standards and are given the same degree of expertise and priority whether they are for just one individual window or a major project.
Focus on the UK market Germany remains the company’s biggest European market but it has also been involved in some of the UK’s most prestigious and innovative projects in the recent past. This has led to the strategic decision to build upon its reputation in the UK and establish a sales office there in the near future. One of the recent high-profile UK projects was its involvement in the building of Birmingham’s most distinctive modern façade, that of the commercial building known as ‘The Cube’. This 23-storey city centre land-mark building was completed in 2010 at a cost of more than £100 million and was designed by Ken
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Shuttleworth, the architect renowned for his design of the ‘Gherkin’ in the city of London’s financial district. Haepp said, “The Birmingham ‘Cube’ project was a major UK contract for us where we worked in close collaboration with a German systems supplier for our extrusions. We specialise in contracts which can range up to €20 million and this one was close to €15 million, although many of our projects range between €500,000 and €5 million. Our company is also unique in that we are happy to produce individual, one-off items too such as special doors, windows and canopies. “The UK is an attractive market for us and the construction industry is now seeing signs of strong growth in the sectors in which we specialise, which includes residential, industrial and government projects such
as municipal buildings, schools and hospitals. We pride ourselves on the breadth of services we offer. These result in our clients getting better engineering standards and the most efficient installation, which can also mean the shortest installation periods. “Another unique aspect of our work is the fact that because of our diverse steel fabrication facilities and expertise, we have an interface between primary steel and glass. These two elements have very different tolerances and normally a contractor will retain two separate companies to manage each element. We are unique in that we manage both and have all the facilities under one roof. We also have our own highly qualified engineering department and installation teams which are dedicated to each individual project so that we maintain overall control of the schedule
