Ben Jayes says he would be the first to admit that the past 16 months have not been good for his business鈥� public image. 鈥淏efore June last year nobody out there had ever heard of cladding,鈥� he says; 鈥渂ut they鈥檝e certainly heard of it now鈥�.
Jayes (pictured below) is managing director of Vivalda, one of the UK鈥檚 leading suppliers of rainscreen cladding systems 鈥� products which, installed on the outside of buildings, could hardly be more conspicuous. And yet, under normal circumstances they are seldom given a second thought by the man or woman in the street.
The Grenfell Tower fire changed all that; it propelled the previously overlooked business of rainscreen cladding into the spotlight. All of a sudden, this arcane corner of the construction industry became the focus of fierce public attention 鈥� most of it highly critical, even hostile.
鈥淭he immediate impact of Grenfell was mostly negative for us,鈥� admits Jayes. The impact came primarily in the form of a huge increase in admin work, rather than a reduction in orders.
鈥淲e had a huge number of requests from contractors, clients, tenants and insurers wanting reassurances about systems already installed 鈥� warranties, fire certificates, that kind of thing. It was very onerous for us but of course they wanted to know that their building was safe,鈥� says Jayes.
The sudden fear of cladding fires didn鈥檛 result in a swathe of cancelled orders or mothballed projects, as many might have expected. But it did result in clients taking a far more cautious approach and demanding a great deal more information from their suppliers. Perhaps surprisingly, Jayes welcomes this new approach; he says it has given the industry the shake-up it needs.
While the enquiry into the disaster drags on, Jayes is clear that the perennial tendency among clients and main contractors to push down costs and always take the lowest bid has much to answer for.
What is often euphemistically termed 鈥渧alue engineering鈥� is often merely down-speccing, he says, and the original specification is invariably seen by contractors as the opening move in a negotiation. 鈥淲e鈥檙e asked that all the time 鈥� to reduce the spec,鈥� says Jayes.
鈥淧rior to Grenfell, cladding packages were always heavily value-engineered. But we鈥檝e definitely seen a change in the market since. Of course price is still a factor, but the focus now is on performance and fire safety. Cost is now second or third on the list of priorities,鈥� he adds.
The whole industry is now taking what Jayes describes as 鈥渁 belt-and-braces鈥� approach: 鈥淪pecifications are now far more regimented 鈥� they鈥檙e not something for the contractor to aim at, they鈥檙e more prescriptive 鈥� they鈥檙e gospel,鈥� he says.
Neither the fall-out from Grenfell Tower, nor the collapse of Carillion in January this year, seems to have affected Vivalda adversely. In August, the company published its financial results for the year ending December 2017, showing that turnover increased by 19% to 拢31m and pre-tax profit was up almost 8% to 拢2.55m.
The company now operates from eight locations throughout the UK and Ireland and has recently invested around 拢250,000 in new equipment for off-site assembly of cladding panels. Vivalda鈥檚 main market is in new-build and refurbishment, primarily in the high-rise residential, retail, commercial and education sectors.
Demand remains strong in most of these sectors 鈥� Jayes singles out the student-accommodation market as being especially buoyant still 鈥� and he鈥檚 confident that Vivalda will continue to grow at its current rate. 鈥淥ur turnover was up 20% in the first quarter of this year compared to 2017, and Q2 figures are also up by around the same level,鈥� he says.
Vivalda鈥檚 boast is that it is the UK鈥檚 pre-eminent supplier of complete turnkey cladding solutions, specialising in the assembly of finished fa莽ade components for just-in-time delivery to site.
鈥淲e bring in flat board and fabricate bespoke cladding units for each client. We are about cladding technology 鈥� framing, insulation, carrier systems, fire breaks 鈥� the whole external fa莽ade,鈥� says Jayes. Off-site manufacture, so often lauded as the future of construction, but hitherto received rather unenthusiastically by the industry, really is the way forward for Vivalda, he says.
鈥淧eople are increasingly moving away from wet trades and rainscreen cladding systems are an ideal solution,鈥� says Jayes. This is especially true of the residential sector and, although volume house-building is not a major market for Vivalda, the company has seen an increase in demand for its panels for use with timber-framed homes.
As an example, Jayes cites the recent supply of 30,000m2 of Marley Eternit Equitone fibre-cement cladding to Caldeonian Modular for the Hinkley Point C campus in collaboration with Laing O鈥橰ourke.
Last year, Vivalda delivered its largest-ever single order, worth 拢2.75m, to the Hallsville Quarter development, a new town centre in Canning Town, east London, for Bouygues UK. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a mix of residential, commercial and retail including a hotel and two or three tower blocks,鈥� says Jayes.
He adds: 鈥淲e did all the structural design and developed a bespoke fixing system for the panels, some of which are curved and irregular shapes.鈥�
Earlier this year, Vivalda took the decision to relocate its headquarters from London to new premises in Birmingham. 鈥淲e started out in London in September 1999 鈥� this year we鈥檙e celebrating our 20th anniversary 鈥� and at the time there were no outlets providing this sort of service within the M25. We filled a niche,鈥� explains Jayes.
鈥淏ut now we find London increasingly costly. Road links are bad, any physical expansion is expensive and it鈥檚 really difficult recruiting and retaining staff,鈥� he adds. 鈥淟ondon has a very transient population and we鈥檝e had lots of problems retaining skilled staff in the medium and long term鈥�.
Birmingham is where Vivalda set up its first branch outside London and, with an established presence there, it made sense to relocate. 鈥淚t鈥檚 central, communications are good and the cost-base is considerably cheaper,鈥� says Jayes.
The new location, in Nechells, gives Vivalda plenty of room for expansion and Jayes (who hails from the West Midlands himself) feels that the new headquarters provides a springboard from which to launch into new markets.
Faster-growing and more productive
This year Vivalda was identified by the London Stock Exchange Group as one of the 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain. Its readiness to innovate and invest differentiates the company from other cladding suppliers, but what really impressed the LSEG judges was Vivalda鈥檚 sustained growth and, crucially, productivity.
Based on its 2017 accounts, Vivalda鈥檚 鈥榲alue added per employee鈥� was calculated at 拢94,300 which, according to the UK Industry Performance Report (2016), is more than 拢30,000 above the construction sector average of 拢63,700.
The value added per employee is measured by taking gross turnover, subtracting the value of all bought-in supplies and dividing this by the number of staff.
This article was first published in the聽
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