A year to remember – Siderise in 2024
Working in the construction product industry has always brought endless opportunities for innovation, collaboration and development and, at Siderise, we’ve continually worked to put ourselves at the cutting edge of what’s new and what’s useful for our customers. However, in 2024, we have made significant strides in our mission to “Go Beyond, contributing to safer buildings.” Here are twelve of our most notable highlights from the last twelve months:
1. Getting our Innovation Centre UKAS-accredited
In July, we announced that our Innovation Centre at our Maesteg headquarters achieved UKAS ISO 17025 accreditation, validating that it operates with the highest technical competency and generates reliable results. We constructed the Innovation Centre to meet the increasing demand for testing and data for projects and product development and address a shortfall in available furnace time. From the outset, we knew we wanted to obtain UKAS accreditation to ensure we were operating it correctly to the international standard of competency. Gaining the accreditation was a rigorous process, with inspections of our Quality Management processes and records, and testing and training processes.
Learn more about our UKAS journey in our Q&A with our Director of Testing, Chris Mort.
2. Receiving CCPI Mark on all core passive fire protection product ranges
In November, we successfully completed the Code for Construction Product Information (CCPI) assessment process for:
RH Horizontal and RV Vertical Cavity Barrier for cladding applications
CT Cavity Tray and EW Cavity Barrier and Firestop for masonry external wall systems.
With approval already gained for the CW-FS Firestop range for curtain walling earlier in the year, this means all our main passive fire protection ranges now carry this best-practice mark, providing greater confidence that the information surrounding them is “clear, accurate, up-to-date, accessible and unambiguous.”
Read more about what the CCPI Mark signifies to our customers.
3. Being the first company to become an ASFP Recognised Training Provider
We were proud to be the first ASFP (Association for Specialist Fire Protection) Recognised Provider, independently verifying that our training offering is technically accurate, professionally presented, and both relevant and sufficient to demonstrate competence in passive fire protection. The new training recognition service provides independent third-party evaluation of training courses specific to passive fire protection (PFP). Once companies have demonstrated their approach to training quality and technical capability, their application is reviewed by an independent panel. All providers that meet this quality benchmark gain recognition from ASFP for training delivery and will be subject to ongoing oversight and quality monitoring. This ensures the industry has access to high quality training that is easily identifiable.
4. Delivering an industry-leading internal and external training offer
As highlighted above, we are extremely passionate about, and have invested a lot into, developing our training offering over the years. In 2024, we have really seen the value this is adding to our customers. From September 2023 – September 2024, our training team delivered 567 Product Information Training Sessions with 4,504 attendees! However, it is not only the high number of people attending the training that demonstrates its usefulness, but the feedback we have received explaining how our advice has enabled architects, fire engineers and contractors alike to work with greater confidence and insight.
Discover our training offering.
Linked to this is also our industry leading internal training programme. Since September 2023, 253 employees have participated in training sessions. A survey conducted as part of the company’s Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024 assessment found that 83% of employees felt like they have enough information and training to do their job well.
5. Releasing our first Sustainability Report
At Siderise, we are driven by a bold mission: to go beyond, contributing to safer buildings. In addition to creating high quality products that the market can rely on, a key part of this is protecting the environment and communities around us. In October, we released our first annual Sustainability Report. This looks in detail at each of our four ESG strategy pillars— Planet, People, Product, and Policy— and outlines clear benchmarks in these crucial areas, identifying short and medium-term priorities that ensure business operations and ambitions align with recognised Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
6. Expanding our global footprint
We have been working to expand our global footprint and develop our regional teams, whilst staying true to our ethos of ‘integrity in all we do’ in both new and existing markets. For example, we have been working with our partners in the Middle East and India to set up a new facility, due to come online by the end of the year. which will allow us to hold stock locally to sell direct to customers and eventually begin manufacturing some products in the region. We’ve also been building our profile in the US, appointing a new Head of Commercial Brad Davis and adding several exciting projects to the pipeline. We have been testing our products to ASTM standards for years and have several solutions perfectly primed for this market. To accommodate our growing export market, we also expanded our warehouse facilities at Maesteg this year to store finished materials ready for timely distribution, which leads us to…
7. Completing some significant site upgrades— including a new production line and QC lab
In March, our new £2.1m high-speed automated production line went live — allowing us to increase production of our unique Lamella insulation by over 100%. Additionally, in response to recommendations of the Independent Review of the Construction Product Testing Regime, we built a £200,000 state-of-the-art Quality Control Lab to ensure our products offer outstanding performance. This not only facilitates off-the-line fire testing, but also comprehensive testing of raw materials before production.
