Adam Turk, CEO of Siderise and Chair of the Construction Products Association, discusses what each of his roles have taught him about the other, how Siderise is making its mark on a global stage, and why the British construction products industry should be more vocal about its accomplishments.
Tell us about Siderise
Siderise is the market leader in passive fire solutions for the building envelope, particularly on tall and mid-rise buildings. We manufacture cavity barriers and firestops which sit behind the façade of building structures, extending the compartmentation of the building and thus preventing fire from spreading around the outside of the building.
The strength of our business is built on a strong technical foundation, with a broad and deep technical support team that provide extensive help throughout the project, from early design right through to installation support.
As CEO, I have a number of different roles and responsibilities, particularly around creating and executing the strategy which will secure the growth of the business.
I have to ensure that we maintain the high quality of products and technical services that we’re known for in the marketplace, as well as continuously building for the future.
If you’re building a prestigious building somewhere around the world, you typically want Siderise in there, because of its performance alongside the technical support that we provide.
What are your ambitions for the next five years?
Our vision for Siderise is for the business to be the known as the global leader in passive fire protection for the building envelope on all building types.
We will continue on our journey towards this by developing solutions across our portfolio for all buildings. For example, we recently introduced a strong proposition for the mid-rise masonry sector, in response to changing UK regulations, which included our innovative, patented Siderise CT Cavity Tray, which has been critical to reinforcing our reputation as pioneers within the space.
We believe that through our innovative products, and with our high attention to quality manufacturing, we provide the best solution for anyone who wants to protect their building. We can also advise and assist regulatory bodies on improving their fire legislation in order to better protect buildings. Through our advice and suggestions, we’ve been able to influence a number of countries around the world to improve their building regulations accordingly.
There will always be a risk of fires in high rise buildings, and Siderise has a really important part to play in helping to create a safer built environment for people globally.
What future trends or policies do you think will have the biggest effect on building legislation?
I think the building safety agenda will remain pretty consistent. As an industry, we’ve got a good focus on improvements in this area, and I know from first hand experience how many civil servants are well engaged with our ambitions. However, I have felt that in recent times government representatives and ministers haven’t been as aligned with the sector.
Going forward, I would like to see a construction minister that stays in tenure for a long period. I would also reinforce the need to have another chief construction advisor within government, a post which was originally held by Paul Morrell.
We need to then see the government making long term commitments to construction programs that don’t keep changing, which will give the certainty to industry and allow us to invest.
How important is collaboration, particularly with government, for the CPA?
The Construction Products Association has very regular and continuous dialogue with the government across a number of different departments, looking at various different aspects of the built environment, and that dialogue is constructive and consistent.
Having said that, I think there is a genuine feeling within the industry, which I say with no impoliteness, that there is often a fundamental lack of knowledge in the majority of government departments around the subject matter of construction. This is because the department representatives are generalists, and whilst they do seek out industry experts for guidance, we find that we’re building that knowledge and learning up from a very rudimentary level.
This often means that some of the decisions that are being passed down, and thus having enormous impacts on the industry, are being made by people who really don’t understand the nuances of the legislation they’re enacting. It’s essential that industry leaders and government come together to change this.
The workforce behind such a demanding agenda must be highly qualified and competent, but also passionate and enthusiastic about the mission and cause. This will require lots of effort towards building out our training programmes, and the accompanying codes which will form the foundation of workers’ knowledge.
However, we also need the government to take the industry more seriously. I would like to see politicians moving past releasing dramatic statements designed to make headlines, and actually engage with us on a more meaningful level. We already have a strong foundation as a global force in terms of establishing a building safety agenda, so if we can nail down the issues around skills and competency, we will truly become the world leaders on all matters concerning the construction sector.
What are the challenges for the building and housing sectors?
I’ve been involved in construction products for well over thirty years, and one of the frustrations throughout that process has been people not doing things properly.
I think under the environment that we’re in at the moment, we see a bigger momentum than ever for the industry to address this concern. Fundamentally, how hard a challenge can this be? Surely, we can make sure that from the beginning of the design process, all the way through to the implementation of plans and the building stage itself, we are employing specialists and experts who have the correct information and know what they’re doing.
This is not difficult in that sense, but somehow, we seem to make a lot of mistakes along the way. The new Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI) which I was involved in creating is in place to ensure that all the product information that people use as part of this building process can be trusted by being clear, accurate, up-to-date, accessible and unambiguous.
The second piece of the jigsaw is around competence. There’s no point providing great information if the people that are receiving it are unequipped to use it, so we have to ensure that we do a lot more work on competence, which we can achieve through thorough training and education.
