Cast in Concrete book now available for download

23 January 2012

Precast concrete is a unique building material: it combines the visual qualities of a good stone with the advantages of prefabrication, opportunities for fabric energy storage and a solidity and strength which recall traditional concepts of enclosure. To make the most of these qualities you need to know how to use precast. Cast in Concrete, a book by Susan Dawson, architect and Working Details Editor of the AJ, will give you the knowledge. It describes how precast units are manufactured and finished, how decisions made in the design of a façade will affect the process of construction, and how to realise 'positive' procurement and fast-track construction. This publication is now available to download for free, to view the publication please follow this link.

Building Information Modelling workshop at British Precast

20 January 2012

On the 15th March Ray Crotty, Building Information Modelling (BIM) expert and author of the "The Impact of Building Information Modelling - Transforming Construction", will be conducting a seminar outlining BIM at our new BP Training Suite in Leicester.

There are only 15 places available on this essential seminar which will be delegated on a first come - first served basis. The seminar will cost £145.00 + VAT per delegate and will include a copy of Ray Crotty's book, refreshments and lunch. Demonstrations performed by Tekla are also anticipated during the breaks.

For further information and to download the booking form, please click here.

Completed bookling forms to be sent to:

Email: info@britishprecast.org

Fax:    0116 251 4568

British Precast at UK Concrete Show 2012

19 December 2011

British Precast are pleased to announce that they will be attending the UK Concrete Show on 22 & 23 February 2012 at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. After a successful event last year, the show returns in what is promised to be a bigger and better exhibition, representing all that is concrete.

British Precast Chief Executive Martin Clarke will be presenting a seminar at the show on "Recent Innovations in Precast Concrete". There are expected to be 150 exhibitors at the event, including several of our members such as CPM Group and Cornish Concrete Products in the "Precast Plaza" as well as many of our associate members.

For further information on the show please visit www.concreteshow.co.uk

Safety and Health Awareness Day a Resounding Success

24 November 2011

The SHAD held at Buchan Concrete Solutions in Byley on 21st November 2011 gave sixty delegates the opportunity to visit a working precast concrete factory whilst expanding their knowledge on five different health and safety topics. These were:

• Slips, trips and falls
• Occupational Health (including dust and noise)
• Load security
• Hand arm and fully body vibration
• Respiratory protective equipment

The day proved very useful and feedback from the event was extremely positive.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the attendees and particularly the HSE and Buchan for all of their assistance in helping create such an engaging and valuable event. 

We are currently looking for a host for the next SHAD event to be held in 2012. If you would potentially be interested in hosting such an important event for the industry, please contact Martin Clarke.

New population projections will require a new city the size of Leeds each year to 2020

28 October 2011

Fresh forecasts by the Office of National Statistics show just how fast the UK population is growing fuelled by migration and an increase in fertility. At just under 500,000 each year the extra population will need the equivalent of a city the size of Leeds to be built each year with all that implies for housebuilding, services and infrastructure. Leeds has 350,000 housing units. In these desperately tough times for new build these new figures demand a response from Government and strategic planners and underpin the need to free up the planning system and Get Britain Building. See this ONS video for a short and very clear presentation. Enquiries to Martin Clarke.

British Precast Council member appointed to the Green Construction Board

28 October 2011

Mark Oliver, Chairman of the Aircrete Products Association and MD of H+H UK ltd has been appointed by the Government to the Green Construction Board, jointly chaired by Construction Minister, Mark Prisk MP, and Dan Labbad from Lend Lease who also chairs the UK Green Building Council.. The construction products industry is also represented on the Board by Bill Bolsover, who is also Chairman of BPCF member Aggregate Industries. We congratulate Mark on this important new role enquiries to Martin Clarke.

Mark Oliver joined H+H, the UK’s leading manufacturer of aircrete building products, as Managing Director in 2008. Prior to joining H+H UK Ltd, Mark was Group Business Development Director at Laing O’Rourke, Managing Director of BSS Industrial and President of Yale Locks Far East.  This followed earlier careers as a management consultant with McKinsey & Co. and as an engineer both with the Royal Engineers and with the Kier Group. Mark also led a dotcom start-up, BuildOnline, which pioneered the adoption of internet-based collaboration in the construction industry.

