Insulate Magazine May 2018

The only independent insulation industry trade magazine
If you were going to go back and
give advice to your pre-insulation
industry self, what advice would you
give somebody that was coming into
the industry right now
I think first of
all you have to
understand the
business and
understand the
infrastructure -
don’t go around
like a headless
chicken trying
to see every
customer, get
the backroom in
order first of all
and be organised.
Get a firm
structure in place
and then look at
working with the
Regional Sales
Directors to
develop certain
areas, key accounts
and have
a firm strategy
going forward.
Always have an
eye on the horizon,
that’s where
the innovation is,
that’s the future.
For example, look
how the market is now demanding
high performance sound insulation,
which is something that hardly
featured ten years ago!
When I joined the business in
Isover, I did a survey across the
contractors, sub-contractors and
distributors to find out what they
wanted from Isover going forward;
they said value, innovation and clear
communication.
I knew it was important to get the
brand name out there, so I just got
out and saw as many people as I
could and put Isover cards in front
of them saying: “look I’ve moved
over from British Gypsum with
David Travill, to Isover - still the
same business, Saint-Gobain.” I
wanted to remind them that we’re
[Isover] here and if there were any
opportunities that we can capitalise
on. We had some great success with
a number of key distributors who
were able to support us.
And leveraging a whole other skillset
probably, I’d say as well, because obviously
you’ve been in that BG bubble
as being a market leader, obviously
you were going to leverage contacts
because that is what everybody does,
but it’s a different skillset getting
products into store than it is when
you are BG because obviously they’ve
already got that.
Yes that’s right, and the key to us as
Saint-Gobain and Isover, we need
to continue to work closely with
British Gypsum for the specification
of full system solutions.
Would you say that your retirement is
coming too early or too late?
Well, do you know I think it’s
coming at the right time for me.
As I’ve said, I’ve worked for British
Gypsum and Isover for thirty years,
much of that time I’ve been away
from home. I’ve still got a young
family so it’s an opportunity to
spend more time with them. My
wife, Sian had a very good job
working for Michael Heseltine, she
was number three in his business in
market publishing.
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