Bowater Building Products Overview

Bowater Building Products is one of Britain’s leading vertically integrated players in PVC-U windows and doors. The company also markets roofline products as well as composite doors. Based just outside Sutton Coldfield in Birmingham the company employs nearly 450 employees. Most employees work at the main site but some are located at our warehouse at Midpoint Park and others are based in Coventry. Bowater Building Products is made up of three divisions – WHS Halo, The Prime Connection, and Bowater Windows & Doors; combined turnover in 2007 was £65m.

Bowater Building Products has its origins in the 1970’s, when part of Bowater plc, the British Conglomerate. In it’s history it has been part of a group with interests in Western and Eastern Europe as well as Direct Sell in the British Market. Today Bowater Building Products’ majority shareholder is 3i, Europe’s largest private equity group. Bowater Building Products is a business focussed on supplying product to Britain, Ireland and India. The cornerstone of the company’s approach to markets is it's market segmentation. Bowater Building Products firmly believes that the needs of the consumer, public and housebuilder sectors are quite different and therefore need different design and fenestration solutions. This strategy has been particularly successful in the public sector where one in five windows are extruded by WHS Halo in any one year.

In line with the Egan Report on “Rethinking Construction” Bowater Building Products vertical integration has given it key advantages in managing the supply chain to clients. All three divisions feed off each other in their experiences to enable BBP to come up with tailor made solutions that can be extruded, fabricated and installed.

Bowater Building Products culture is based around quality, training, investment, benchmarking, and customer/client satisfaction. The company uses the EFQM model in developing it's culture and strategy; the model puts great emphasis on performance measurement and continuous improvement. We have found TPM to be an important tool in driving continuous improvement and we have found NVQ’s to be a vital help in raising standards. NVQ’s are mandatory for many positions within our Group. The company regularly invests over 100% of depreciation back into the business and customer/client satisfaction is monitored by both externally and internally conducted Market Research.

The primary product used by the Group is PVC-U, poly vinyl chloride unplasticised.  PVC-U is produced from two natural raw materials – crude oil (43%) and common salt (57%). The Group is particularly active in environmental matters. It was the first British extruder of PVC-U to gain the Environmental Standard of 14001 and has pioneered recycling schemes in different parts of the country. The company is a champion of the industry’s voluntary commitment, which entails increased recycling, as well as lead and landfill reduction.

In May 2006 the company appointed its first Sustainability Manager, whose brief includes reducing our carbon footprint and ensuring that we work within a sustainable development framework. In April 2008 the company announced an exciting technology transfer agreement with Ajay, and Indian based manufacturer, who will extrude System10 from July 2008.

WHS Halo is officially the third largest PVC-U window extruder in the UK, designing and supplying window profile to fabricators and installers within the UK and Ireland. Through its System 10 and Eclipse brands WHS Halo provides fenestration solutions for the consumer, housebuilding and public sectors.

Bowater Windows & Doors was created in 1996 to focus on the supply and fit of windows and doors to the social housing sector. The division can install timber and aluminium product as well as PVC-U.

Bowater Building Products is one of Britain’s leading vertically integrated players in PVC-U windows and doors. The company also markets roofline products as well as composite doors.

Information on key personnel at Bowater Building Products Limited