At H+H UK Mark acted quickly to respond to the worst market downturn the business had ever faced in its core housing building market and ensured that it emerged in a stronger and more diversified position. During this time the sustainability and environmental credentials of H+H UK were also recognised through its inclusion in the Sunday Times Green List in three consecutive years and by being named Kent Environmental Business of the Year.

Mark holds a BSc in Civil Engineering and an MBA from INSEAD. He is a Chartered Director, Member of the Institute of Civil Engineers and sits on the CBI Construction Council. 

Little Green Book of Concrete Released in Finnish

10 October 2011

The Little Green Book of Concrete has been released in yet another language, Finnish. To view the publication please follow this link.

British Precast Launches Grant Finder Service

04 October 2011

British Precast are pleased to announce that our members can now access the UK's most comprehensive database of funding opportunities from Government, Lottery, European and charitable sources for absolutely free.

Our Grant Finder service generates bespoke reports based on the latest funding information which could help obtain substantial amounts of funding to aid your business in areas such as staff training, marketing and expansion costs.

Non-members can also use this service, for further information please click here.

For more information or to request a search please email Joseph Neishaboori.

Ed Balls sets out emergency Plan B

27 September 2011

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls has set out a stimulus package that would see VAT slashed to 5% for home improvements and extend the bankers bonus tax to pay for 25,000 affordable homes.

He also called on the government to bring forward genuine long-term investment projects covering schools and transport.

Balls told the Labour Party conference that the time had come to adopt a Plan B because Plan A was clearly not working.

"Trying to cut the deficit too far, too fast isn't working. Unemployment is rising and the economy is flatlining"

"The government must adopt a steadier, more balanced plan to get our deficit down and take immediate action now to support the economy and create jobs here in Britain" urged Balls.

To find out more visit the masonryfirst website.

British Precast joins “The Construction Network” (tCn)

16 September 2011

British Precast, along with all of its product associations, have recently started working alongside tCn in order to take advantage of the vast array of relevant business links available through their network. Launched in March 2010, tCn is an industry specific online business network aimed at professionals, organisations and communities connected to the UK architecture, engineering, construction and property industry. tCn is rapidly growing becoming a central hub and search engine for host of useful resources such as individual and company profiles, news, training and events, research, videos, new products and blogs all in one place.

There are fantastic opportunities to advertise and promote your products and services through the website in various forms of media.

As British Precast members you are entitled to a free company listing and one free published article on the website. If you are then interested in upgrading to become a featured member of tCn and share your company content with our industry, a discounted rate is available through British Precast.

Simply email your website details to joseph.neishaboori@britishprecast.org to qualify.

CPD Marketing Offer Free Conversion for a Limited Period

23rd August 2011

British Precast have a number of CPD discs available on Sustainable Construction with Precast Concrete. The CPD presentation talks about how construction projects can introduce sustainability into their programmes. The seminar explains the make-up of precast concrete, its handling, working conditions, related health and safety, environmental issues and benefits. It also provides relevant information sources.

These have been creating in collaboration with CPD Marketing Ltd

CPD Marketing offer a number of services including:

• Converting your existing CPD presentations to easy access, interactive discs - free for a limited period (excludes additional graphics, animations or voice overs).
• Creating new CPD presentations straight to disc (minimum 100 copies) or uploaded straight to the web.
• Providing full marketing campaigns, product feasibility/market research and product launches.

Future of Schools

16th August 2011

British Precast member, Buchan Concrete Solutions are part of a team embarking on a zero-carbon new school project. The Montgomery primary school in Exeter is earning gold stars in zero-carbon and Passivhaus design and is harnessing the benefits of using Buchan precast wall panels.

Thomas Lane of Building Magazine explains more in the article found here.

