Insulation industry news from Global Insulation

US: Owens Corning’s net sales rose by 12.5% year-on-year to US$6.38bn in 2017 from US$5.68bn in 2016. Its earnings before interest and taxation (EBIT) rose by 5.4% to US$737m from US$699m. The building materials producer’s sales from its insulation division rose by 14.5% to US$2.00bn from US$1.75bn and its EBIT rose by 40.5% to US$177m from US$126m.

“Owens Corning had another great year. We were pleased by the continued momentum in our three businesses and the addition of Paroc and Foamglas to our portfolio,” said chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) Mike Thaman.

Denmark: Rockwool has appointed Bjørn Rici Andersen as Senior Vice President for Group Operations and Technology. Andersen, currently working as Vice President, Group Operations, will join the Group Management role on 1 March 2018. Bernard Plancade, who has previously held this role in Group Management since 2015, will become Managing Director for Rockwool Core Solutions, based in Paris.

US: Johns Manville (JM) has appointed Eric Cremer is the company’s new Chief Human Resources Officer with immediate effect. Cremer has worked for the past two years as Director of Human Resources for JM’s Engineered Products business. In his new role, Cremer will be responsible for all aspects of JM’s global human resources and communications organisation.

Cremer worked at Merck & Co, Agilent Technologies and Kraft Foods before joining Johns Manville in 2004. Over the next eight years he held a variety of human resource (HR) positions, including North America Director of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Senior HR Manager and Regional HR Manager in McPherson, Kansas. Cremer left JM in 2012 to work as Vice President of Human Resources at Vistar in Centennial, Colo. He returned to JM in 2016 and became a member of the Engineered Products leadership team. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in Labour and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Australia: Kingspan Insulation has implemented an integrated management system (IMS) into insulation plant in Somerton. The system has been adopted to comply with ISO 9001, 14001, 45001 and 50001. The site was audited by SAI Global in July 2017 where it received certification as compliant to all four targeted ISO standards.

US: Owens Corning has completed its acquisition of Finland’s Paroc Group for Euro900m. Completion followed the US company obtaining all the necessary regulatory clearances to buy the mineral wool producer.

“We’ve had a strategic goal to broaden our product portfolio and diversify our geographic scope to better address our customers’ needs and support their growth. The acquisition of Paroc does both. We now have a leading position in Europe and in the global mineral wool business,” said Julian Francis, president of Owens Corning’s Insulation Business.