Up on the roof Palram Industries

UP ON THE ROOF

Global manufacturer of semi-finished extruded thermoplastic sheets and finished products Palram Industries offers a total service provision. Emma-Jane Batey spoke to the marketing director, Mr Hanoch Goldman, to find out more.

Established in Israel more than 45 years ago, Palram Industries is a publicly owned multinational company that specialises in the manufacture and supply of thermoplastic sheets and finished products in polycarbonate, PVC and PMMA. With a $300 million annual turnover that saw an eight per cent rise in 2010 –2011 despite the global recession, Palram’s continued growth is expected in 2012 and beyond.

With eight state-of-the-art production plants worldwide, and a number of sales and marketing offices in strategic locations, including Europe, the Americas, the Middle East and Asia, Palram is keen to highlight its considerable achievements as a total service supplier. It has nine warehouse locations in Europe alone, making it very quick to deliver products to customers wherever they are based.

Marketing director, Hanoch Goldman, told Industry Europe how Palram Industries has developed significantly during its nearly half-century history. He said, “The secret to our success is two-fold: continually investing in the latest technology to ensure that our products are of the best possible quality; and keeping in close contact with our customers so that we can tailor our offer of products and services to meet their ever-changing demands. This has been the power behind Palram for decades.”

Manufacturing a wide range of semifinished extruded thermoplastic sheets and finished products means that Palram can develop, deliver and install products for a wide range of applications across a number of commercial industries. Its core business is in DIY, construction, architecture, advertising, agriculture, glazing and fabrication, with the common thread between these industries a requirement for strong, flexible, performancedriven extruded thermoplastics.

Quality as standard

Mr Goldman continued, “Even though our thermoplastics have a broad range of applications, they are all joined by the fact that they offer each market a high-quality solution. For example, in the USA we are the sole supplier of extruded thermoplastic sheets to the major DIY chain Home Depot and our products can be used for a number of domestic and construction-based applications.”

One particular industry sector in which Palram’s strong sheets are utilised to their fullest potential is in the building of sports and entertainment stadia. Its products have most recently been included in the development of some sites for the London 2012 Olympics, and are also prominent in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Palram is also proud to be involved in the construction of 13 different construction projects in China Olympics, with its polycarbonate sheets used for roofing, advertising signage and skylights.

Mr Goldman said, “There are two main uses for our polycarbonate sheets in the building of stadia. The sheets are used in the construction of the roof in many cases as they provide a light, clear, UV-filtered material and our uniqe IR-filtered material that allowed us to block the heating under the roof. They are also used in the large signs used to advertise either sponsors or the name of the stadium with a special formulation designed for light box.”

Totally skilled

The building of roofs and skylights from polycarbonate sheets is a key skill for Palram Industries. As the only company in the world that is able to get high light transmission and parallel to get cooler atmosphere

under the roof in stadium environments, it is keen to highlight its capabilities in this area. Mr Goldman pointed out, “This is a very big market and it is growing in importance for us as our achievements and capabilities reach new clients and potential clients. The bottom line is that we can match any profile to any kind of roof, and our engineers from technical support department, support their applications so that the whole aspect of the construction project runs smoothly. We don’t just sell sheets; we’re committed to delivering full solutions.”

This total service provision is helping Palram Industries to stand apart from the

competition. Its ability to match any kind of roof with any kind of sheet application is certainly helping to expand its involvement with architects and construction teams, particularly as the Palram teams know the extensive potential of their products inside and out, and take great pride in passing this expertise on to customers.

Printing with foamed PVC is also an important market for Palram, with its vast range of signing solutions and with the unique anti bacterial sheet valuable for hospitals, hotels and large-scale canteen-type environments. The PVC used rejects a huge number of microbes, making it a very hygienic solution for such applications, so much so that it has already been installed by Palram in a number of hospitals in the UK, the Netherlands and Iraq.

Roof on the world

Around 50 per cent of Palram’s current business is gained from customers in Europe. Mr Goldman is clear that this will continue to be an important geographical market for the company, although he points out that in terms of growth potential it will be focusing its new business activities in Asia, Brazil and Africa. It is already present in the USA, Canada, Mexico, Asia and Australia, and these regions are expected to see continued growth for the company in 2012 and beyond.

Mr Goldman concluded, “Europe will remain our priority as we have developed excellent working relationships with many customers, but we also see exciting opportunities in emerging markets, so we will certainly be kept on our toes! Our sales and design teams have strong experience of working with customers across sectors and across geographical regions and we are passionate about bringing our total service solution to large-scale projects worldwide.” n