Ibstock PLC, a leading traditional brick and concrete manufacturer of 200 years, has taken the bold step to acknowledge the challenges that the UK’s construction industry face by launching Ibstock Futures in early 2021. With labour constraints, supply chain inefficiencies and the need for greater sustainability within manufacturing and construction, Ibstock Futures aims to enable the full potential of industrialised construction in the UK.
Our strategy for achieving this is to work closely with clients, designers, developers and contractors on new construction systems, helping to bring industrialisation to the supply chain and influencing design for manufacturing and assembly from early stages of conception. This will contribute to more sustainable construction, reducing waste and improving overall productivity in the construction value chain.
Early engagement and collaboration is key to this – over the last two years, the division has built a team with a wealth of professional, technical and manufacturing knowledge aptly capable to provide value in specifying MMC strategies.
In that time the division has acquired Façade businesses in Telling and Generix as well as consolidating businesses from Ibstock Kevington in Mechslip and Nexus, which delivers to the market a compelling portfolio of façade systems that are suited for traditional, volumetric, 2d and 3d modular applications. Whether that may be on and offsite mechanically fixed brick slip applications in either real brick or competitive extruded slips, or glass reinforced concrete solutions that deliver great value to construction programmes.
As Ibstock Futures’ launch project, the PLC Group announced plans to invest £50 million to create the UK’s first automated brick slip systems factory in Nostell, West Yorkshire. The project will see the first automatic brick slip cutting line, which will directly serve MMC markets with greater productivity.
Ibstock Futures’ principles are geared towards providing value in servicing the façade, but also making the façade a system that is integrated holistically, providing value to the building’s construction programme and lifespan. Ibstock Futures is not just a façade division. The mandate to seek out through M/A or venture client models, gives Ibstock Futures a remit to bring in new products, new technologies and new business models.
Working closely with start-ups with emerging technologies, both physical and digital, can bring in: design for manufacture and assembly (and disassembly) methodologies, parametric design configuration, sustainable new product development to provide the market with lower embodied carbon or to provide greater operational carbon performances to buildings, and finally business models to better aggregate value within the value chain of construction.
Joining the Offsite Alliance will provide great value to Ibstock Futures to engender itself within the offsite and industrialised construction world. Having hosted Anna Whiting’s drinks at our showroom in London and sponsoring the OA stage and UK Construction Week in October, we have already seen the value Alliance brings.
Enabling the full potential of MMC in the UK requires collaboration and being open. We endeavour to be an entity that can facilitate the resurgence of British building prowess.
For further information about Ibstock please visit our website - https://www.ibstock.co.uk/
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