Austrian glulam specialist Wiehag had a poster of one of its record-breaking projects on its stand, and announced its involvement in another.
The picture showed the new Olympic-sized swimming pool in Bangor, which includes the UK’s biggest glulam structure; a roof comprising Wiehag 420x1500mm beams up to 70m long, a total of 1,500m³ of timber.
“We’re also now supplying beams for the £40m, 9,200m² new Tesco in Corby, the company’s biggest eco-store so far,” said Wiehag’s International Timber projects manager, Daniel Nieberle. “They’re currently being made and will be delivered in May.”
He said Wiehag, already established as one of the leading glulam suppliers to the UK, had more projects in the pipeline and expected demand to grow, driven by rising interest in green building and green building codes. And the company wasn’t concerned about possible competition from the UK.
“I don’t think you have sufficient forest resource in the UK, and would probably need to import timber,” he said. “By the time you’ve shipped the wood and processed it, we’d be more competitive supplying finished beams direct from Austria.”
