Welcome to THE GL@ZINE News Archive: October 2004

 

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THE GL@ZINE ISSUE 145 26th October 2004

Deceuninck Acquires Winsa to Become Number One PVC-U Window Profiler in Turkey
Deceuninck has announced the signing of a US $8m sale and purchase agreement for the acquisition of Winsa, the PVC window profiie division of the Turkish Pilsa Plastik Sanayi A.S., from the Sabanci Holding. The acquisition makes Ege Profil A.S. the number one in the rapidly growing Turkish market for PVC window systems.

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Pearsons Becomes Largest UK Coloured Glass Supplier with Acquisition of Hetleys and Launches The Pearsons Prize
Earlier this month Pearsons Glass Ltd of Liverpool announced - at an event in The Crypt of St Paul's Cathedral, London - the company’s take over of James Hetleys Ltd which made Pearsons the largest supplier of coloured and decorative glass in the country. Pearsons Chairman Peter Vellins (pictured), and MD Ray Mawson marked the occasion by launching a new competition within the glass industry, The Pearsons Prize.
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Ultraframe Wields Axe in Management Structure
Ultraframe's operational review of its business processes and structure is now complete and the company has streamlined its management structure: 14 positions were made redundant. Two individuals were redeployed. 9 of the 12 individuals concerned were in management roles and 2 were in supervisory roles.
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Major Investment for Planet Group Boosts North West Jobs and Prosperity
Planet Group Ltd, the UK installer of conservatories, is investing £2 million in a new 35,000 sq ft factory in Lancashire as part of a growth strategy that will create 50 new jobs. Planet will open the factory, which will be known as Polar Glass, this month near junction 7 of the M65 near Accrington.
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Ever Had a Holiday that you Need a Holiday to Get Over?
Not just one, but two hurricanes made Nic Rossano’s recent family holiday to Florida a memorable event. For having arrived just after Hurricane Charley had hit, their subsequent departure was delayed four days by the slow-moving Frances.
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New Hardware Choice for Irish Fabricators
Independent hardware distributor, Wagner, has added a further site to its distribution network with the opening of a new depot in Newtownabbey, Northern Ireland. Gordon Mercer, Technical Sales Representative for the area, will be well known to customers as he has 10 years’ industry experience.
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Sapphire Sparkles on its 4th Birthday
Just four years after first opening for business, Newton Abbot based Veka fabricator and installer Sapphire Window Systems has moved to larger premises and made a number of strategic investments.
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Roof-Makers Record Year with Global
Roof-maker, the UK conservatory roofing company, has just recorded sales of £2.5 million over an 11 month accounting period. These record sales figures have been bolstered by a busy start to the year with sales up 100% since switching to the Global system.
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PBM Rates Ultraframe the Best for Total Quality, Innovation and Service
Swansea based PBM-DQS, independent fabricator of conservatories, has signed an exclusive 3-year supply deal with the designer and manufacturer of conservatory roofs, Ultraframe.
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Astra Windows Changes to Newdawn
Astra Windows, based in Farnworth near Bolton, has changed its conservatory roof system to Newera™ from Newdawn & Sun Ltd. Astra is a well respected, established company that has been supplying windows, doors and conservatories to customers throughout the North West and Staffordshire for over 16 years.
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Further Setback to VCM & Polymers Production
Following the delayed re-start of its VCM plant at Rafnes in Norway on 10th October as a consequence of its major maintenance shutdown, Hydro Polymers has announced that further technical problems required the plant to stop production for a further four days commencing pm Monday 18th October.
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Coming back to Synseal
As the last Window Benchmarks Report from Reputations Plus shows, Synseal Extrusions’ customers are a loyal bunch. Seventy seven per cent of the Synseal fabricators interviewed described themselves as ‘very loyal’.
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GBW Partners Paddock on New Door Range
GBW and Paddock have entered into partnership on the design of the next generation of composite doors within GBW’s Discovery range.
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Alcoa Realigns Business to Better Serve Global Markets
Alcoa has announced a reorganisation of its management structure to better align itself with global markets. It also announced an investment of some 64m euros in three smelters in Spain.
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GGF Awards Edgetech’s Super Spacer® Top Results
In a recent government funded project, jointly commissioned by the GGF and the DTI, a range of typical UK window systems were measured to establish the improvement in thermal performance derived from different spacer bar systems in insulated glazing units.
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Yale Set to Supply Social Housing Sector
A household name for more than 150 years, Yale Door & Window Solutions has increased its range of residential security products available to social housing specifiers.
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£1 Million Boost for Wakefield Council Window Firm
Metroglaze, Wakefield’s successful council-owned window factory, has completed summertime orders totalling over £1 million to improve school buildings across the UK.
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Listers Gets a Handle on Quality
Lister Trade Frames of Stoke says that it has increased the quality of its frames again by fitting the latest range of high impact PVD handles to the company's door ranges.
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RegaLead is Pilkington Activ Compatible
RegaLead has been granted permission to use the Pilkington Activ™ Compatible logo on its products. The supplier of creative options for glazing, RegaLead is to feature the logo on its lead, glass cleaner and two of its adhesives.
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THE GL@ZINE ISSUE 144 19th October 2004

