East Midlands, one-third of sub-regions were residential coldspots. Of the 42 coldspots across Great Britain, the South East led all regions with seven of the total, all for residential. London was actually the sole region where there were no residential coldspots, with contract awards for large developments keeping values relatively unchanged from 2014 and 2015.

Commenting on the figures, Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: “The government is focused on raising the levels of major infrastructure projects, in particular public sector schemes such as offshore wind farms, energy plants and motorway upgrades have considerably boosted construction value in more rural regions. Districts such as the Isle of Anglesey and Norwich and East Norfolk have experienced year-on-year construction contract value growth of 916 per cent and 744 per cent respectively.”

Rebecca Larkin, senior economist at the Construction Products Association commented: “Coldspots permeated through the residential sector last year, in a marked contrast to its strength in the previous regional report. The sector has ramped up house building activity over the last 12 months, reflecting the flow of work generated by the peak in contract awards in 2015, but there are now question marks as to what impact the fall in contract values will have on construction over the next 12 months. Monitoring contract value in 2017 will give an early indication of the sector’s near-term performance.”

The post Construction activity shifts across Great Britain appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Apeer has launched a comprehensive Leadership Development Programme for all of its Production Team Leaders to keep the manufacturer ahead of the rapid growth it has seen in recent years.

Around 18 Team Leaders and 12 Managers and Supervisors will take part in the programme over the coming 18 months, along with a number of non-production staff.

“In a very short time, Apeer has grown into a major league manufacturer and it is important that we keep ahead of that growth with our standards and practices of management,” said Chris Wilson, who joined the Co Antrim company as Production Director at the end of last year.

“The company has not previously put our production team leaders through any management training but, to continue growing the company more effectively, we need them to take on a more strategic role, for example to be able to manage their teams to Key Performance Indicators within their specific areas.”

The programme will take the form of two streams, to minimise disruption to their conventional duties. As well as KPIs, other areas of focus will include time management, effective delegation, problem solving, project and task management, communication skills and conflict management.

Apeer has grown dramatically since the launch of its Lumi window and door system two years ago, as well as its Traditional, Contemporary and Modo composite Door collections, with production facilities and staff growing accordingly, backed by significant investment.

The Leadership Development Programme is the first major training initiative since Chris Wilson joined the company in November but he added that other areas of job-specific and product-specific knowledge such as PC Skills, Lean Manufacturing and Health & Safety may be developed in future.

www.apeer.co.uk

Wrightstyle, the advanced glazing supplier, has been raising issues of fire safety for years. Jane Embury, a director of the company, adds her voice to the outrage surrounding the Grenfell Tower fire.

It’s been called “codifying by catastrophe.” It’s the way in which fire and building regulations are tightened after every major fire.

The Grenfell Tower fire will be no exception, with government ministers also now having to explain why fire and building regulations weren’t tightened sooner.

At this stage, it would be wrong to point fingers of blame, although the implications of the Grenfell Tower fire have resounded around the country – and the world.

Instead, I would like to pay tribute to William Linton, whose death in a tower block fire eighteen years ago led directly to a change of fire regulations.

He died in a fire in a 14-storey block of flats in Ayrshire, with the fire having spread via the external cladding, reaching the 12th floor within minutes, and destroying properties on nine floors. Four other people were injured.

The local MP, Brian Donohoe, was sufficiently concerned about cladding safety that he lobbied for a parliamentary inquiry, which was carried out by the select committee on environment, transport and regional affairs.

The report found that most external cladding being used in the UK did not pose “a serious threat to life or property in the event of fire.”

However, it added: “Notwithstanding… we do not believe that it should take a serious fire in which many people are killed before all reasonable steps are taken towards minimising the risks.”

The MPs on the committee also concluded that any addition to the outside of a building which had the “potential to lessen its resistance to external fire spread” should be subject to building regulations.

Those words, of course, date back to the start of the 21st century. But compare Westminster words with the reaction of the Scottish government. A Scottish select committee reported a year after the fire, which led to the Building (Scotland) Act 2003, which introduced the Building (Scotland) Regulations 2004 which came into force in 2005.

They state that: “Every building must be designed and constructed in such a way that in the event of an outbreak of fire within the building, or from an external source, the spread of fire on the external walls of the building is inhibited.” The word “inhibited” is vital to interpreting those regulations.

Following the Grenfell Tower fire, the Scottish Government convened a Ministerial Working Group to examine building and fire safety regulations in Scotland although, crucially, it confirmed that the type of external cladding reportedly used on Grenfell Tower is not present on any residential tower block in Scotland.

It seems to me preposterous that if Scotland codified by catastrophe after a fire in which only one person died, why did the Westminster government not consider a change in building regulations south of the Border?

The catastrophic Grenfell Tower fire is a stark reminder that when fires break out they can have appalling consequences. But what sets this fire apart, at least to me, is that it was an horrific event that may have been preventable if fire regulations in one part of the UK had been adopted across the rest of the UK.

At this stage, of course, we shouldn’t speculate, but it does raise uncomfortable questions for the government and all those charged with fire safety.

