Page 22 - HW May 2022

glues, sealants & adhesives
environment: “It’s still very much a case of looking after existing customers rather than looking for new ones,” states Tony Smith. For Darren Newland and Selleys, the first quarter has been
“very, very strong, and we’re seeing resource and housing consents at record highs.
“We’re also continuing to benefit from people spending more time at home and doing more jobs around their properties. Outside of the lockdown periods, this has driven a lot of activity and growth in the market over the last 12 months.”
Melanie Reid at Soudal also reports a good start to the year, particularly the months of January and February, before admitting that March’s Covid cases and labour shortages affected on-site productivity, meaning fewer materials were needed.
“It’s been a matter of getting through this patch and, since the end of April, we’ve seen things lift again,” she says.
Melanie Reid’s optimism is not totally unreserved however: “It’s great that residential consents are high, but it remains a challenge to see if we can build to those given the labour and material shortages.
“Fortunately, we are able to rely on good, consistent product supply and good safety stocks. We’re also watching for opportunities when they arise due to others not being in such a fortunate position,” adds Melanie.
NPD CONTINUES IN THE BACKGROUND
New product introductions might currently be thin on the ground in this category but, rest assured, more are in the pipeline and the push to go greener is relentless.
At Selleys, BRANZ accreditation now applies to several sealants and adhesives from May, including Solarflex, Flexiseal, Roof & Gutter and Wet Area, and Darren Newland describes this endorsement as “a big part of what we’ll be driving and communicating in the next few months.
environmental solutions, whether it’s forms of packaging or reducing the amount of packaging involved.
“It’s the new world we live in, it’s a priority with any new products we bring to market, and improvements on this front will be ongoing.”
New product development also continues to burn away
in the background at Soudal and there are no NPD delays to speak of, reports Melanie Reid: “We certainly don’t pick up everything that Belgium creates but there’s no NPD slowdown at the European end. There’s a lot available to us to pick and choose from.”
Melanie too agrees that sustainability is more topical than ever across the industry and, in keeping with the trend, the Gorilla FixALL range has a new tube-style packaging variant that’s handy for DIY.”
Soudal has also introduced a flexible version of Gorilla Expanding Foam called Gorilla Flexi and will continue to roll this out in other formats later in the year.
Paul O’Reilly says Bostik was looking to go live with a couple of new products but launch dates have been pushed out due
to the same manufacturing and/or shipping issues facing everyone at the moment.
“We’re also faced with big double-digit increases in the cost of raw materials used in our products made both here and in Europe, and those costs are continuing to rise.”
ABOUT THE KNOCK-ON EFFECT...
As we found talking with specialists in the plumbing sector (see page 24), there are concerns that supply issues with core building products both related and unrelated to glues and sealants are also affecting the players in this category.
Paul O’Reilly: “Momentum in residential construction is still strong but issues persist with key building materials, partly due to the huge increase in demand. Issues with frame & truss supply can mean delays, and that can potentially have
TONY SMITH (SIKA):
“Consent numbers are terrific – everybody loves how the pipeline looks – but the capacity and timeframe for getting all that work done is being stretched”
a trickle-down effect on us, although we’re not seeing any serious impact at the moment.” Likewise, Tony Smith is observing a lack
of progress on some large-scale construction projects, although any impact on SIKA is unclear.
“In my area, for example,” he says “there’s a big three-storey apartment block that has been sitting there fully scaffolded with with rigid air barrier board on and some windows installed, and it’s still essentially at the same stage of the
“Having that BRANZ validation adds a trust factor alongside extremely good product performance and our brand recognition.
“It’s particularly valuable now with legislation changes and other things coming through, particularly in the Building Code.”
Darren also describes the global push towards prioritising “greener” products as a major point of focus in recent years.
“We’re looking at everything from formulations to chemicals of concern but, more broadly, it’s now about looking at
build that it was last October.
“We’re used to residential builds of four to six months from
start to completion [but] with this project, we’re talking 120 to 130 dwellings that are just not progressing, so everything slows up.”
But it’s hard to measure the actual impact on SIKA. “Are we down on roofing silicone because metal roof supply is down?” asks Tony Smith.
Darren Newland concedes that parts of Selleys’ product portfolio could be impacted, thanks to the delays on bigger
20 NZHJ | MAY 2022
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