Insulate - The Essential Insulation Magazine - May 2018

The only independent insulation industry trade magazine
Insulate Exclusive
Huw Rees
The Highs and Lows
As he approaches retirement,
Insulate Managing
Editor sat down with Huw
Rees to discuss his career in the
insulation industry and the many
changes that he has seen during
that time.
Huw, thanks for taking the time to
talk to us, could you give me a brief
overview of your career to date?
Well, I started in 1988 working in
sales. Then I was lucky as Andrew
Handley, who was the Sales Director
of British Gypsum, said there
was a vacancy as Regional Sales Director
in London, so I went and had
a chat with them and sure enough,
the opportunity turned into reality.
It was fantastic for me because I
knew a lot of the sub-contractors
in the area. It was a great business
to be with, and the opportunity
to work for British Gypsum was a
blessing, superb and the best time of
my life.
So how long in the Industry
overall?
Coming up to 30 years now. I was
with British Gypsum for about 25
years, and then with Isover.
In that time what do you think the
biggest shift has been in the Industry
that you’ve seen?
I think loyalty. You know in the
past there was a lot of brand loyalty,
then there was a move to low pricing
dominating the market. However
more recently, there’s been a move
towards value added and performance.
Don’t get me wrong, price is
still an issue but so is performance
and quality.
Some of the main contractors, in
order to win projects, are inclined to
opt to use the cheapest material and
not necessarily looking at quality.
However the end consumers and
specifiers in the market are feeding
back up the chain that performance
and quality are more than a luxury,
but rather it’s been demanded and
the norm.
So one of the biggest things that
I’ve seen is the move from loyalty to
price, and now to quality and
performance within system
solutions.
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