In the immediate aftermath, and while I’m loathe to add our voice to the swirling debate around this ghastly event, Wrightstyle has over the years repeatedly raised issues of fire safety – in the UK directly with government, and in other jurisdictions around the world, most notably in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

We therefore have a track history of asking uncomfortable questions because our experience, based on over 20 years in fire safety, is that, while there are relatively robust regulations in place, they are often badly understood or, sometimes, simply ignored.

Another factor is that fire safety officials, in certifying new or refurbished buildings as safe, may simply have asked the wrong questions. In this case, what cladding and insulation had been fitted, and was it compliant? The answer, as we published in an article to the industry this year, is that we need better training, better documentation and better checking of documentation.

There is little doubt that further guidance will be forthcoming following the Grenfell Tower fire. But maybe what’s required, and what many of us have been arguing for some time, is a complete overhaul of building and fire regulations. At the very least, the public will expect it, and the Grenfell Tower victims deserve it.

To them, and to everyone affected, we extend our thoughts.

www.wrightstyle.co.uk

Within our humble industry, worth more than the UK music industry, there lies very many influential and powerful people and brands. There are however one or two that stand out a little more than the rest. Who have the power to actually change the way the industry works and the direction it goes in.

This is my list of five of the most powerful people and brands in the UK window and door industry. It’s numbered one to five, but this isn’t in an ranking order, just five of the big ones.

1. Gareth Mobley + DW3 Products Group

Perhaps one of the best known names in the window and door industry, Gareth Mobley cut his teeth at Solidor, helping them grow to become one of the biggest and leading composite door manufacturers. Leading the way with their solid timber door slab, others have now followed where they went first.

It is however where he is now is the reason for him being on this list. A couple of years ago the DW3 Products Group was born. Much money was poured into this new group, which formed Solidor, and then acquired Residence Collection and Window Widgets. As well as whole host of talent from across the industry.

The DW3 group houses one of the biggest high end composite door suppliers, the largest timber alternative systems company and a business that literally has a product to solve any problem or conundrum in Window Widgets. Combined the group represents some serious turnover and even more influence.

2. Nick Dutton + Brisant

A list like this cannot omit a name such as Nick Dutton. Synseal, Door-Stop and Brisant, Nick Dutton has been at the helm of these companies that have gone on to materially change the way our industry operates and it’s direction.

Perhaps the best known for these achievements is Door-Stop. After selling Sysneal, he went on to co-create Door-Stop. A composite door company built from scratch with the sole purpose of making it easy for installers to sell and order composite doors and have them delivered in a matter of days. The first company of it’s kind in the industry and is now under Masonite ownership.

But it is with Brisant where Nick can be proud of his achievements. In Ultion, he has shaken the high security door cylinder industry like no other product. I have never seen a product launch and then take hold like the Ultion cylinder has before. If it was put on a graph, Ultion’s success would show as a near vertical line. Installers and fabricators couldn’t make this product a standard option quick enough. How many of us know of a product that has been so rapidly successful as this?

3. Matthew Glover + FIT Show

When Glassex was canned, the industry was left without a trade show. Our industry was left unrepresented in the exhibition trade. Not for long however.

Matthew Glover, involved previously at West Yorkshire Windows and later the Conservatory Outlet, founded the FIT Show. A new exhibition with a refreshed feel to represent the industry once again.

Held at Telford for the first three years, it has now grown to become the key event in the industry calendar for many companies wishing to exhibit and industry visitors too. Now at home at the NEC in Birmingham, the show attracted 10k unique visitors for the first time, cementing it’s place in our sector. It also boasted a record number of exhibitors this year too. The next show is in 2019.

There is no doubting that the FIT Show filled, and then grew, a key industry event that if not filled would have been a travesty for an industry worth over £5bn a year to the UK economy.

4. Ian Short + Morley Glass

I have personal experience with Ian and his company Morley Glass. For many years our family run installations business has been buying products from Morley Glass for a long time. Longer than I’ve been in the business.

But then Ian got involved with integral blinds. They use the Uni-Blinds® system. Our home owners have been buying them from us for well over a decade and have become more and more popular over the years.

Since their introduction, Morley Glass have become the world’s biggest producer of Uni-Blinds® integral blinds, which if you’re Ian Short must be amazing to know. They recently completed a factory move which saw their production capacity quadruple to cope with their high demand. These days they’re blind makers, with a bit of glass on the side. Morley Glass have probably changed the integral blinds market more than anyone else and in more ways than any other blinds company in the UK.

5. Ultraframe

In the world of conservatory roofs, the biggest and most renown continues to be Ultraframe. Once a FTSE100 company, Ultraframe continues to shape the always evolving roof market.

They don’t always get it right however. They do a lot of products these days. Some sell very well, some not. But that’s never a bad thing, as all roof companies strive to find the direction the roof market is going to go in.

First on the scene with diversification products such as the Loggia, LivinRoom and Cornice gutter products, they were among the first to recognise that traditional conservatories were dead and that there had to be change if home owners were to fall in love with these types of products once again.

These are five who I personally believe hold some of the most sway and influence, particularly in their own parts of the market and this is very much my own opinion. There continues to be a whole bunch of people and companies changing the way our industry works and the direction it is going in. I of course welcome your suggestions for this list via the comments section below.