We catch up with Freefoam Managing Director, Aidan Harte, and Freefoam Chairman, Tony Walsh to learn more about cladding trends in the UK and Europe, new product development and what’s next for PVC cladding.
Cladding is a growing trend. How has the UK’s cladding market changed over the past 15 years?
TW: The cladding market was traditionally timber and most of the current designs you see on houses are based on these traditional designs. But things have started to change, and we are now seeing more of a switch to PVC cladding as the benefits of this material become more widely acknowledged. Our top cladding customers have seen their sales grow 55% in the past two years, which aptly demonstrates the strength of the market.
AH: PVC cladding has a lot of benefits over timber such as reduced maintenance and a wider choice of colour and finishes – and it’s all delivered without compromising on the traditional façade finish. PVC cladding has stepped up to become a real contender to timber in this section of the home improvement market.
What’s the latest style trends for UK cladding?
AH: We’ve noticed a rapid shift from the narrow range of White and Pale Gold cladding to a much wider colour palette – it’s striking! We have yet to see a move away from the loose joint system to the neater overlap joint which is so popular on the continent right now though. That may be a trend to look out for in the future!
Your Fortex and X-Wood cladding ranges have been a mainstay of the cladding market for a number of years now. What market factors influenced your product development decisions when you first decided to enter the market with a PVC product?
TW: Our experience of the cladding market over the past few years has showed us that it is multi-layered in customer expectations at different entry points. Some customers want performance at the lowest cost. Others are prepared to pay a bit more for different designs, while a further market exists for more robust and distinctive designs.
With this in mind, it was important that our cladding products offered customers distinct brands and different selections within those brands to clarify the different choices for customers and installers, ensuring we had something to appeal to all those individual subsectors of the market.
AH: We also looked at what was already out on the market. Fortex has some competitor products, but our X-Wood product is on its own for performance.
What separates Fortex and X-Wood from the competition? Why would an installer choose these products over a similar product, for example?
AH: From our research, I don’t believe any other producer can match Freefoam on either the breadth of cladding products offered or on our colour range. Our competitive advantage lies in the performance of our colours, the installation features on our most popular boards and the fact that we use acrylic long-life colour for the darker shades.
TW: For installers, the big selling points of Fortex and X-Wood would be more colour options for customers, durable colours which look better for longer and the fact that our products are easy to fit. Customers say our 10-year product guarantee gives homeowners the reassurance their cladding will last.
Let’s talk about product development. Did you have any requirements in mind when you first started the design processes for Fortex and X-Wood?
AH: Our original requirement was for a careful choice of design or shape, appropriate weathering features and standard fixing details. Freefoam’s initial range was limited to pale colours too, but this was soon to change.
TW: The largest market for cladding is in France, with significant sales in the Benelux countries too. These markets are typically quite adventurous with colour so this drove us to extend the colour options. Our European customers also pushed us to offer more design choices and to improve our weathering performance as the wide geographical area we were covering meant we could be fitting our products in a variety of demanding climatic conditions.
AH: So, you could say that meeting our customer requirements was the primary driver of our developments.
Did your R&D process for the cladding ranges include any new innovations?
TW: We have established an active R&D process at Freefoam and our innovation is focussed primarily on colour performance, post-processing, improving installation systems, waste and energy reduction. So, the R&D team continues to push our cladding designs to perform in these areas. Within our extrusion and embossing processes, we already have proprietary elements that are unique to us.
How do you guarantee the quality of the products you make?
AH: We have strict quality and testing standards in place at our cladding production facility. We want to make sure our installer and homeowner customers are completely happy with their cladding.
Quality control takes place at three levels. Firstly, during the course of the production cycle, there is good product visibility for spot-checking and this is supplemented by sampling at frequent intervals to ensure any quality issues are picked up quickly. Then, before a product is accepted into stock, we carry out random sampling.
As a normal activity, and in compliance with the ISO (9001) standard, we carry out a range of physical testing of our products in our laboratory. All testing is recorded and subject to audit by an external body.
When did you launch the Fortex and X-Wood ranges?
TW: Freefoam first launched the Fortex range over 15 years ago and we have been adding different cladding types and options to it ever since! The range now includes double shiplap cladding, weatherboard, and shadow-line flat cladding. It also offers a mix of traditional wood effect finish and a softer contemporary style.
Our Fortex colour options have also been extended over the years and there is a focus on trend colours that the market expects to see in cladding products. Shades of grey are particularly sought after these days, so the Fortex portfolio now includes four contemporary greys.
X-Wood is a much newer product which we launched in the last couple of years with a range of embossed PVC and foils. It’s a more premium offering with an improved fire rating and a composite formulation that enhances its installation characteristics.
Where are Freefoam’s cladding products sold?
AH: The UK market is a little way behind Europe in its appetite for cladding, so when our products first launched, they were actively sold in Continental European markets first. A few years later and the UK has seen fast growth in Fortex products and we are delighted that the number of stockists closer to home has increased year on year.
TW: UK sales of Fortex in particular are in a purple patch right now as increased demand for home improvements drives growth. We see this growth phase continuing as we develop the range further and as consumers become more aware of the benefits of installing and maintaining Fortex cladding.
What does the future hold for the cladding markets here and in Europe?
TW: From our own experiences and market research, we believe there will be a growing market for cladding products in the UK as well as in other European countries for a long time to come. I think we will also see different cladding styles and colour preferences come to the fore, as cladding manufacturers increasingly diversify their offer to mirror regional and national trends.
What’s next for Freefoam cladding?
AH: We are currently working on new product developments that will further enhance our product range both technically and aesthetically, with brand new lines expected to hit the market in the next couple of years. Watch this space!