Gypsum industry news

UK: British Gypsum has appointed Stacey Temprell as Marketing Director and Paul Lake as Sales Director. Both directors will work together to develop and roll out plans for the company’s range of products and services.

Temprell was previously responsible for supporting the development of Saint-Gobain’s Habitat strategy in the UK and Ireland, leading its marketing function. She first joined the Saint-Gobain Group with British Gypsum, where she had responsibility for the Gyproc range of plasterboards and plasterboard accessories and managing the product range transition to meet new building regulations, before moving into the role of Residential Market Manager.

Lake previously led the Ecophon organisation in the UK and Ireland. He brings to the role experience in both sales and general management at Ecophon and latterly as Business Units Director responsible for Saint-Gobain Ceilings for the UK, Ireland, South Africa and Benelux countries.

Switzerland: Saint-Gobain has ended its takeover battle for Sika by reaching an agreement with the company and the Burkard family. The deal will see it retain a 10.75% share in Sika. However, it has acquired Schenker-Winkler Holding’s 6.97% share from the Burkard family and it has sold this stake to Sika for Euro1.74bn. Saint-Gobain is expected to make a profit of Euro600m on this sale. Saint-Gobain will gain additional voting rights and all legal proceedings will be dropped. Saint-Gobain and Sika have also agreed to extend their business relationship in the future.

"This is a very positive settlement for Saint-Gobain, both from a financial and a strategic perspective. We materialise a substantial positive net result in excess of Euro600m for our shareholders. We also retain a minority stake in a great company and will enhance the relationship between the two groups," said Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain.

Saint-Gobain attempted to takeover Sika through acquiring a share of the company owned by the Burkard family in 2014. However, legal counteraction followed and an attempt to transfer shares of Sika from the Burkard family was blocked by a Swiss court in late 2016.

Spain: Saint-Gobain Ibérica’s Sorbas gypsum quarry has marked a record of 17 years without any accidents. The local subsidiary of Saint-Gobain has gone 6500 days without incident. The milestone was recognised as the company signed an agreement to join a workplace health promotion program with the local government.

France: Saint-Gobain’s Interior Solutions division has grown its sales in Asia and emerging countries in the first quarter of 2018. Its sales rose by 2.4% year-on-year to Euro1.75bn in the first quarter of 2018 from Euro1.71bn in the same period of 2017. The group reported that trading in Western Europe was partly affected by weather conditions, although the underlying growth trends were good, except in the UK. North America posted growth, led by prices. Overall, the group’s sales fell slightly to Euro9.76bn due to poor weather and reduced working days.

Spain: Saint-Gobain España’s sales rose by 8% year-on-year to Euro1.18bn in 2017. In an interview with the Expansión newspaper, Mediterranean Region chief executive officer (CEO) Gianni Scotti said that increased housing construction in Spain had driven demand for building products. He added that Spain represents 58% of the sales from the eight countries in the company’s Mediterranean region. The majority of the division’s sales come from products for the construction industry including gypsum wallboard and insulation. However, Scotti wanred that high energy costs in Spain are making the country less competitive compared to other parts of Europe.

France: Saint-Gobain’s Interior Solutions division sales rose by 4.6% year-on-year to Euro6.88bn in 2017 from Euro6.58bn in 2016. However, its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell by 3% to Euro953m form Euro982m. The group said that its division sales grew faster in the second half of the year, driven by growth in Asia and emerging countries. Volumes continued to pick up in Western Europe, especially in France. Trading in North America improved in the second half. Prices rose ‘significantly’, with an acceleration over the course of the year, but remained behind the ‘sharp’ increase in raw material and energy costs.

“All Business Sectors and regions contributed to this good set of results, especially France, which confirmed its recovery. In line with our focus on pricing in an environment where inflation is increasing once again, sales prices rose significantly, particularly in the second half of the year,” said Pierre-André de Chalendar, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Saint-Gobain.

India: Pierre-Andre de Chalendar, chairman and chief executive officer of Saint-Gobain, has inaugurated the company’s Jhagadia 30Mm² gypsum wallboard plant in Gujarat. The plant is the largest wallboard plant in the country. Saint-Gobain’s local subsidiary, Gyproc, operates three other plants in Haryana, Maharashtra and Karnataka.

Canada: The British Columbia government has granted an environmental assessment certificate for a 0.4Mt/yr opencast gypsum mine in West Kootenay proposed by CertainTeed Gypsum Canada. Construction of the project is expected to cost US$19m, according to the Canadian Press. Gypsum from the mine will be used to manufacture gypsum wallboard, cement and plaster products.

Ireland: Gyproc has launched what it says is the country’s first wallboard recycling service at its Kingscourt plant in County Cavan. The subsidiary of Saint-Gobain hopes to recycle 0.5Mt of wallboard by 2028. It has spent Euro1.5m on the upgrade to the plant and it has increased the number of employees to 220.

“We’re very proud to be the first and only plasterboard manufacturer in the country to offer recycling of our products on the island,” said Brian Dolan, Managing Director of Gyproc. “As a market leader in this sector we are determined to be at the forefront of innovation in new products and services, and in the sustainability and environmental benefits of those services.” The manufacturer sources gypsum from its Drummond mine in County Monaghan.

Australia/UK: Richard Cousins the former chief executive of UK-based wallboard producer BPB has died in a plane accident in Australia. He worked for six years as the chief executive officer for BPB following a number of previous roles at the company. Following its takeover by Saint-Gobain he subsequently joined the board of Compass group in the food services sector and became its group chief executive in 2006.