61.5 the index for housebuilding in the
latest IHS Markit CIPS Construction PMI
650p the price per therm of
wholesale gas as of March 2022
Kent Blaxill adds branch in Kettering
Independent merchant Kent Blaxill opened a new decorating centre in Kettering on February 17th, 2022. Managing Director James Park said, “We looked for a suitable location for some time so it’s great to see our 3,000 sq ft location at Vista Park, on the Telford Way Industrial Estate now open. We’ve created 3 new jobs on a site that offers easy access for trade and retail customers. It’s exciting to bring new paint brands to the area, including the No. 1 Scandinavian brand, Tikkurila, who offer a variety
Greene and Farrow & Ball. “We are grateful to Councillor Scott Edwards, Mayor of Kettering, who joined us for the official ribbon cutting – opening a store in Kettering has been on our agenda for a number of years, so it was very pleasing to see the doors open. We’ve invested over £175,000 in this new store, creating 3 new jobs, and bringing a new decorating offering to Kettering.”
of superior interior and exterior paint products, as well as trusted brands such as Dulux, Little
Top flight sports speaker to appear at European Builders Merchants Conference
Michael Caulfield Msc, one of the UK’s leading sports psychologists, takes the Keynote Speaker slot at UFEMAT’s European Builders Merchants Conference, taking place in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium from 28-30 April 2022.
Before training as a
performance psychologist, Caulfield was Chief Executive of the Professional Jockeys’ Association and he has a unique understanding of the performance requirements of both his business and sporting clients. His main focus is working with individuals, teams and organisations to help them fulfil their potential in their chosen field, and his presentation promises to bring psychology to life as he shares his insights into human performance. He has worked with England football manager Gareth Southgate and
After Kettering, the company will be opening a new store in Thurrock in the Spring.
record-breaking jockey Sir A P McCoy as well as many teams and players across a range of sports.
The 62nd UFEMAT Congress brings together builders’ merchants, building material suppliers and trade bodies from across Europe. This year’s event, which takes the theme, European Unity in a Digital Age, has been organised by the Builders Merchants Federation whose CEO, John Newcomb is the current UFEMAT President.
• For details of the Conference Programme contact June Upton (
June.upton@bmf.org. uk) or Marianne de Vroome (
marianne.devroome@
fema.be)
Breedon to make £5m concrete investment
Breedon Cement & Products is to invest £5m in a new concrete tile plant at its factory in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 2023. The new plant will have capacity to produce up to 22m tiles to meet the ever growing demand across the GB and Irish markets. It will also allow the business to increase the range of tile profiles it manufactures. Managing director, Jude Lagan said the move highlights the Breedon Group’s willingness to invest heavily in direct response to market demand,
“The new plant should come on stream in mid to late 2023 and will see an uplift in production volumes from 11 million to around 22 million tiles per year. We’re pleased to say that the new plant also will enable the business to offer lower pitch tiles going forward to meet the growing requirement in the UK for this type of product.
“Once our new roof tile factory is commissioned, we will see a significant reduction of emissions from gas, electricity, and oil. There will also be a
March 2022
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
2 millon
Ukrainian people displaced in the first 10 days of the war
The Pallett
LOOP adds more companies
Marshalls, SISK, Countryside, Tobermore and the Wolseley Group are among the latest organisations join the Pallett LOOP system, which works to reduce the consumption of single-use pallets and switch the sector to a distribution model founded on the principles of recover, repair and reuse.
Launched in November, The Pallet LOOP aims to transform the distribution of building materials nationwide by incentivising pallet returns via a cost-effective, easy-to- use, deposit-based system. Estimates suggest that up to 10% of the construction waste stream is currently made up of pallets, which is costly from both a financial and an environmental perspective. Phil Dent, CEO at The Pallet
substantial reduction in packaging per product tonne. The new plant and equipment will also facilitate a major reduction in concrete waste, and any waste that is generated will be recycled through the plant.”
LOOP, said: “With sustainability now top of the agenda for most companies across the construction industry, the launch of The Pallet LOOP is incredibly timely – and we’ve been having some very productive conversations. The last year has seen a tangible shift in the way we all think about the environment. Businesses and consumers now recognise what needs to be done to get climate change under control – and realise that it can’t happen in isolation. That theme leaps out from the conversations we’ve been having.”
5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