Ultraframe Streamlines UK Business to Meet Changing Market Conditions
Ultraframe, the UK‚s leading manufacturer of conservatory systems, has today announced that it intends to streamline its UK business. This is part of a wider Operational Review as Ultraframe reshapes and restructures its organisation to focus on meeting the needs of its customers.
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Deceuninck Turnover up 4% in Third Quarter but Warns of Raw Material Price Rises
Group Deceuninck, a worldwide manufacturer of PVC window systems and profiles for the construction industry, announced on 14th October that its turnover in the third quarter rose by more than 4% to 160.2 million euros compared with the historically strong third quarter of 2003.
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Pearsons Underscore a Century of History with Acquisition of Hetleys
Pearsons Glass Limited has a strong vision for the future. With the acquisition of Hetleys Glass, the company is now by far the largest supplier of coloured and decorative glass in the United Kingdom. A commitment to investment in the best and most up to date machinery, technology and people, will enable Pearsons to offer the best in quality products, materials and service.
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New £9.5 Million Veka Distribution & Logistics Centre the Most Advanced in the Industry
Extruder of window and door systems Veka plc has completed work on an advanced Distribution and Logistics Centre, to more than double the size of its Burnley, Lancashire site to 400,000 feet The development represents an investment in the UK operation of £9.5 million.
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Synseal First to Manufacture an Entire Conservatory –Including the Components
Long supply chains are bad news for any end user. The more hands a product has to pass through, the more costly and cumbersome the route to market.
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New Faces at UK's Premier Glass and Window Shows
Emap Maclaren has appointed Chris Reynolds as Sales Manager to further develop the increasing interest shown towards Glassex 2005 exhibition, which is being held at the NEC Birmingham from 13th to 16th, March 2005. And to maximise the full potential of next year's GP&T 2005 Exhibition Lesley Stevenson has been appointed as new Sales Manager for the event

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Eurocell Building Plastics Barnsley and Swansea Depots Now Open
Eurocell Building Plastics, the network of trade centres, has recently opened its 57th and 58th branches. The latest branches at Swansea and Barnsley have added further quality to an already enviable network of EBP centres and sub-stockists.
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Anglian Launches Dedicated New-Build Facility
Anglian Windows Group — manufacturer and installer of PVCu windows, doors and conservatories — has invested £4 million in a new facility specifically dedicated to the new-build market.
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Goldshield – the First Warm Edge Manufacturer Customer in the World to Pass CEN1279 Part 3
Edgetech customer Goldshield has now achieved CEN1279 Parts 2 and 3, which are the most relevant parts of the standard to sealed unit manufacturers.
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KEB Announces Gateshead Partnering Agreement
Following recent successful partnering schemes in Birmingham and Liverpool, KEB Fabrications Limited has been awarded another major social housing refurbishment project, valued at £1 million a year for The Gateshead Housing Company.
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TriSeal™ gives European Fabricators a New Competitive Edge
As the latest GGF testing confirms the benefits of warm edge technology, Edgetech is introducing its new Super Spacer® TriSeal™ at November’s Glasstec exhibition in Düsseldorf.