We have got to stop generally trying to cut corners, and doing everything at such a cheap price that there is no investment in people, business infrastructure and quality.
How important is the issue of upskilling, and how can the industry best encourage people to become trade professionals?
I have such a love for this industry and the work we do, because of how satisfying it is to create and produce products which contribute to the great buildings that we construct. I think somewhere, along the way, we have lost that thread and are no longer motivating the workforce to see and appreciate the value of the profession.
I’d like to see our sector advertised in the same way the British Army or the Royal Navy are, and to see more pride in the way our accomplishments are discussed.
There’s nothing I enjoy more than going into cities with my family, and pointing out where Siderise has been incorporated into a building, and seeing how excited they are about spotting our products “in the wild”. It would be great to see that sort of enthusiasm more often amongst all of our professionals, and I think once we encourage that sort of mindset, we’ll see more individuals wanting to join the industry and be a part of the mission to make buildings safer and more energy efficient.
Alongside this change of attitude within the construction sector, another key challenge is the cyclicality of our work, where you will be incredibly busy at certain periods, and then it will all wind down for a while. Those quiet periods, over months and quarters, often lead to lay-offs that in turn result in a loss of skills across the sector. These skills deficits then take time to rebuild. The government must aid us in plugging this gap, by supporting the industry with more consistency of projects and a pipeline of work which ensures that employment is more secure, so people are still attracted to the profession.
What are your concerns about reaching net zero, and what makes you feel optimistic about the target?
I think we’re not addressing the core issue, which is that a third of all the carbon the UK produces comes from the built environment. 80% of our buildings are very old and not at all energy efficient. I don’t believe that any government so far has properly tackled the opportunity to ‘green’ the existing housing stock, so there has been a lot of wasted time and opportunities.
We have to, as a country, get behind the challenge of making our houses more energy efficient. We should be less focussed on what kind of products we use to produce our energy, and more on getting the current housing stock using less energy. I’d like to see a mixture of grant funding and long-term change to how we measure council tax according to the efficiency of houses, which would encourage people to make the necessary improvements to their homes.
How do your roles – at Siderise and CPA – benefit each other?
It’s been a brilliant experience at the CPA thus far. I wish I’d had a little bit longer in the role before the election, as I would have liked six months or so to have got closer to the political environment as it was, and to make our position and agenda clear to all the parties; but other than that, I’ve loved every minute.
There has been lots of unexpected crossover between my roles. Both organisations are filled with such a high calibre of people, working hard on so many various projects, that as both CEO and Chairman, I have to be able to zoom out and really see the wood for the trees. That way, I can assist the delivery of the strategy by guiding people to achieve those targets which are a bit further ahead. Otherwise, people can get so wrapped up in the day-to-day details and lose sight of our overarching aims and ambitions.
The construction products industry is the third largest manufacturing industry in the UK, and in total, we employ over 380,000 people in the sector, which means we need to make sure our voice is being heard.
As such, my role in being able to understand the wider picture of our sector is crucial. We need to ensure we have a very clear and strong agenda which we present to the new government, and it’s really my role to assist the team in getting our key messages across to government, and to secure that love and attention that our industry really deserves.
We are a massive employer in the UK, and there is so much innovation and creativity within the industry, with 75% of all construction materials used in the UK being made here. My work so far as Chairman of the Construction Products Association has really affirmed how much pride I take in being a part of this industry, and how much I want to advance the interests of all the tradespeople within it.
How is the UK at the forefront of innovation within construction, and what are some lessons you think we could learn from other countries?
When I first started doing export work nearly 15 years ago, I ended up travelling to some incredible places across the globe, and I definitely had some apprehension about how I would be perceived and treated as a British professional. However, I found that I was welcomed pretty much everywhere I went.
I also learned three universally held beliefs about British companies; firstly, that we have a reputation for producing the highest quality of products. Secondly, that British engineers are world-renowned for their technical ability, and finally, that everyone I met abroad felt secure and safe in doing business with British companies.
Gaining this first-hand experience was really insightful and taught me that we should be proud of what we can offer to the global market. I don’t think enough UK construction companies are willing to tackle the overseas opportunity, and really should, because we do have so much innovation and talent within the country which we should be sharing.
In terms of what we can take inspiration from, I would like to see the government support our industry in a way which I’ve seen in other countries. I’d like to see our political leaders engage with more positive rhetoric around the great work and progress that the construction sector has and continues to make.
www.constructionproducts.org.uk
