Wienerberger endorses BDA construction industry comments, and
demonstrates capacity to meet brick demand
9 March 2016:
Responding to the Brick Development Association’s (BDA)
statement that despite the sudden upswing in brick and construction
manufacturing demand, that responsible suppliers will be able to cope,
Wienerberger, the leading provider of wall, roof and landscaping innovations, has
set out exactly how it will utilise its UK and global production network to ensure
customer orders are fully met.
With Government initiatives such as Help to Buy stimulating the housebuilding
sector, the knock on effect has been to create a significant increase in product
demand – the equivalent to a 7% market increase in brick production for the
three months leading up to May in comparison to the previous year. Furthermore,
across the entire company over the same period, the production increase in
comparison to last year has seen double-digit growth. With certain reports
suggesting that this might trigger a crisis in the industry, Wienerberger has
endorsed the BDA’s comment that far from that being the case, responsible
manufacturers will be able to meet demand.
Keith Barker, Commercial Director at Wienerberger, commented:
“We fully support the BDA’s position – there is absolutely no reason why large
manufacturers such as ourselves shouldn’t be able to adapt to the inevitable
challenges that rapid market growth bring. We are certainly not saying that there
won’t be a certain amount of pressure on the supply chain; simply that it is
something manufacturers should be equipped to deal with.
“At Wienerberger, we welcome any Government initiative that will have a positive
impact on the industry. Our view is that energising residential construction is a
really strong driver of economic growth; it creates employment and delivers much
needed housing stock. The initial impacts of Help to Buy appear to have
delivered just that, and we hope that a longer term consequence will be to make
housing more affordable to the UK population. However, in the short term,
demand in construction manufacturing has accelerated.
“While it is true that the industry slump has slowed production over the last few
years, it is important to be able to respond quickly and efficiently to market
changes. This is where the strength of the Wienerberger global network comes
into play. With (10) brick factory sites in strategic regional areas of the UK, we
are able to supply local products for local markets. The nature of the wider
Wienerberger product offering as the biggest brick manufacturer in the world
means that we are able to use this critical mass to deal with short-term regional
peaks in demand for bricks whilst maintaining efficient and sustainable
production.
“Introducing products to the UK from Wienerberger factories in Northern Europe
is also good in sustainability terms. These products come from efficient factories
running at peak performance with energy efficiencies similar to, or better than,
our UK factories. Even though the bricks have to travel further, independent
studies have shown that the typical contribution of transport to the delivered
carbon footprint of a clay brick is only around 4%. And in many cases the
distance travelled to site on road can be less for a brick produced in Belgium or
Holland compared to a brick moved between regions within the UK. This is
particularly the case when the nearest UK port to the construction site can be
used for bricks that have crossed the Channel.
“The other advantage of using products from partner Wienerberger factories is
that the products are manufactured to the same demanding manufacturing
standards as products from our UK factories. All manufacturing follows the
corporate Wienerberger sustainability principles and products from northern
Europe are leaders in the field of Environmental Product Declarations (EPD)
according to EN 15804 – which is still embryonic in the UK.
“Additionally all the imported products have been CE marked to the European
product standard EN 771-1 for a number of years – again something which is
relatively new in the UK
“As demand increases, the need for accurate forecasting becomes more
important to the supply chain. The challenge moving forward is to work closely
with our customers to accurately forecast market demand. We hope that what
we are currently experiencing is simply the industry returning to growth and
prosperity rather than a peak in demand, but either way we will be able to provide
accordingly. We take our responsibilities to both the customer and our industry
very seriously, but this is certainly not a crisis – just an opportunity to support the
welcome growth within the new housing market and help improve the fortunes of
the UK construction sector.”
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ENDS
For more information on this story, please contact Richard Hanney or Laura
Coyne at Manifest Communications on 0113 2429 174 or email:
richard@manifestcomms.co.uk or laura@manifestcomms.co.uk
at
Notes to editors:
Founded in Vienna in 1819, Wienerberger is a leading provider of wall, roof and
landscaping innovations. In the UK Wienerberger has four showrooms, 14
factories and six distribution depots, with its head office in Cheadle, Cheshire.
Worldwide, it has 221 plants in 30 countries and employs 13.600 people.
Offering in excess of 1000 products, Wienerberger’s range includes the Terca
and Porotherm brands as part of its wall category, Sandtoft as part of its roof
category and Penter as part of its paving category, providing a wide range of
building material solutions.
For further information please visit http://www.wienerberger.co.uk/. Follow
Wienerberger on Twitter at https://twitter.com/wienerbergeruk.