Eurocell Newsletter - December 2011

Made and recycled in Derbyshire!

It’s now official; Eurocell has the largest and most advanced PVC-U recycling facility in the UK!

Our enlarged Ilkeston plant was officially opened on 30th November following a £3m investment. It is now capable of processing up to 12,000 end-of-life frames per week, all of which would otherwise be sent to landfill.

Councillor George Wharmby, Chairman of Derbyshire County Council, performed the opening ceremony along with Albert Vasseur, Director, Plastics Converting at Tessenderlo Group and Vice-President EPPA (European PVC Profiles Building Products Association).

Our Chief Executive Officer Patrick Bateman said: “The official opening marks the beginning of a new era for our group in terms of sustainable manufacturing and offering an unbeatable ‘green’ solution. As a company we are advanced in using the recycled material to manufacture innovative new products that help our customers meet ever more stringent building performance requirements.”

He added: “The fact that our recycling plant is here in Derbyshire and we manufacture new products in the same county is yet another example of Eurocell and Tessenderlo Group’s commitment to helping our customers create sustainable, low carbon solutions.”

Other VIPs attending the event included: Anna Scothern, Director Future Thinking and Partnerships, BRE (Building Research Establishment), Nigel Rees, Chief Executive Officer of the Glass & Glazing Federation (GGF), Nawaz Khan, Economic Development Director at Derbyshire County Council and Cllr Kevin Miller, Mayor of Erewash.

In a system known as ‘closed loop recycling’, we use the recycled PVC-U to manufacture new products such as cavity closers and PVC-U Thermal Inserts. The closed-loop element refers to the fact that these new products are delivered back to construction sites, often to the same project from where the original end-of-life frames were removed.

These new products are manufactured either at our Ilkeston or Alfreton plants, which minimises carbon emissions by reducing the need to transport materials over long distances. Our products are truly ‘Made and Recycled in Derbyshire’.

Customers who take advantage of our new recycling capabilities will gain all the competitive advantage of being recognised as environmentally-responsible businesses, which is vital on an increasing number of projects, especially within the social housing refurbishments and new build sectors.

Returning end-of-life frames to our Ilkeston recycling plant will also mean customers avoid the cost of sending material to landfill, which is currently £56.00 per tonne and rising, and of course there are other economic and environmental benefits in reusing materials and reducing waste.

Government research shows that millions of homes across the UK have PVC-U windows which fail contemporary energy efficiency standards, indicating our enlarged recycling plant is going to be very busy for the next few years!

Welcome to Eurologik70

We've made the Eurologik system even better

Our customers already know the market-leading Eurologik system. They know that it delivers a great combination of outstanding performance and terrific looks. Well here's the big news – we've made it even better!

Thanks to our investment in the very latest recycling technology and dedicated in-house PVC-U recycling plant our customers can now increase their sustainability.

Eurologik70 intelligently uses recycled material in the central core of the profile, with the external faces remaining virgin PVC-U. This means that aesthetically the windows are identical to 100% virgin versions. And best of all, these advanced profiles come at no extra cost to our customers.

Eurologik70 will be available from 30 January 2012.

Patrick's Foreword

There is some satisfaction in knowing that the £3m investment in PVC-U recycling will help Eurocell play a part in saving the planet’s scarce resources for future generations.

There are, of course, sound commercial reasons for the investment too.

Principally it allows us to work smarter on two fronts; firstly, recycling avoids our customers having to send end-of-life frames to landfill, and secondly, the recycled material will be used to create more energy efficient windows.

The official opening of our enlarged recycling plant marked the culmination of over 12 months of careful planning, which, along with the announcement of Eurologik 70, now means we have the Processes, People and Products in place to drive forward our commitment to sustainability.

None of this could have been achieved without the backing of our parent company Tessenderlo, which has been fully supportive of our drive towards sustainable manufacturing, and the efforts of the Merritt team, lead by Simon Readman.

The fact we have the largest PVC-U recycling facility in the UK means that no one should doubt the strategic strength it gives us and we should all be confident in saying our products are ‘Made and Recycled in Derbyshire’.

