Gypsum industry news

Belgium: During its General Assembly held in Brussels, Belgium on 21 May 2014, Eurogypsum elected the president of Saint-Gobain Gypsum Claude-Alain Tardy as president of Eurogypsum for the period of 2014 - 2016. Tardy succeeds Dott Maurizio Casalini, managing director of Knauf Italy, on the expiry of his statutory term of office.

Tardy is a civil engineer graduate of the École Centrale de Paris. He also has an MS in Industrial Engineering & Engineering Management from the University of Stanford, US. Tardy joined Saint-Gobain in 1981 and between 2005 and 2009 he was chief operating officer of Saint-Gobain Insulation, before being appointed as president of Saint-Gobain Gypsum in 2009.

"I am convinced that wallboard and plaster solutions will play a growing role in the future," said Tardy. "The unique attributes of our products; recyclability, ease of installation, fire resistance, acoustics and thermal properties make our systems inescapable for the construction and renovation of buildings. During my presidency I will concentrate my efforts on the promotion of gypsum industry solutions as the best option to create safe and comfortable interior spaces."

UK: Energy savings of 63% have been achieved following the installation of multiple Saint-Gobain systems in a world-first retrofit research project.

Saint-Gobain worked with the Energy House at Salford University, Greater Manchester, UK to prove that whole-house, fabric first retrofitting of homes can deliver significantly reduced energy costs, lower CO₂ emissions and remove 50% of air leakage.

The Energy House at Salford University is a typical 1919 terraced house that has been reconstructed in a fully environmentally controllable chamber, in which climatic conditions can be maintained, varied, repeated and patterns monitored. The type of building used in the study represents 21% of UK housing stock and is classed as a hard-to-treat property due to its poor energy efficiency derived from solid wall construction.

The Energy House at Salford University included Saint-Gobain systems from British Gypsum, Glassolutions, Isover and Weber to bring high levels of thermal efficiency. The approach of the project was to measure the whole-house performance post-installation using off-the-shelf Saint-Gobain systems and standard installation techniques, making the results repeatable across the UK's hard-to-treat housing stock.

US: Saint-Gobain's CertainTeed and home improvement retailer Lowe's have teamed up to offer the latest in backer board technology for easier, faster and more cost-effective tile installation projects.

Reinforced with embedded glass mats for added strength, moisture and mould resistance, Diamondback Tile Backer features a patent-pending polymer coating with a unique textured surface that creates a strong bond, reducing tile slippage during installation. Diamondback weighs 40% less than traditional cement boards and is much easier to handle, cut and install, saving installers valuable time. Highly mould resistant, CertainTeed's patented, proprietary Embedded Glass Reinforced Gypsum technology eliminates the need for an additional moisture barrier. Diamondback has also achieved GreenGuard Gold Certification.

"We are very excited about this partnership with Lowe's, which makes our innovative tile backer much more accessible to the homeowner DIY and contractor customer base," said Kelly Kuethe, marketing manager of CertainTeed.

US: Saint-Gobain has announced plans for a new, state-of-the-art North American corporate headquarters in Pennsylvania, USA.

Saint-Gobain said that the relocation will position it for greater growth and expansion in North America. The new headquarters will, for the first time, allow the company's local research team, which is currently based in Maryland, to be integrated with the company's operations team on one site. Saint-Gobain expects to accommodate future job growth and have the flexibility to relocate additional business units to the integrated site.

"This headquarters marks a step change in Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed's ability to serve our North American markets and it will be a shining example of a 21st century manufacturing business," said John Crowe, president and CEO of Saint-Gobain and CertainTeed Corporations. "With the building industry continuing to rebound, we've seized the opportunity to create a focal point for innovative design and development on the Eastern Seaboard, a place where our businesses and employees can continue to grow in a fully integrated, modern space that promotes collaboration across our business units, while offering significant room for future expansion."

By leveraging the full range of Saint-Gobain's portfolio of sustainable products and technologies, the headquarters is expected to achieve the US Green Building Council's LEED® Certification. The goal is to create a workplace that is energy-efficient, has superior air-quality and moisture management and makes a material difference in the comfort and health of employees.

UK: Saint-Gobain has opened a technical academy in the town of Flitwick, Bedfordshire, UK, to help bridge the skills gap in technical training.

The Saint-Gobain Technical Academy will run a range of training and specialist up-skilling courses. The multi-purpose centre has been developed to feature innovation and product demonstration areas, practical workshops, lecture rooms and meeting facilities.

The courses from Saint-Gobain's companies, including Weber, British Gypsum, Isover, PAM and Pasquill, are designed for 10 to 15 candidates and cover topics such as external wall insulation (EWI), internal wall insulation (IWI), renders and tiling to concrete repair, construction mortars, roofing, pipework and flooring.

Pádraig Barry, managing director for Weber, said, "The facility offers training on a wide range of products and systems from a number of Saint-Gobain brands. The decision to invest in the Flitwick site creates a more accessible location for installers and trade professionals operating in central and southern regions." He continued, "The construction market is believed to need approximately 180,000 more workers to deliver the planned housing and infrastructure projects by 2018. Part of the Saint-Gobain Technical Academy's role is to facilitate this need, but crucially it will also ensure that new and current trade professionals are of the highest calibre, trained on innovative and sustainable systems and have the opportunity to up-skill."