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Synseal’s Showroom Showcase
Wolverhampton based UPVC Warehouse is always on the look out for innovative products with great potential. It was among the first to take Synseal’s Shield Conservatory System and now has a 5,000 sq ft showroom to display the product.
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Listers Launch gets Off to a Speedy Start
Lister Trade Frames of Stoke-on-Trent celebrated the launch of its new customer brand with a competition to find the fastest 'beader' in the West.
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Profile Wrappers Strengthens Expansion Plans
Midlands based laminating company Profile Wrappers Ltd has strengthened its plans to significantly grow its business in the next five years by investing in additional staff and machinery to increase production capacity.
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Eastern Promise for K2
K2 Conservatory Roof Systems has scored a major coup in its expansion plans into Asia by securing a supply deal with House Component in Bangkok, one of Thailand's largest suppliers of conservatories, PVCu windows and doors.
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Windows of Success for Wakefield Business
One of Wakefield’s untold success stories looks set to achieve even greater successes following the recent announcement about changes to council home ownership in the area.
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Ian Wood Takes Charge at DHF
Ian Wood, a leading figure in the building products industry, has been appointed chief executive officer of the Door and Hardware Federation.
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Profile 22’s Commercial Expertise Attracts Fabricators
Profile 22 says that its expertise in providing a trusted window and door solution for Housing Associations and Local Authorities is attracting new specialist fabricators to its expanding national network.
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OFT Study of the Impact of Public Sector Procurement on Competition
The OFT has published preliminary research into the impact of public procurement on competition. It contains an in-depth economic analysis of the relationships between public procurement and competition.
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Alcoa Announces Income from Continuing Operations of $298m in Third Quarter
Alcoa announced last week that its income from continuing operations was $298 million, or $0.34 per diluted share, in the third quarter, up from $285 million, or $0.33, in the third quarter of 2003, and down from $405 million, or $0.46, in the previous quarter.
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THE GL@ZINE ISSUE 143 12th October 2004