Customers that attended the open day at our new recycling plant at the end of November were quick to grasp the potential that partnering with Eurocell offered them.

To put it simply, Eurocell's post-consumer recycled products look exactly the same as products produced from virgin material, they are the same price and have identical guarantees, but, being recycled, it offers customers yet another benefit to sell.

It is great to finish the year on a high and as we look back on 2011 it's out with the old and in with the new. All that remains is for me to wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas and a productive New Year!

Yours faithfully

Patrick Bateman 

Aspect wins the day

Our market-leading Aspect bi-fold door system will be fitted in 20 new houses at a prestigious development in North Yorkshire by Sheffield-based Eurocell fabricator Ford Windows.

Shepherd Homes, which is part of one of the largest family-owned, private companies in the UK building industry, specified Aspect for its distinctive Welham Park development near Malton.

Aspect was chosen as an aesthetic and low maintenance upgrade to timber bi-fold doors, which had been originally specified for the 20 spacious, family-style homes on the development.

Ford Windows Chairman and Managing Director Roger Sidebottom said: “The new Aspect bi-fold door system played a crucial part in helping us win this sizeable contract. Along with our high quality manufacturing and installation service, Aspect has been instrumental in helping us drive our business forward.”

Aspect is hugely popular with homeowners who like its many benefits, including ultra slim frames that allow for a larger glazed area to let in more light, stylish D-handles and stunning looks.

Being the only PVC-U bi-folding door system to achieve Secured by Design (PAS23/24) is another reason why more of fabricators and installers are winning business with our unbeatable bi-fold door offer.

Bumper new building plastics catalogue

Many of you will already have seen the bumper set of improvements we have made to our latest building plastics catalogue, which is themed around helping customers choose the right products quickly and easily.

The most visible improvement in the 132-page catalogue (Autumn 2011) is a photograph alongside each product, giving customers instant confirmation that they have found what they were looking for.

We have made a whole series of other refinements, such as a brand new alphabetical product index, allowing customers to navigate to the right page in seconds. 

The updated catalogue continues to be categorised into easy-to-find colour coded sections, which helps customers to locate the product group they are looking for.

“This is our most comprehensive catalogue to date and makes choosing the right building plastics products even easier,” said Chris Coxon, our Marketing Manager. “We listened to feedback from customers and then set about making this our best building plastics catalogue yet.”

Roomline to the Rescue

A major Yorkshire-based housing association recently specified our Roomline skirting system for refurbishment of 17 flood damaged homes in Goole, East Yorkshire.

The social housing provider specified Roomline because it saved a huge amount of time in terms of installation – its clever design means that it simply slots together to form perfect 90 degree angles, removing the need for specialist trades on site – but also because it is tough and unaffected by moisture.

Our Selby branch delivered over 400 metres of Roomline to the properties in Goole on a call off schedule.  Our commercial team helped the housing association by making samples available for tenants so that they could select their preferred Roomline colour.

Roomline is particularly suitable for social housing projects because the easy-fit system enables housing providers to reduce the time taken for refurbishment as well as ongoing maintenance, which not only saves costs, but reduces any disruption for residents.

National Training Centre will help us invest in new skills

We have opened a new National Training Centre at our Birchwood Way site, and have already had over 130 people through its doors.

Opening the new centre has allowed us to continue providing ‘certified’ fitting courses to Deeplas stockists and installers from around the UK. The facility includes a training room where technical elements of the product are learnt, along with a workshop in which practical installation skills are applied. Attendees have to achieve the required standard to pass the course (minimum 80%) and so there is a real incentive to gain as much new knowledge as possible.

On successful completion attendees are classed as certified fitters for the Roofline products from Deeplas and receive a certificate and identity badge, complete with photograph. These are renewed annually if the fitter maintains the necessary standards on site, which is monitored through site visits.

The second phase of the training centre, which is about to be built, will allow us to run Product Awareness days for Eurocell staff, both from our manufacturing plant and from around the country, where they will receive theory and practical training.

The centre will be used for fabricator training too and has already hosted sessions when we launched our new Aspect bi-fold door system.

