Summary
• Pasquill and RK Timber Engineering merged last year but have only recently come under one banner.
• The merger allows the company to offer whole-house solutions.
• Pasquill is part of the Saint-Gobain group.
• Pasquill opened branches in the south-west this year.

The merger of RK Timber Engineering into Pasquill Roof Trusses has created a company able to extend beyond the roof truss manufacturer’s traditional market.

Under the Pasquill name, roof truss expertise has been combined with RK’s knowledge in other fields of engineered timber to create a business model capable of satisfying a whole-house remit, with products and information available for the three key areas of modern construction: roofs, floors and walls.

Managing director Stuart McKill said this has created a leaner and more responsive business that is better suited to the current economic climate, where housebuilding levels have fallen through the floor and other roof truss manufacturers have gone to the wall.

“The capacity and size of the market has changed and with the shape of the market, positioning is increasingly important,” said Mr McKill. “We’re in a very strong position with a solution that prepares us for the upturn.”

The merger of Pasquill and RK started in 2008 but they have only recently come under one name to clarify the offering to the market. “There is now a clear picture of what we offer in terms of coverage, products and consistency,” said Mr McKill. “This gives us clearer visibility in the market place.”

It has also allowed the new-look company to extend its services to the entire Saint-Gobain Building Distribution group, of which it is part. This includes becoming a central point of expertise that customers from across the group can tap into, with the added bonus of generating more business.

“We’re doing in-house training to continually improve the knowledge of our workforce and create a knowledge base that the whole group can call upon. This will make it easier for less specialised companies to understand and be less afraid of roof trusses.”

The development of its people has been a key focus for Pasquill as it looks to maximise the resources available to it. More than 100 jobs were lost in the process of consolidation, said Mr McKill, but those remaining within the company have been integral to establishing and developing the new remit.

“People have been important in it all,” he said. “They have supported and moved with it and want to make it work. Cuts have been felt from the top down as we’ve flattened the structure to make the management closer to the workforce. We’re able to talk to staff with a shorter chain of command and are keeping the whole business lean. This has been appreciated and has made working for the company much more enjoyable.”

Resource maximisation has also been put to good use on site, where the company has taken the step to open new branches in the south-west to complete its national coverage. The Taunton and Bodmin locations were opened earlier this year, adding to its existing sites in Inverness, Perth, Uddingston, Hartlepool, Chorley, Crewe, Huddersfield, Boston, Leicester, Coventry, Bromsgrove, Newport, Redhill and on the Isle of Wight.

And rather than investing heavily, it has made use of mothballed sites from elsewhere within the Saint-Gobain group, along with the redistribution of machinery and equipment to establish new sites at minimal cost.

“This year is about getting new sales,” said Mr McKill. “We will spend a lot of time and energy looking after what we’ve got and developing new business channels.”

Mr McKill added that efforts to strategically realign Pasquill coincided with the economic downturn, and have allowed it to meet the challenges of both head on.

“Despite the market we have created a lot of opportunity for ourselves as we move into 2009. We’re now ‘fishing where the fish are’,” he said. “Hence the logic behind the rebrand and really maximising what we have by way of network, experience and knowledge under the Pasquill banner.”