Mackenzie Glass’ has reported a 30% jump in demand for cut to size laminate.
Reporting the year-on-year growth in laminate sales, Mark Herbert, joint managing director at Mackenzie Glass, said demand has been driven by new regulatory requirements under PAS24, as well as the increased specification of larger IGUs.
He said: “Taking standard domestic installations first, the requirements introduced under Part Q and through PAS24 in new build have increased demand for laminate in IGU manufacture.
“Increased end user awareness of SBD has done more or less the same in the replacement market. The net effect has been a very significant jump in demand for laminate product over the last year.”
Mackenzie Glass moved to meet this increase in demand in the summer of 2018 with the installation of a second laminate cutting table.
Its new Bottero 515LAMe laminated glass cutting table, delivered with an accompanying loading table, gave Mackenzie Glass the capacity to handle 4.5m X 3.2m laminated sheets.
With 90 second heat-up times, compared to the eight-minute heat-up of its pre-existing table, it also gives the independent glass merchant far greater flexibility in the supply of cut-to-size laminates.
Running across two-shifts, 24hours a day, Mark, said that the investment has allowed Mackenzie Glass to cut delivery times to as little as three-days with ambitions to reduce turnaround times to 48hrs or less.
“The new Boterro has delivered a step-change in our capacity. It heats 13.5mm laminate glass to splitting temperature in just 90 seconds and it’s also allowed us to bring in more precision to the process, reducing wastage and increasing our capacity to handle larger sheets.”
Mackenzie Glass has also recently added 4.5m X 3.2 10.8mm laminate stock sheets to its product range to support its customers in meeting increasing demand from the commercial sector.
Mackenzie Glass was formed at the end of last year as a stand-alone business and vehicle for the acquisition of Pilkington Bristol from NSG.
Supplying more than one million square metres of flat glass a year with a turnover in excess of £5m, the deal saw assets and employees transferred, with Mackenzie Glass also assuming new status as the first Pilkington Regional Partner.