Aztec Process Knocks Holes in Roof Time
Aztec Conservatory Roof Systems says that conservatory roof processing time can be cut by up to 50% by using the company’s new processing suite. The suite comprises a series of equipment ranging from hand-held jigs to free-standing pneumatic punches to enable accelerated and more accurate processing of component parts for the Aztec roof.
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Window Energy Rating System… a Komedy of Errors
While researching the workings of BFRC Window Energy Rating System, Saint-Gobain Glass has uncovered a number of serious errors, to which we would like to draw your attention. Firstly, there is a mistake in a bulletin relating to the BFRC window energy rating system. The bulletin includes a table designed to show a working example of the rating calculation by comparing K glass to Optitherm SN. This would appear to rate the two products equally. But if you apply the figures they present, the result will actually be quite different, says Saint Gobain marketing manager Derek Dragten.
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Glazing Industry Generosity Breaks New Records
More than 450 glazing industry revellers partied hard at the 8th GM Fundraising Gala Dinner, held at The Palace Hotel, Manchester on Saturday evening. The annual event, organised by former Deceuninck CEO, Gary Morton and the GMF team, was sold out weeks in advance.
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Where are you Margaret?…Your Prize is Waiting …Network Veka Seeks Balloon Bubbly Winner
Network Veka has stepped in to help Newton Abbot fabricator Sapphire Windows to trace a mystery Champagne prize winner.
A lucky breeze blew the winning ticket from Sapphire’s prize balloon release over 230 miles from Devon to reach ‘Margaret’ of Rochester, Kent – but now her benefactors can’t get in touch!
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Water Tight Deal For Lightwater Park
After a three-way pitch for the contract, Synseal Extrusions Ltd customer Nu-Era landed the £250,000 job of installing a conservatory at the prestigious Lightwater Valley Theme Park.
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Homeowners in the North-East Demand Ultraframe
The largest manufacturer and installer of home improvement products in the North-East of England has recently turned to Ultraframe for all its conservatory roofing products after 27 years in the business.
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Duraflex Backs Fastframe’s Move into New Markets
Duraflex is working closely with Bristol-based fabricator, Fastframe, in its bid to develop opportunities in the growing new build and commercial markets.
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All-In-One List for CGI
Using CGI’s Pyroguard unwired fire glass has been made even easier for glaziers, door manufacturers and joiners now that it has a substantially extended listing shown on its revised CERTIFIRE documentation.
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Over 800 New Conservatory, Window & Door Companies
The latest quarterly database release from Windowbase now has over 12,200 entries of companies manufacturing or installing fenestration-related products. This includes over 800 new companies over the previous quarter.
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Winlock’s BoaRestrictor Breaks Records
Over 1,800 product enquiries have flooded into Winlock Security within two months of the launch of its BoaRestrictor, breaking all previous records for the Telford-based manufacturer.
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K2 Dealers Sign Up For Long Term Partnership
K2 has signed up over 50% of its dealer network to a three-year trading agreement. The Trading Partner Customers make up more than 65% of K2's trade sales. With negotiations already in progress with a number of additional customers, the company expects to secure a further 11% of its dealer business by signing three-year trading agreements within the next few weeks.
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Versatile Proves Versatility with Roof Choice
‘It's all about choice’, says Kevin Barnard, managing director of Versatile Limited. ‘Now that we have established two divisions within the company, we are able to offer product combinations that reach across every sector of the conservatory market.
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New Planet Appears on Horizon in Banbury
Banbury's Cherwell Windows has a new name - Planet Oxfordshire. The area's conservatory installer has now become part of Planet Group Ltd - with a £160,000 investment in its Beaumont Road showroom in the town.
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High Profile Support for the Glassex Challenge as the GQA Steps Forward to Sponsor
Following a highly energetic and successful first appearance at Glassex 2004, the Glassex Challenge – which seeks to expose the most talented and committed window, door and conservatory installers in the UK – will not only be back for Glassex 2005 but will also appropriately be sponsored by the Glass Qualifications Authority.
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Wandle Partners with FineLine on £1/2 Million Surrey Quays Project
Kent-based Sheerframe window-maker FineLine has recently completed a £500,000 refurbishment contract for Wandle Housing Association.
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Omega Chooses UK Fasteners for its Reliability
Devon based Omega Trade Frames has high expectations of all its suppliers. ‘We only use the best suppliers so that our windows are of the highest quality,’ explains Martin Grant, Production Director of Omega Trade Frames Ltd.
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Sarnafil Swings into Action with ‘Designer Lead’ Solution
Eight years since starting to install single-ply membrane, David Salisbury Conservatories has recently started using Sarnafil Roof Assured (SRA) PVC single-ply flat roofing membrane.
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Alcoa Unions in Wenatchee Vote To Accept Agreement
Alcoa announced on October 8th that workers at its idled Wenatchee, WA aluminium smelter, represented by the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the Aluminum Trades Council of Wenatchee, Washington, voted to accept a labour agreement that will save the jobs of approximately 400 workers.
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THE GL@ZINE ISSUE 142 5th October 2004

Polyex acquires Stereon
Alfreton based polycarbonate manufacturer Polyex Ltd has acquired a majority stake in Victoria Plastics Ltd. Hull based Victoria Plastics Ltd trades as Stereon and was formed by a management buy-out of the company from GE in 2003.

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Window Energy Rating System… Let’s Stop joKing!
The consultation document on proposals for amending part L of the Building Regulations presents an option to include the BFRC Window Energy Rating System (WERS) alongside maximum whole window U-values and maximum centre-pane U-values as an alternative means of compliance for the domestic replacement market. Derek Dragten, marketing manager for Saint-Gobain Glass UK, shares his views on the heated debate surrounding its potential inclusion.

