38 | Sector Focus: Cladding & Shingles
REAPING THE ECO-DIVIDEND
Accoya sales into cladding have benefited from product innovation, added manufacturing capacity plus the growing trend towards natural looking, environmentally-sound building facades, says manufacturer Accsys Technologies. Mike Jeffree reports.
Accoya sales in the UK and Ireland have risen by 14% year-on-year and increasing cladding applications have been an important part of growth. Accoya cladding has now been on the market for more than 15 years in key markets such as the UK and the US, giving specifiers and contractors long-term confidence in its real-world performance, says manufacturer Accsys Technologies. The cladding market for Accoya, says Laura Keily, Head of Marketing at Accsys
Technologies, has been boosted by an expanding range of profile options from suppliers which is making specification easier. The company also now views the “cladding” category as including broader façade elements such as fins and brise soleil. Sales have also benefited, she maintained,
from Accoya’s combination of natural looks and durability.
“Both developers and consumers are pursuing more natural aesthetics,” said Ms
Above: Accoya Color at the Palmerston North Acute Mental Health Unit in New Zealand TTJ | Spring 2026 |
www.ttjonline.com
Keily. “Historically, concerns around coating durability and maintenance have been a barrier to the wider specification of timber cladding. With Accoya, we are now seeing strong long-term validation that reduced coating maintenance can be achieved, helping to overcome this challenge. This is supported by some of Accoya’s earliest reference projects, she added. One of the first homes to use Accoya cladding, the Gordon Aitken House in Scotland completed in 2006, continues to perform well. In the US, Delta Millworks revisited the Aspen Fire Station five years after installation and reports the cladding looking virtually unchanged, despite the extremely demanding climate conditions. “Accoya’s longevity and low lifetime costs, backed by a 50-year warranty, also make it an attractive choice,” said Ms Keily. “It delivers the warmth of timber with consistently high performance.” Accoya is bullish about prospects in domestic and commercial applications. “Use of cladding is on the increase in both,” said Ms Keily. “We’re seeing more new homes being specified with wood cladding and it’s popular for house refurbishments and extensions. The market is also looking for sustainable materials other than concrete, steel or plastic and total cost of ownership is also an important consideration. “In the commercial sector, many companies are using cladding as a visual expression of their sustainability goals and credentials. It often creates the first impression a customer or client will have of a building.” Underlining this factor in specification is a tendency in commercial projects to opt for the natural wood-look aesthetic. “Speaking with architects, we are seeing a shift to leaving the cladding natural within the commercial market more than the residential market, where customers still like to colour, often to match existing or new parts of the build,” said Ms Keily Another product in the Accoya stable is ‘coloured-to-the-core’ Accoya Color where options are also being explored for growing UK sales, including in the cladding market.
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