NATFEN Awards Magazine Edition 1

NFA Digital ISSUE 1

GENERAL

WELCOME TO YOUR FIRST NFA DIGITAL! H ello and welcome to your first ever edition of NFA Digital. Your new monthly digital magazine bringing you the latest monthly publication. It is also a great way to bring tall the latest NFA news and announcements to as wide an audience in this industry as possible.

news from the National Fenestration Awards, it’s sponsors, and news from around the industry.

As #NFA17 moves into the serious end of the campaign, NFA Digital will be one of your best ways to keep up to date with all things National Fenestration Awards. If you want to see your stories featured in NFA Digital in future issues, please contact us on [email protected] or on Twitter: @NatFenAwards and we will work with you to bring your news to the industry.

Once a month we’ll be bringing you the latest news from the 2017 National Fenestration Awards campaign, including the timetable for nominating, voting and all the other important dates you need to keep in your diary. We’ll also be bringing you news from our sponsors, the very important people and companies supporting the awards, helping to spread our positive message and encourage everyone to take part. Why have we started this magazine? We wish to grow the National Fenestration Awards so that as much of the industry knows of us and can take part. We see NFA Digital as a great way to do that, and to also become another source of relevant information about the industry as companies submit their own releases for us to include in our

THE DATES YOU NEED TO KNOW

#NFA17 is moving into the thick end of the campaign, and we want to make sure you all have a great shot of making the voting stage of the awards this year. These are they key dates you need to know:

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GENERAL

#NFA17 NOMINATIONS PHASE: W/C Monday 9th January – Thursday 28th September MONTHLY COOL WALL COMPETITION: W/C Monday 9th January – then runs start to end of each calendar month up to the end of November #NFA17 VOTING PHASE START AND FINISH DATES: Thursday 5th October – Thursday 30th November

There is still plenty of time to submit your nominations in all 17 categories of this year’s campaign. The more nominations a company receives, the better the chance they have of making the voting shortlists phase at the start of October. So don’t stop now! To take a look at all 17 categories in #NFA17 click here: www.fenestrationawards.co.uk/2017-categories from here you’ll be able to browse the details of each one and place your nomination. You need to be registered on our website first. If you already are, great! If not, it only takes a minute and you can do that right here: www.fenestrationawards.co.uk/register We look forward to your participation in #NFA17, thanks for reading and good luck to all those taking part!

#NFA17 WINNERS WEEK: W/C Monday 4th December for 4 days WALL OF WINNERS END OF YEAR COMPETITION:

W/C Monday 4th December finishing on Sunday 17th December – winner announced Monday 18th December

Jason Grafton-Holt Co-founder / Director

CONTENTS: MAIN EVENT SPONSORS �������� 4 COOLWALL ................................14 CATEGORY SPONSORS ��������� 18 INDUSTRY NEWS .....................20

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MAIN EVENT SPONSORS

S ynseal Group has bid a fond farewell to David Strang who has retired after more than 30 years working with the Sheerframe window system. During a lifelong career in the plastics industry, David has seen it all – from fond memories of his early days in the British Plastics Federation to the height of Sheerframe’s success as the most specified commercial window system in the UK. David was instrumental in driving some of the key innovations in PVC-U manufacturing we take for granted today, including the first lead-free profile, co-extruded weather seals and the first UK designed reversible window system. Starting his career at the BPF, David remembers working with raw material suppliers to campaign for window performance standards, leading to BS 6375 standards, and going to the advertising standards agency to dispute false claims about PVC-U discolourment by aluminium suppliers. In 1983 he moved to LB Plastics to take up the new role of Product Manager for Sheerframe, soon after they launched the first 70mm window system. It was highly successfully both in retail and in the public sector, where Sheerframe became the go-to PVC-U window supplier for local authorities. David continued to head up the Sheerframe division when acquired by Synseal Group in 2014, helping the systems house to tap into the specification market with Sheerframe’s first-class reputation in the specialist commercial sector for sheltered housing, educational buildings and inner city housing developments. SYNSEAL BIDS A FOND FAREWELL TO SHEERFRAME’S DAVID STRANG

Commenting on his time at the forefront of PVC-U innovation, David said: “It was like riding the crest of a wave in the 1980s and 90s. A lot of the time we were working it out as we went along, crystallising ideas in marketing meetings, working out what we wanted to achieve and putting them into action. These were times when there were no performance standards for weather tightness or thermal efficiency – steel and timber windows predominantly had no seals and glass was held in place with putty! “With Sheerframe we made huge advancements, eschewing copycat products in 60mm - largely inward opening designs for German refurb and new build - and instead promoting British style multilights that opened outwards like casements and reversibles in replacement sizes of 70mm. We also pioneered whole window and door systems with pre-fused gaskets and seals which, despite scepticism from the wider industry, are now the norm. “It was an exciting time to be non-conformist, and to lead the way in PVC-U innovation. It was a time when everything you touched turned to gold.”