Precast Concrete and the Construction Improvement Agenda

11th August 2011

British Precast is pleased to announce a CPD Seminar on 14th September at Cardiff City Stadium with presentations by Martin Clarke of British Precast and Graham Paddock of member company Precast Concrete Structures Ltd

This free breakfast briefing will guide you through the latest policy announcements from Government and the concrete industry. Graham and Martin will provide examples of how the structural and architectural precast sector is leading the response.

The briefing will update you on the Morrell Construction Innovation and Growth Team Report and the Governments response, the Governments new Construction Strategy, and the latest sustainability reports including an early preview of the concrete sustainability roadmap to 2020. It will showcase some case studies from Precast Concrete Structures and the recent best practice awards from British Precast.

The presentations will last around 45 minutes with 15 minutes for Q&A. All delegates will receive a memory stick with the referred documentation.

Further information and booking details can be found here

CPSA Publish Carbon Emissions Reports

19th July 2011

The Concrete Pipeline Systems Association (CPSA) has published three reports looking at the embodied carbon emissions of concrete pipelines compared to alternatives. The three reports and a summary brochure can be downloaded from www.concretepipes.co.uk

The study reveals that the carbon footprint of concrete pipes is 20-60% lower than the values for generic precast concrete derived from many industry databases. The cradle-to-site greenhouse gas emissions of concrete pipes were found to be generally better than plastic pipes and up to 35% lower CO2e for DN2100 pipes. The reports also demonstrate that circular precast manhole systems have around 30-43% lower carbon footprint compared to other forms of manhole.

Olympic Park Podcast Tour

13th July 2011

London 2012 has produced a podcast tour of the Olympic Park, where much of the London 2012 Games will take place.

The tour enables you to get in-depth and up-to-date information about the Olympic Park and the new London 2012 venues, while bringing to life the excitement of the Games.

Links to both the video and audio tour can be found here

PRECAST2011 Annual Conference and Awards a Success

Best Practice Awards Winners 2011

28th May 2011

PRECAST2011 took place on 18th May at the Ramada Jarvis Hotel in Leicester. Nearly 350 delegates were in attendance and some 40 exhibitors. Attendees also enjoyed many presentations and speeches including a highly engaging Health & Safety, Fatal Accident Enquiry Role Play, presented by Laura Cameron and Tom Stocker from McGrirgors LLP as one of the first morning sessions.

Delegates were also lucky enough to attend not one, but two product launches. The first being X-SEED in the UK, which was launched by Dr. Michael Kompatscher from BASF, followed by the Kodi Klip launch of LFS Connection Systems in the UK by Jon Kodi and Stuart Jones.

One of the key sessions from the day focused on Building Information Modelling (BIM) with David Philp of Balfour Beatty Construction, David Evans from Tekla, James Austin of _space architecture and James Thomson of Buro Happold taking part.

Martin Clarke, Chief Executive of British Precast said “ We are now actively planning PRECAST2012 to be bigger and better. The content gives our Members what they are looking for – good networking, hard information, the opportunity to market new products and services and the chance to celebrate achievement. Expectations are rising and we have to deliver – an exciting year ahead for our small team. There will be some changes but the essential ethos will remain”.

British Precast holds the annual award scheme to recognise the excellent work carried out by its members and provides another way of sharing best practice within the membership.

We had 5 main awards, all of which were very kindly sponsored and the presentations were made by Olympic and Commonwealth High-jumper, Geoff Parsons.

Award winners and runners up:

Health & Safety Award sponsored by Lafarge
Winner: Stanton Bonna- Eliminating Dust, Noise & Vibration Through Product Design

Runner-up: CR Longley & Co. - Occupational Health Initiative

Sustainability Award sponsored by Hanson UK
Corporate Category

Winner: Aggregate Industries- A+ GRI Sustainability Report

Site Category
Winner: Brett Landscaping- Energy reduction in Curing Chambers

Innovation Award sponsored by Chryso
Winner: PCE, HM Prison, Featherstone 2

Project Award sponsored by Grace
Winner: Decomo- Bodleian Book Storage, Swindon
Runner-up: Thorp Precast- Pudding Mill Lane

Thank you also to BASF and Tekla who were our joint Event Sponsors.

