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glues, sealants & adhesives
be very strong and anticipate a bounce back like last year’s.” After all, says Paul: “We’re no longer dealing with the
unexpected here. We’re able to manage things more comfortably this time around.”
Over at Soudal (https://soudal.co.nz/), GM Melanie Reid reports that momentum has remained strong going into October, even with Auckland still at Level 3, “and we suspect builders will be getting stuck in and trying to play catch-up before Christmas.
“We’re more agile in the way we operate now, and we haven’t really missed a beat this year after redeploying sales reps and equipping staff to work from home.
“It’s a far cry from last year when we were scrambling and fearful of what was going to unfold.
“The market has been going really well and we’ve been growing market share. We spent last year delaying the intro of new products – mostly niche rather than mainstream – but were keen to push on this year,” says Melanie adding that industry events before lockdown were “well attended with high levels of engagement from customers and it’s been great to interact with people and see the show of support for the industry.”
And while Dunlop (www.dunlopdiy.com) Product Manager Steven Irvine concedes that he and his colleagues at Ardex New Zealand have seen a slow-down over the past two months, with the lockdown forcing many customers to temporarily close their tills, overall market demand has been very high across 2021.
“Waterproofing demand has always been strong in the construction market,” he says, “However we’ve seen a strong increase in tiling sales for 2021, presumably as people take advantage of more time spent at home and commit to domestic projects.
“And building consents show that the residential trend has been strongly upward since 2011 and further increased late last year.
“Also, non-residential building consents for healthcare and education facilities and factories have also seen strong consent increases in 2021.”
TALKING ABOUT LIFE AT LEVEL 3
Paul O’Reilly admits it’s been more a case of good luck than good management that Bostik’s major production plant for solvent- based sealants and adhesives is in Wellington.
“It’s been operating pretty much as normal at Level 2,” he says.
“And, once we hit Level 3 in Auckland, all our key trade customers were back, along with plumbing, but it’s still affected our reps who can’t access stores at Level 3.
“About 65-70% of what we sell here is locally manufactured, which has helped hugely. If we want to run a couple of extra shifts for a product, we have the flexibility to do that.”
Still, adds Paul O’Reilly: “I think everyone is likely to experience intermittent out of stocks with certain products.”
According to Steven Irvine, what’s helping Dunlop counter long lead times with imported products and a “lack of agility with product launches” is the company’s localisation strategy.
“We’ve recently invested $10 million into our Auckland production facilities as part of a two-year plan to grow local
Reformulated Liquid Nails Original
Selleys Liquid Nails Original is a high- strength, multi-purpose construction adhesive that forms a strong and lasting bond on most building substrates and bridges gaps on rough and ill-fitting materials.
The new formulation now achieves this with less string, no dripping and less mess, and the strong bond is flexible enough to respond to movement, ensuring the bond is maintained.
Liquid Nails adheres well to wet and dry timber, so there’s no need to wait for the timber to dry. It’s easily extruded, easy to use at low temperatures and paintable when dry for a neat, quality finish.
It also meets requirements specified in Australian Standard AS 2329-1999.
www.selleys.co.nz
Bigger packs,
broader colour options
Ardex has introduced new 15kg packs of its high-performing Dunlop wall tile adhesive and has added new colours to the Dunlop Coloured Silicone and Coloured Grout ranges.
The ready-mixed tile adhesive supports the heaviest of
wall tiles commonly used in kitchens and bathrooms. Superior flexibility makes it suitable for use with ceramic wall tiles, granite and marble with the exception of moisture-sensitive stone. It can be applied to cement render, fibre-cement sheets, well-prepped painted surfaces, and plasterboard.
Magellan Grey and Charred Ash are the new colours available in the ready-to-go, “squeeze-bottle” grout range, as an
acetic-cure silicone, and
in 1.5kg and 5kg packs
of flexible, coloured
grout.
www.dunlopdiy.com
36 NZHJ | OCTOBER 2021
MORE AT www.hardwarejournal.co.nz