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SYNSEAL GROUP COMPLETES REFINANCING FOR NEXT STAGE OF GROWTH

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F ollowing the recent acquisition of Village Glass, the Synseal Group has now completed a refinancing with the support of its current investors and funders, H.I.G. and Proventus, who have provided substantial further funds to continue their support for the growth and integration of the group. The refinancing has resulted in a significant strengthening of the group's balance sheet and ensures that Synseal is positioned to solidify its market leading positions in PVC-U profile and conservatory roofs, and to take advantage of its strategic growth areas of glass, entrance doors and aluminium window and door products. SYNSEAL GROUP The Synseal Group has developed from a £70m turnover extrusion business prior to the MBO in 2010 to a £160m turnover multi material supplier to the fenestration industry with market leading positions in PVC-U and aluminium window and door systems, GRP and timber doors, Insulated glass units for windows and roofs. Conservatory roofs and portal frame structures. The group now employs over 1500 people across seven sites. For more information please refer to the Synseal website at www.synseal.com or contact David Leng – CEO. H.I.G. is a leading global private equity and alternative assets investment firm with more than €20 billion of equity capital under management. Based in Miami, and with offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Atlanta in the U.S., as well as international affiliate offices in London, Hamburg, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Bogotá, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. H.I.G. specializes in providing both debt and equity capital to small and mid-sized companies, utilizing a flexible and operationally focused/ value-added approach: H.I.G. CAPITAL

1. H.I.G. equity funds invest in management buyouts, recapitalisations and corporate carve-outs of both profitable as well as underperforming manufacturing and service businesses. 2. H.I.G. debt funds invest in senior, unitranche and junior debt financing to companies across the size spectrum, both on a primary (direct origination) basis, as well as in the secondary markets. H.I.G. is also a leading CLO manager, through its WhiteHorse family of vehicles, and manages a publicly traded BDC, WhiteHorse Finance. 3. H.I.G.’s real estate funds invest in value-added properties, which can benefit from improved asset management practices. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. The firm's current portfolio includes more than 100 companies with combined sales in excess of €28 billion. For more information, please refer to the H.I.G. website at www.higcapital.com PROVENTUS Proventus Capital Partners is an active credit investor and loan provider to Northern and Western European companies in need of capital for expansion, acquisition financing, restructurings and refinancing. Proventus Capital Partners also conducts investments in publically traded corporate credits. The funds of Proventus Capital Partners have combined assets of EUR 2.5 billion and are managed by Proventus Capital Management AB, which is owned by management. For more information, please refer to the Proventus website at www.proventuscapitalpartners.se

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SYNSEAL GROUP JOINS #NFA17 CAMPAIGN AS MAIN SPONSORS AND #NFA17 WINNERS EVENT MAIN SPONSORS

areas within the industry with separate categories for IGUs, aluminium, PVC, timber, glass and doors, as well as the overarching systems company category which we won last year. It’s great that so many established and emerging companies can be recognised for their successes.” Jason Grafton-Holt, co-founder of the National Fenestration Awards added: “it’s great to welcome another brand new name to the NFA community. Synseal Group won Systems Company of 2016 last year, one of the biggest categories we have. It is great to see them coming on board as a main sponsor this year, and we look forward to promoting their brand, and working with them to help spread the positive message of the National Fenestration Awards to even more parts of the industry.” The nominations phase of the 2017 campaign is very much up and running, with the closing date on Thursday 28th September. The people and companies with the most nominations at the end of that period are put forward into shortlists for the industry to then vote to decide a final winner in all 17 categories this campaign. To find out more on how to take part, key dates for this campaign and more about the awards as a whole, visit: www.fenestrationawards.co.uk and follow the NFAs on Twitter for all the latest info and announcements on the awards: @NatFenAwards

A s the 2017 National Fenestration NFAs are proud to announce that leading systems company and all-round fenestration products group Synseal Group have officially joined as a #NFA17 Main Sponsor and #NFA17 Winners Event Main Sponsor. Sysneal Group are one of the UK fenestration sector’s leading and largest systems companies, boasting leading brands such as WarmCore, Masterdor, alongside their well-established PVCu business. A recent number of industry acquisitions has seen Synseal Group grow to become one of the biggest companies in UK fenestration, and also one of the most influential. Synseal Group join as main sponsors of both the #NFA17 campaign itself, and the #NFA17 Winners Event which is due to be held early next year. Andy Jones, Group Sales and Marketing Director at Synseal Group, said: “it was great to be involved in the National Fenestration Awards last year as a winner, so we’re even more excited to be supporting the awards this year as a main sponsor. The National Fenestration Awards are one of the only industry awards to recognise all the growing Awards campaign rolls deeper into the nominations phase of the campaign, the

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