Germany: Saint-Gobain has been certified for the seventh time in a row as a top employer in Germany for its outstanding employee offerings, by the Netherlands-based Top Employers Institute, which recognises leading employers around the world.

The participating companies were SG Glass, SG Sekurit, SG Performance Plastics Pampus, SG Weber, SG Isover and SG Informations Systems. The best results were achieved in the categories 'secondary benefits' and 'culture management,' in which Saint-Gobain was among the top 10 of the 125 certified companies. Furthermore, the companies named above achieved the Top Employers Europe 2014 certification, as they had also been certified in various countries in Europe.

Reinhard Runte, HR director of Saint-Gobain in Germany and Austria and HR managing director for SG Glass Deutschland, accepted the award in the name of all participating companies on 6 March 2014 in Dusseldorf. "I am very happy about receiving this award again and also a little proud as it shows that, despite the increasing standards set by the Institute, we could improve our performance."

US: CertainTeed has invited North American building professionals enter the ninth Saint-Gobain Gypsum International Trophy Awards, which are held every two years.

"We are always excited to review projects and recognise those that show creative and exceptional uses of CertainTeed gypsum products," said Dave Engelhardt, president of CertainTeed Gypsum. "The Saint-Gobain Gypsum International Trophy is a great way to show our appreciation and respect for the top talent among our building professional partners. Balancing the complexity of material performance specifications, meeting client needs and staying on time and on budget is a challenging feat. To further contribute to a project with an outstanding, notable design is worthy of recognition."

The competition promotes gypsum-related skills in the categories of innovation, residential, mixed use, sector specific, finishing applications and gypsum board craftsmanship and design.

CertainTeed will select the top projects completed or projected to be complete between April 2012 and February 2014 and work with principals on project presentations for the international competition. A representative from each of the chosen projects will be awarded an all-expense paid trip to Berlin, Germany to compete in the finals, meet counterparts from other countries and view projects submitted from around the world. The winning projects will also receive national and worldwide publicity, including press release and social media promotion.

Russia: Saint-Gobain has started production at its first wallboard plant in Russia. Pierre-André de Chalendar, chairman and CEO of Saint-Gobain, officially opened the plant, located near Gomzovo in the Nizhny Novgorod region, on 10 July 2013. The new Euro70m plant, which also contains a gypsum quarry, has a workforce of 87 employees.

"The start-up of this new plant is an important step in the group's development within the Russian habitat and construction markets," said de Chalendar. "With its unique portfolio of products and solutions, Saint-Gobain serves rapidly-growing construction markets worldwide. Russia's climate, its rising purchasing power and pressing need for housing means that it's a country with great potential for the group."

France: Saint-Gobain has reported that its sales fell by 4.8% to Euro9.67bn for the first quarter of 2013, down from Euro10.2bn in the same period in 2012. The France-based building materials multinational blamed the decline on bad weather, fewer working days in the period compared to the previous year and the continued economic slowdown in Europe.

"We anticipate a gradual recovery in the group's trading over the next few quarters and confirm our target of a recovery in operating income in the second half after having bottomed out between mid-2012 and mid-2013," said chairman and chief executive, Pierre-André de Chalendar.

Sant-Gobain's Construction Products Interior Solutions sector, which includes gypsum wallboard manufacturing, reported a 4.4% drop in like-for-like sales in the first quarter of 2013, mainly due to a drop in volumes in western Europe. However, Asia and emerging countries reported a 8.8% rise in sales.

By region across all business sectors, in France Sant-Gobain reported a 8.8% fall in sales to Euro2.80bn in the first quarter of 2013 from Euro2.90bn in the same quarter in 2012. Other western European countries saw a 9.5% fall in sales to Euro3.80bn from Euro4.18bn. North America reported a rise of 3.1% to Euro1.56bn from Euro1.52bn. Emerging countries, Asia and Pacific saw a 1.5% rise to Euro2.03bn from Euro1.94bn. In this territory Sant-Gobain singled out 5.4% sales growth in Latin America for offsetting declines in China and South Korea.

UK: British Gypsum, part of France's Saint-Gobain group, has been crowned Manufacturer of the Year at the 2013 Building Awards. The company picked up the accolade at the construction industry event in recognition of its focus on innovation, sustainable practices and corporate social responsibility activities in the past 12 months.

The award win follows a number of key developments for British Gypsum in 2012. The manufacturer launched ground-breaking solutions and technologies such as ACTIVair, and became the first UK plaster and drylining producer to achieve a BES 6001 'very good' for a core range of products. In late 2012, British Gypsum also helped to raise over Euro120,000 in just 100 days for construction charity CRASH and Macmillan Cancer Support.

Mike Chaldecott, managing director at British Gypsum, said, "In the past year, we've focused on making key developments that have a real positive impact for our customers, so we're really proud that this has been recognised by the built environment industry at the highest level."