Our technical team will use the centre on an ongoing basis when they are developing and testing both new and existing products. We carry out these tests on an ongoing basis to ensure that we maintain assured levels of quality for the products we supply to customers.

The centre will also make all product samples and displays for the Eurocell group.

Bill Devitt, our Technical Products Manager, said: “Our new National Training Centre is an exciting development that will help people across our business learn new skills. A large number of people have already attended courses at the centre and the feedback has been extremely positive.”

High level of interest in Roofline

Our South West team recently met Travis Perkins customers in Cheltenham who wanted to know more about the benefits of our building plastics products.

The team were invited to attend the company’s branch open day in the town, which was organised to help suppliers meet end customers.

Shown here are Russell Maggs, Eurocell Area Manager, and Joe Conibere, sales office manager at Travis Perkins Cheltenham, who also organised the day. Other product suppliers attending the open day included Velux, Ubink, Dulux and Hitachi.

“Since becoming Travis Perkins preferred Roofline supplier, we are always keen to help the company grow its sales,” said Scott Coles, Regional Manager South West. “The open day at Cheltenham gave us the opportunity to sell the benefits of Eurocell roofline products to Travis Perkins customers.”

New A-rated sash without splashing the cash

Our new A-rated vertical sliding sash system means that customers can choose traditional looking windows without compromising on energy efficiency or security features.

The A-rating has been achieved through the innovative use of Thermal Inserts made from 100 per cent post-consumer recycled PVC-U. This clever design means that the windows are both environment friendly and cost effective – excellent selling points in t

oday’s market.

We are confident that the new window will be in great demand from householders, and this is confirmed by research carried out by the Energy Saving Trust which shows that homeowners are most willing to stretch their budgets for energy efficiency when they’re replacing windows, spending significantly more to get A-rated windows.

The launch of the A-rated specification follows from other recent upgrades to our vertical sliding sash profile system including making Irish Oak colour a stock item.

To coincide with the introduction of our A-rated Eurocell Charisma vertical sliding sash window system, we have re-worked both our trade and consumer brochures.

The stunning new consumer brochure is designed to make this high value window even more appealing to homeowners, whilst the trade version highlights various different colour, style and glazing options, along with technical specifications.

Because Charisma is now available with our proven PVC-U Thermal Inserts, it enables a cost-effective A-rated WER specification to be achieved. In fact, an A-rating can be attained on the new system for the same cost as a C-rating on the old version by using PVC-U Thermal Inserts and a commonly-available glass specification - a great way for our customers to win new business with a high performing, high value solution.

As well as highlighting its energy efficiency, the new brochures showcase the two new colours recently introduced on the Eurocell Charisma range as standard - White Ash and Foiled Cream (both sides).

“Our new vertical sliding sash brochures provide an essential marketing tool for winning sales in this high value sector,” said Chris Coxon, Marketing Manager at Eurocell. “By making sure the consumer brochure conveys the outstanding looks, unbeatable energy efficiency and exceptional value for money of the range we are confident that it will make the Eurocell Charisma vertical sliding sash system a sure-fire winner.”

Hair we go!

Eurocell staff joined the global ‘Movember’ movement to raise charity funds and awareness of cancers which affect men.

The participants pooled their efforts and formed a fundraising team which they called EuroTashForCash. Seventeen magnificent moustaches were cultivated during November, raising an amazing £928 by the time of going to press.

Team members have asked us to thank all Eurocell colleagues who sponsored their efforts.

They were John Dunmore, Justin D’Cruz, Stuart Furness, Shane Miles, Ray Jackson, Vaughan Hallsworth, Craig Brown, Mark Mcdonald, Phil Parry, Chris Jones, Darren Cutt, Darren Chapman, John Brown, Mark Hanman, Andy Ashton, Gareth Miles and Dave Tyler.

RIP Plastmo

You will all be aware that we're discontinuing the Plastmo range of products from the end of this year. The reason is straightforward enough: it's just no longer economically viable to keep these products on the market – and we're determined to continue to deliver only the most competitive systems to our customers.

The good news is that our customers can easily select alternative high-quality products from the Eurocell range. In fact, the impact to them will be minimal. In most cases, it will simply involve using different product codes when ordering from us.