Innovation at Interbuild

Summary
• Interbuild visitor numbers fell 30%, but exhibitors reported healthy enquiries.
• The German timber sector had a strong presence.
• The Irish national stand was part of a concerted UK marketing push.
• ‘Sustainability street’ was dominated by wood-based construction.

The slump badly dented attendance at Interbuild last month. In fact, exhibitor and visitor figures were both 30% lower than 2008 at 443 and around 20,000 respectively. The exhibition also lacked the specific Timber Zone it has had in recent years. That said, there was still no shortage of timber and related products on display and companies which took space, many from abroad, said they were impressed with the calibre of visitors, if not the numbers. They reported positive enquiries and even sales on stands and, judging by the number of UK debuts, they still saw the event as a valuable launch pad for new products.

The big news from German engineered timber specialist Hess Wohnwerk was its ground-breaking glulam jointing system. The company, which is increasingly active in the UK, has found that specifiers are impressed with its wide-span glulam beams, but concerned about complex and costly transport.

“Now we have a solution,” said international project manager Rensteph Thompson. “With the jointing system we can deliver large beams in the ideal sections for trucks and containers, 12-13.5m long, then bond them together on site.”

Hess Wohnwerk’s engineers do the jointing work, he added, and there is no loss of strength over a solid, undivided beam. “And we’ve got approval on the system from the MPA materials testing laboratory in Stuttgart,” he said.

Joinery partner

Another German exhibitor, engineered wood window producer Pazen GmbH, told TTJ that it was at the show partly to find a joinery company partner to make its products in the UK.

The €2.5m turnover company has already supplied a number of UK projects and CEO Reinhard Heitjans said it was offering “technology transfer” to any prospective manufacturing partner. He added that Pazen had already developed an outward-opening range specifically for the market.

Products on its stand included windows with U-values ranging from 0.77-1.3W/m²K, in engineered softwood or hardwood, with variations including PU core and aluminium-faced ranges.

Also within the German national ‘pavilion’, sawmillers Holz Schimdt and Ante-Holz both featured KVH ‘brand’ high performance, finger-jointed construction softwood. “We have a customer in the UK buying small quantities of KVH, but he’s getting enquiries for more volume,” said Hans Bussmann, export manager at Holz Schmidt, which mainly exports decking and garden products to the UK.

Costing around 20% more than standard carcassing, KVH has met some resistance, and some UK traders don’t like the fact it’s finger-jointed, but Mr Bussmann pointed out that the joint is stronger than solid wood.

Positive about prospects

Kai Oberlies, export manager at Ante-Holz, which is one of the biggest suppliers of KVH to the UK, said the company had pared back its Interbuild presence. But, despite the “shock” of no Timber Zone, he said visitors were more positive about prospects than last year.

“We’ve had a lot of merchants asking questions,” he said.

He added that Ante-Holz had reached its UK sales targets for 2009 already and that the company would stick with UK customers “through thick and thin”.

The 160,000m³ a year Belgian sawmiller Barthel Pauls came to Interbuild fresh from buying a glulam factory – Prümer Holzwerk in Germany.

To date the company has mainly sold scaffold boards in the UK, but it was highlighting the fact that its portfolio extends to carcassing, CLS, lumber for solid wood panels and laminated timber, battens, as well as Douglas fir and pine timber and now German glulam.

Commercial director Patrick Mertes said recession and the weak pound had hit its UK trade – in 2008 it sold 2,500m³ here; by the start of 2009 it was down to zero. “But it is coming back slowly,” he said.

Irish fork lift manufacturer Combilift maintained its high exhibition profile with a display centred on its compact Combi CB, which can handle both pallets and long lengths. Product manager Paul Hopkinson reported interest from several merchants and a company which was setting up a new I-beam facility. He sensed “rising confidence levels among visitors”.

UK credentials

There was also clearly no lack of confidence on the impressive stand of Chesterfield-based aluminium-clad timber window maker AM Profiles, which focused particularly on its “UK-made” credentials.

“The stand says we are not here for the short term, but developing products and the business to be at the cutting edge,” said managing director Alistair McBain.

AM Profiles has just invested more than £1m-worth of wood processing machinery to speed up output of its Design-5 aluminium-clad timber window, hinged and folding sliding door range. And its display featured its new PassivHaus window, boasting a U-value of 0.8W/m²K.

Meanwhile, glass specialist ESG underlined its ambitions to gain market share in the timber windows and doors market with a display focused on its new ESG’s Pyrotech family of fire resistant safety glass. This has been developed to suit timber frames and is accredited under the BWF-Certifire fire safety and testing scheme (the company recently also joined the British Woodworking Federation).

“We previously concentrated mainly on other areas such as steel frame but, while we’ve had to adapt to the different performance characteristics of wood, it has opened up new markets for us and we see good prospects for growth,” said managing director Scott Sargeant.

Pyrotech comes in a range of variants: Secure, combining security and fire safety; Safe, which incorporates a shatter resistant interlayer; and 8mm Acoustic, claimed to the thinnest available in its sound attenuation class. It also includes Privacy, in which an opaque LCD interlayer becomes clear when a current is passed through, and a 20% thinner than standard anti-ballistic range.

“We’re encouraging customers to join us to test combinations of frames and products that haven’t been used before,” said Mr Sargeant.