Clearview National March 2016 - Issue 172 | Page 12

INDUSTRYNEWS

PVC-U HAS ROLE TO PLAY
IN FLOOD RESILIENCE
»»“THE EXTREME WINTER
weather, having ruined
Christmas for tens of thousands
and likely to cost the country
up to £1.5bn, serves to remind
those concerned with sales and
manufacture of PVCu building
products of the important role
it can play in designing in flood
resistant and resilience into
threatened homes”, says Chris
Coxon, Head of Marketing at
Eurocell.

These are respectively referred
to as ‘water exclusion’ and
‘water entry’ strategies by the
Government.
“While it would be a significant
overclaim to say that PVCu
windows and composite doors
would play a major part in a
‘water exclusion strategy’, there
is no denying that their inherent
weather tightness would at least
slow the ingress of water to a
degree – and keeping low water

thresholds at bay for even
short periods may buy a little
extra time for sandbagging, or
a chance to move furniture,
valuables and appliances out of
the way”, continues Coxon.
“However, PVCu products,
including fittings such as plastic
skirtings, have an unequivocal and
obvious contribution to make to
flood resilience: being resistant
to twisting, swelling, shrinking,
rotting or warping – unlike the

many porous timber windows and
doors undoubtedly wrecked in the
recent deluges.”
Call 0800 988 3049
or visit eurocell.co.uk

The story behind warm edge spacer

Screenshot of SWISSPACER’s
new videos

»»SWISSPACER, A SAINT
Gobain company, has two new
videos that explain the origin
and global reach of its business.
Featuring Managing Director,
Andreas Geith, and Marketing
& Sales Director, Peter Appel,
the videos also emphasise the
outstanding performance of its
market leading warm edge spacer
bars and how they contribute to the
energy efficiency of windows.
In his video, MD Andreas Geith
outlines how SWISSPACER
was formed in 1998 to address

the problem of heat loss through
windows. Saint-Gobain had
developed heat retaining glass
but recognised that to improve
the thermal performance of a
window it needed an energy
efficient insulating spacer bar.
Spacers made of metal are a major
source of heat loss, the weak link
in an energy efficient window. So
SWISSPACER developed a new
metal-free compound, which gives
the best warm–edge performance
on the market and makes a real
difference to energy bills.

Awards for growth and excellence
»»SWISH FABRICATOR,
Building Product Solutions (BPS),
celebrated the end of 2015 by
winning two major awards –
one regional, and one national.
Both awards were presented
to recognise the 50% growth in
turnover that the company had
enjoyed over the previous 12
months.
At the end of October, BPS
won the Business Growth
Award at the Barnsley and
Rotherham Business Awards
organised by Barnsley and

Rotherham Chamber of
Commerce. The company, which
was presented the award in
front of 500 distinguished guests,
was also highly commended
in two other categories:
Apprentice of the Year, and
Manufacturing Excellence.
“The judges recognised
that we have increased
our turnover by 50% in 12
months, and increased our
staff from 24 to 65 over the
same period,” explained Lynne
Darwin, BPS sales director,

12 » M AR 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

who was also shortlisted for
the Business Person of the Year
in the Sheffield Chamber of
Commerce Business Awards.
On top of that, Lynne
was also named in The
Manufacturer’s Top 100, and
even singled out as an exemplar.
“I am a big believer that if you
get the right people you can
do a lot of good things,” she
said, “and it’s nice to get some
recognition.”
www.epwin.co.uk

Andreas also touches on
SWISSPACER’s future growth
and international expansion.
The company already has a
strong presence in Europe and is
established and looking to grow
further in the USA and Asia.
Using SWISSPACER can
improve a window’s performance
by 10-18%. SWISSPACER also
prevents condensation.

Watch the videos at
www.swisspacer.com/en/video