Dear Tony
11th September 2012

I don’t know if it strikes you or your readers as odd that one of the most contentious and biggest threats to the Roofline industry has passed magazines and blogs by almost without notice?

The contentious issue is the proposed roofline merger of Latium’s Kestrel BCE and Celuform with Epwin’s Swish Building Products. It’s because the threat to competition from a resulting dominant market share is so significant - a company that controls the route to market can influence prices and profits - that the merger is being investigated by the Competition Commission. It’s also contentious because one Group has already acquired a significant share of the route to market via its own stockist distribution under a variety of companies. If the merger goes ahead as planned, the Group would be competing with many more customers. A report is expected in December.

For the industry and those who buy roofline, rainwater and cladding this is as big as it gets. So why isn’t it talked about? Yes, there was a muted announcement of the investigation a couple of months back, and one of the blogs was interviewed by the Commission. But other than that complete silence. It’s as if there was a gorilla in the room that no one is mentioning.

It’s not as if Roofline is a small inconsequential sideshow to windows. Around a third of installers and fabricators as well as stockists and suppliers are affected.

So, why the silence?

Is it because it’s not a new threat and the market has accepted that some manufacturers already compete with their customers via owned distribution? Or because the sheer scale of the merger and its effect on stockists and installers hasn’t registered? Or because the consequences are viewed as being too far off to calculate? Or are we all suffering from ‘gorilla in the room’ syndrome?

The phrase ‘gorilla in the room’ refers to a large, unstoppable event or organisation that has the power to do as it wants, even if people do their best to ignore it. You probably know the joke: Where does an 800lb gorilla sleep? Anywhere it wants to!

Yours sincerely

Colin St John, General Manager Freefoam UK