Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

UK: SIG’s group revenue fell by 37% year-on-year to Euro154m during March and April 2020 due to disruption caused by the coronavirus outbreak. In its annual report for 2019 the insulation producer said that trading had returned to pre Covid-19 levels in most of its companies as it adapted social distancing measures. It also reported cash reserves of around Euro150m following the sale of its Air Handling division.

In 2019 the group‘s statutory revenue fell by 13% year-on-year to Euro2.4bn in 2019 from Euro2.7bn in 2018. It made an operating loss of Euro97m. This was blamed on loss of market share in the UK and Germany. In response the company’s board says it taken ‘decisive’ action including appointing a new leadership team and developing a new customer-centric strategy that reprioritises sales.

UK: SIG has appointed Ian Ashton as permanent group financial officer with effect from July 2020. He succeeds Kath Kearney‐Croft, who assumed the role of Interim chief financial officer (CFO) in late February 2020.

Ashton joins SIG from Low & Bonar, where he has served as group financial officer. Prior to that, he was CFO of Labviva, a US‐based technology company. He worked for 20 years at Smith & Nephew until late 2017, undertaking various financial roles of increasing seniority in the UK, the US and Asia. His last role was CFO, Global Operations, and prior to that Ashton served as CFO of their Advanced Surgical Devices Division. He is a qualified chartered accountant and began his career at Ernst & Young.

The building materials supplier has announced the appointment of Simon King as a non‐executive director. Recently King served on the Travis Perkins executive board and held the position of chief operating officer of Wickes. Prior to that he held various operational roles at Walmart, Savola Group and Tesco.