Deceuninck customers had the opportunity to discuss the implications of changes to Part L and Part F at a customer day.
Kevin Jones of the GGF fielded questions from the floor, which suggested that the regulatory changes introduced in December and coming into force from 15th June were contradictory and ill considered, covering off thorny issues including compliance and enforcement.
Managing director Rob McGlennon replied: “It’s very clear that there is a level of frustration with changes to Part F and we will continue to work with our partners to communicate this to the industry’s representative bodies, while supporting our customers and theirs’ in turn, in turn, in staying on the right side of the changes.”
Earlier, Rob had highlighting the fall in manufacturing capacity that the industry has seen since 2007. Processed product was 300,000 plus tonnes in 2007, manufactured by 2,840 fabricators. By 2020, this number had fallen to 1,190, yet despite, this processed output was still approaching 300,000 tonnes. “It goes some way to explaining why everyone feels that they have been working so hard in the last couple of years”, he said.
John Warren of Lasco PR and Marketing presented the findings of independent research commissioned by Deceuninck and conducted by YouGov. This included the importance end-users placed on sustainability and even the willingness of some homeowners to pay a premium for products using recycled content – but also low levels of end-user awareness that PVC-U could be recycled.
Operations director Darren Woodcock gave a presentation to explain how Deceuninck was bringing back recycled material into use in a new generation of products, saving tens of thousands of tonnes of PVC-U from landfill.
Chris Tahmasaby, Director ICAAL, gave a walk-through of Deceuninck’s new fabricator lead generation tools including the creation of dedicated and SEO optimised sub-sites. He also placed emphasis on the importance of marketing against the backdrop of toughening conditions and inflation.
Rob McGlennon concluded: “The turnout was really good. We had 40 plus customers there and will follow-up with further events around the UK in the spring and early summer.”
