NEWS EXTRA
Right: Bernard Delvaux, Etex CEO
in all its packing cases. So to go from that to seeing fully finished products coming off the line was really quite special. It’s a testament to the massive achievement by the team who managed it all with no interruption to customers.”
Sustainable future The state-of-the-art
manufacturing facility has a major focus on sustainability, he says, utilising a rainwater harvesting system, heat recovery, installation points for solar PV, electric car charging points as well as increased post-consumer gypsum recycling, helping towards the goal of 30% post-consumer gypsum in Siniat plasterboard. He continued: ”Sustainability is
a massive challenge. As an issue it used to be a tick-box, something to be done in order to work with certain organisations. Now is the core of what we do.” It’s not just about carbon production, either, Sinfield pointed out. “It’s about water usage, it’s about transport emissions. It’s about the diversity of our workforce. The construction industry has become an industry which is more reflective of the wider economy and the wider country. It has to if we’re going to solve those skill shortages, and again, as a manufacturer, as a business with strong roots in the UK, we have to play a strong part in that change.”
The new government has a
growth agenda, wanting to build 1.5million houses over the lifetime of the Parliament. He continued: “As a building materials manufacturer, we have a responsibility to ensure we are ready to deliver from that growth agenda. Given the time it takes to secure the investment, to complete the construction and commissioning of a plant like this, we had to invest well ahead of time. So we are ready for the next stage of growth.”
He said the new factory will play a significant part in reducing the supply problems the industry has seen over the past few years. “We have seen it lurch from supply, demand, allocation challenges, supply challenges. I think with the investment we have made here, I’m pretty confident that we won’t see supply issues in the plasterboard market for the next five to 10 years, barring catastrophic failure of one of the factories. We will be there to service our customers’ demand for materials as the market grows.”
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There are challenges across the global markets that are also relevant to the UK, Sinfield added. “We have a housing crisis. If you are aged 21 or 22, its virtually impossible for you to on a housing ladder without some support from your parents, because of the cost of UK housing; we also have a massive skill shortage. Post Brexit, post COVID, the European labour we’ve been using to supplement our own labour force has gone home. We have an ageing workforce in construction. For too many years, government has focused on academic degrees as a natural route for our young people. We need to spend more time and get more emphasis on apprenticeships, on trades, on skills. And as a manufacturer, we have to play a part in delivering that, otherwise we will not have anybody to fix our products. We’ve moving forward with better skills, better quality, new systems, and driving change and improvement in our industry. “ BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2025
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