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Pilkington to Introduce Energy Surcharge
Pilkington has recently announced that its Building Products division is to introduce an energy surcharge on its glass products sold in Europe. The surcharge is as a result of increasing energy costs and will come into effect on 1st November 2004.
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Synseal Invests £9.5 Million in 18 Months to Maintain the Momentum
Synseal says that its growth in window profile and in conservatory roof systems in the last few years has astonished the industry. While some of its competitors ground to a halt in the last eighteen months, and others slipped back, Synseal has picked up speed.
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New Planet Appears on Horizon in Leamington Spa
Planet Group Ltd has invested £250,000 in a new purpose-built showroom in Leamington Spa. The 5,000 sq. ft. showroom on Tachbrook Park opens on Saturday 9th October. It is the 18th in the company’s network of outlets across the UK and will bring at least 16 new jobs to the town.
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Tioxide Insurance Setback in Pinking Case
Tioxide Europe has failed to make insurers pay out a multi-million pound claim over the pinking of PVC-U profiles. The company manufactured two grades of white titanium dioxide pigments in the 1990s that were used to make window profiles.
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COROX®-CGM Convective Glass Melting: Significant Increase of Productivity
Linde AG, Linde Gas Division, together with The BOC Group has reached a license agreement on marketing of the BOC Convective Glass Melting (CGM) technology. The letters CGM are a trade-mark of The BOC Group. Linde will offer this new technology with the registered trade-mark COROX®-CGM to the glass industry world-wide.
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A New Window of Opportunity for Sika Customers
Sika, polyurethane sealants and bonding specialist, has introduced a new range of silicone sealants for the UK Commercial Glazing Market. The new sealant range, which Sika acquired, is named Wacker Chemie.
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£1 Million Boost for Wakefield Council Window Firm
Metroglaze, Wakefield’s successful council-owned window factory, has completed summertime orders totalling over £1 million to improve school buildings across the UK.
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LVM to Invest in a New Ethylene Dichloride Facility at Tessenderlo
Limburgse Vinyl Maatschappij (LVM), a Tessenderlo Group subsidiary, is investing 20 million EUR in the building of a new facility which is to produce 250 000 tonnes per annum of ethylene dichloride.
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KEB Fabrications Accepted into Birmingham Construction Partnership
Social housing fenestration specialist, KEB Fabrications Ltd has been awarded another high profile contract. The Glassex Award winning Profile 22 window manufacturer has successfully been accepted into the Birmingham Construction Partnership.
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Newstead Expands to Stay Ahead of Demand
With plans to maintain the momentum of growth Newstead Trade Frames has increased its stock holding of raw material. Adding 4,500 ft2 to its existing 79,000 ft2 site, Newstead has extended its storage warehouse facility.
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New President Takes Over the Reins at the CAB
Well-known industry figure, Lennart Jonsson, has taken over as President of the Council for Aluminium in Building. Mr Jonsson, Managing Director of Senior Aluminium Systems (SAS), takes over from outgoing President Mike Nevitt.

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Patiomaster Invests for Success
PatioMaster North West has invested more than £250,000 in new plant and machinery to meet sustained demand from fabricators and installers wanting to buy in readymade PVCu sliding patio doors from a local supplier.

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Foilex – Foiling for the Future
Foilex, the specialist foiling facility, says that it offers consistently high quality lamination, reliable and flexible service, while guaranteeing confidentiality at all times, to all PVCu and cellular PVC extruders.
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Mind the GAP: General All Purpose Plastics Races Ahead
General All Purpose Plastics (GAP) says that it has grown 30% a year for the last three years. GAP, which stocks PVC-UE roofline, rainwater products and PVC door panels from six depots in the north of England has a turnover of £20m.

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Plastics Plus – on the Edge of Perfection with Holzma
How do you use a saw to start a cut-to-size plastic sheet operation with 5 people in 1991 and grow to a current staff of 34 with turnover of nearly £10m? Answer: by understanding precisely what superior quality products your customers need and then finding a world-leading technical partner to supply the manufacturing capability.
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Closure of Production Line at Danish Glassworks
Rexam, the global consumer packaging group, announces that it has reduced the number of production lines from seven to six at its Holmegaard glass container operation in Denmark as of 1st October, 2004.
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