To accommodate our growing headcount, we’ve also developed the office space at our Maesteg headquarters, including a £200,000 investment in creating new communal areas and installing electric vehicle charging points which are available free of charge to all visitors and employees.
8. Being named one of Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024
The Sunday Times Best Places to Work 2024, powered by WorkL, is one of the most widely recognised and rigorously judged employment awards in the UK. So, we were over the moon to be listed in the Medium Business category, having received high scores across all questions and 87% of our employees stating that they feel proud to work for us and have a sense that they do something worthwhile by doing so.
As our CEO, Adam Turk, commented at the time: “At the start of 2023, we launched a new set of company values: Customer first, Safety matters, Integrity in all we do, Respect for each other, and Strive for betterment. Achieving this accolade on a national scale stands as testament to how well these values are already embedded into our workplace culture, and how integral they are to the future growth and success of the Siderise brand.”
9. Sharing our knowledge through useful engagement with the wider construction industry
We have continued to be actively involved in various industry associations and technical committees, and our experts have delivered various presentations at key sector events across the globe such as Zak World of Facades. Notably, CEO Adam Turk was announced as the Chair of the Construction Products Association (CPA) in April. With decades of experience across the construction industry, and having supported the CPA for over fifteen years, Adam is well placed to provide both leadership and insight to the CPA as it continues to represent and champion construction product manufacturers and suppliers in the UK.
Learn more about Adam’s vision for his chairmanship in the CPA’s press release.
10. Receiving award-winning recognition for our team’s hard work on local, national and industry stages
Whilst success is its own reward— especially where we’ve been able to add real value to our customers’ businesses—there’s nothing like being recognised by your peers. In October, we were proud to take home the trophy for Export Award at the Insider Media Made in Wales Awards— recognising our efforts to grow our global activities and champion Welsh manufacturing on the global stage. We were also shortlisted for Manufacturer of the Year— for which we were highly commended— and Innovation Award categories at the same award. We were also thrilled to be shortlisted for Building Awards Building’s Manufacturer of the Year after our win in 2023. As a business, we were also announced as finalists for the Culture Pioneers Awards in the Brand Category— showcasing how effectively our workplace culture reflects the ethos of our brand. Our work here was further underlined by winning the Construction Marketing Awards 2024 for ‘Best Stakeholder/Internal Communications’ for our Values campaign, delivered in collaboration with SLG Agency. This saw our core values developed into a visual representation to allow them to be effectively communicated to our growing employee base and embedded into our everyday operations.
11. Growing our digital offering through our new website and NBS partnership
We also launched our new website this year! In addition to offering an enhanced user experience on both desktop and mobile, the site is also intended to be a single source of truth for up-to-date product and system information. This is supported by robust test data, as well as dynamic features such as explorable 360° construction build-up renders, free interactive educational modules on key fire safety and acoustic topics with sign up options for more in-depth training. Linked to this is our investment in developing our specification tools to create comprehensive Specification Packs. For example, we are an NBS Source Partner and an NBS Chorus Specification Writing Partner. We are also in the process of developing our BIM models in light of feedback from our customers.
12. Working on some incredible projects!
This is what it is all about! Our products have been specified on some of the world’s most prestigious projects— and alongside our incredible distribution partners, it has been a privilege to work with some of the world’s best architects, developers, contractors and other manufacturers to ensure the highest standards of passive fire protection and acoustic performance.