Glass Times editor, Luke Wood, talks to John McComb, technical services director for Reynaers Aluminium.

Luke Wood (LW): How did you manage during the pandemic?

John McComb (JM): Historically, we have predominantly serviced the commercial sector but in recent years we have grown into the retail market, so that we’re now split roughly 50/50 between the two.

That put us in a really good position to navigate the pandemic as we were able to service our commercial customers at the start of the first lockdown, and then we were kept very busy on retail throughout the home improvement boom.

We also took the opportunity to make a significant, multi-million-pound investment in our Birmingham facility which has allowed us to increase our warehouse capacity by approximately 40%, putting us in a much stronger position post pandemic.

LW: Market reports have shown a drop in demand post pandemic. Would you agree?

JM: The outlook on the commercial side of the business is still very strong and in fact one of our projects has just won the award for ‘Best Tall Building Façade and Fenestration Engineering Project’ at the Tall Buildings Awards. That was for the 82m Hadrian’s Tower in Newcastle-upon-Tyne that incorporated our ConceptWall 65 unitised system.

However, there’s no doubt that we are seeing a slowdown in retail and home improvements as we head into Q3 2022.

This is down to a combination of factors; people are starting to spend on foreign holidays again, then there’s the cost-of-living crisis which is already beginning to impact family budgets with annual energy bills set to increase to around £4k.

It’s hard to predict exactly what the slowdown will look like or how it will pan out, but I also think it will give some companies the opportunity to re-set, to re-evaluate how they run their businesses after the chaos of the pandemic.

The biggest challenge for us – and the industry as a whole – is managing market demand against a backdrop of raw materials and price increases.

In the past 18-months, we’ve seen something like a 20% increase in the cost of aluminium as a raw material, and that’s on top of the hike in fuel and energy costs.

Our customers have also been exposed to huge price hikes for other materials, such as glass which is up as much as 40%.

We absorb price increases for as long as we can before passing them on, but an additional challenge for us is forward buying. We’re currently struggling to buy more than three months in advance because prices keep going up.

That makes it hard to forward plan costs on big commercial projects, but contractors and our partners are well aware of the situation and we work hard to make sure the supply chain is as robust as possible. We remain in unprecedented times, I’ve never experienced anything like it in 40 years in the industry, but the key skill in making it through is communication.

LW: How have you prepared for the changes to Part L?

JM: We have made some tweaks to some products, but strong thermal efficiency was already a big part of our offer so we have been able to meet the new regulations without too much of a problem.

However, the changes that are due in 2025 will be a game changer for the industry. We already have some products that meet the proposed requirements for 2025 but we are focusing our product development drive on this next milestone.

In the new build sector and for commercial applications it will be less of an issue as overall construction techniques should deliver much better energy efficiency, but the real challenge is going to be with retro fit, and how to improve the thermal performance of older properties.

For the home improvement sector, we are approaching the limit of what window and door systems can do with double glazing and so for that reason I think that triple glazing will become much more commonplace.

I also think that the introduction of new regulations will reduce the lifecycle of products from 15-20 years down to around five years as technology changes to meet more stringent requirements for energy efficiency.

For fabricators it will be increasingly important to partner with a supplier such as Reynaers that can deliver well engineered products, who has always got an eye on future regulations and who has the resources and R&D budget to stay one step ahead.

LW: How important is it for Reynaers to demonstrate a high level of sustainability?

JM: It’s massively important, especially in the commercial sector, where decisions are based on sustainability and carbon footprint and it’s for this reason that we’ve signed up to the Science Based Targets initiative.

Through SBTi we will be able to demonstrate our commitment to operating more sustainably and that includes plans to reduce our Scope 1&2 direct emissions – that includes our company cars, trucks, lighting etc – by 46% by 2030.

We also have a target to reduce our indirect emissions (Scope 3&4) by 47% by 2030, which will focus on how we source our raw material, including low carbon aluminium.

By being part of SBTi, we can differentiate ourselves from organisations that ‘greenwash’ on sustainability, we will be able to set clear targets and show precise figures.

Sustainability is now an integral part of our product development – I would say it’s the top priority for Reynaers – and while it is currently more of a focus on our commercial projects, I believe it’s only a matter of time before it becomes more important in the retail market as well.

We will be rolling out a significant campaign, designed to highlight our commitment to sustainability, later this year.

LW: Do you have any new products in development?

JM: Yes, we have a range of new products, including our ultra-slim SP68 sliding patio door, our SL68 heritage range, the EF7 unitised system, the MasterLine suite of windows and doors and the MasterPatio next generation patio doors.

We will be hosting some Innovation days in Birmingham from 15-16 November that will give our customers an opportunity to see our new product ranges as well as a chance to discuss our plans for the future.