Further details of speakers and all the presentations can be found here.

Award winners can be seen on our Awards Page. There are also separate pages for our Innovation Award and Project Award. Don't forget to visit our online gallery for images of the winners as well as the rest of PRECAST2011.

Cornish Concrete Products achieve ISO:14001 and BES:6001

(l-r) Trevor Grounds, Narina Shorland, David Moses, Colin Head and Norman Richards

9th March 2011

Cornish Concrete Products (CCP) have become one of British Precast's first SME members to achieve both ISO 14001 and BES 6001 with the help from Environmental Consultants Norman Richards and Trevor Grounds.

Working with Construction Product Certification, CCP have gained independent certification to the Environmental standard ISO 14001, and a “Very Good” rating for the Responsible Sourcing of Materials standard, BES 6001, highlighting their commitment to demonstrating their excellent sustainability credentials and, at the same time, helping architects and specifiers to gain valuable points as part of the Code for Sustainable Homes and BREEAM requirements.

CCP have now joined the expanding number of members who have recognised the benefit of independent certification to these prestigious standards and are helping British Precast meet their Target of ensuring that 85% of members production tonnage is covered by the ISO 14001 standard, by 2012.

Please contact British Precast if you would like further information on what a company needs to do in order to meet the requirements of the ISO 14001 and BES 6001 standards.

British precast concrete products industry raises the bar on standards, safety and sustainability

10th February 2011

British Precast today launched a bold initiative to lead the industry to new heights of sustainability, safety and quality performance.
From May this year, British Precast will make it mandatory for all members of the UK concrete products trade body to sign up to the British Precast Charter scheme.

This scheme sets out a challenging set of performance targets, which will are aimed at improving wellbeing in the industry, reducing carbon dioxide emissions and waste from the £2 billion precast industry.

As well as minimising energy and materials waste, the British Precast Charter mark proves precast companies are striving for the highest standards in health and safety and delivering on quality.
All firms must also commit to the industry’s health and safety scheme, Concrete Targets 2015, which aims for a 50% reduction in lost time injuries from 2010 ultimately leading to a zero harm industry.
British Precast members will also be expected to achieve a set of internationally agreed quality and management standards and liaise with local communities where they manufacture.

Speaking at the Action Sustainability Conference on Sustainable Procurement today at Sainsbury's London HQ Martin Clarke, Chief Executive of British Precast, said: “We are the only construction products body operating such a scheme anywhere in the world. A lot of other construction sectors have made claims about their environmental credentials, safety and sustainability. We are actually demonstrating that our industry is leading the way with a set of mandatory pledges and collective, measurable targets that are audited for all to see.”

Further details and supporting quotes from members can be found in our press release.

New Vidcast from Kodi Klip

4th February 2011

The CEO of Kodi Klip Corp. Jon Kodi, will be launching the revolutionary Kodi Klip reinforcement fastening system with new UK company LFS Connection Systems, sister company to British Precast Associate Member LFS Connection Systems. The system will be available from April 2011 and will be officially launched at PRECAST2011 by LFS Connection Systems Directors Brian and Stuart Jones, alongside Jon Kodi himself, who is flying in for the event.

Further details about the system can be found here or a preview video seen in our Vidcast section.

Protect your company from bad debtors

British Precast has launched a scheme to help protect Members from bad debtors. Creditlook is a web-based service that allows members of a federation or association to collaboratively share information about customers that are trading outside of agreed credit terms. This shared information helps limit the risk to members of bad debtors, by enabling them to identify high risk customers before any goods are supplied.

How it works

If a customer trades outside of agreed credit terms with any member, that member can instantly register the customer and incident details on Creditlook. For each customer listed, Creditlook records how many members have been affected, whether correspondence has been sent in relation to late payment and any legal proceedings that have taken place in order to recover such payment.

Creditlook brings members together to protect their individual and collective financial position.

For more information about the scheme and to register, please call David Appleyard on 01628 581058. Once registered, you just have to click on the Creditlook logo above to enter your login details and you can start tapping into this invaluable resource.