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Minister launches Guaranteed Irish Construction Sector Listing
(L-R) Fergal Murphy General Manager Kingspan Insulation Ireland, Brid O’Connell CEO Guaranteed Irish, Paddy Kelly Managing Director Etex Ireland & Chairperson of the Board of Directors Guaranteed Irish, Minister for Housing, Local Government & Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD and Michael Crowe, Chair of the Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland Housing Taskforce.
Minister for Housing, Local Government & Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD has recently launched the Guaranteed Irish House online listing. This is the country’s first national listing of sustainable construction sector businesses based in Ireland. The new initiative by Guaranteed Irish offers architects, engineers, quantity surveyors and interior designers a listing of locally produced raw building materials and home furnishings for both private and commercial builds. The online listing www.guaranteedirishhouse.ie includes all the elements of the supply chain required for a building, from raw materials to final furnishings, that can be sourced locally and help reduce the carbon footprint while supporting jobs and businesses here in Ireland. This initiative is supported by Guaranteed Irish construction members, Royal Institute of Architects of Ireland (RIAI), Engineers Ireland, Construction Industry Federation (CIF) & more. The listing is open to all Guaranteed Irish members that manufacture and supply products and services that are used in the build, retrofit and design of private and commercial projects in Ireland, at no additional expense to the member. Leading global construction firms including Kingspan, Etex Ireland (formerly Tegral), IPL, Tretford, Glennon Brothers, Wavin and SISK are all supportive of the need for a standardised specification listing of sustainable construction and interiors sector businesses for Ireland. These firms operate in Ireland, protect local jobs, and support communities. This is one of many steps in Guaranteed Irish`s efforts as an organisation to support Ireland’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions Projections 2040 while supporting local manufacturers and suppliers and in turn, contributing to the local economy amid the social and economic impacts of Covid-19. Paddy Kelly, Managing Director of Etex Ireland (formerly Tegral Building Products) & Chair of Guaranteed Irish said, “The members within the construction supply chain are frustrated to see so many opportunities pass them by. Our members can easily match, if not exceed, the quality and competitiveness of international firms that do not support jobs, communities, or local economies. The concept of providing access to a onestop-shop for local Irish suppliers of building materials was borne out at last year’s Construction Forum.” Minister for Housing, Local Government & Heritage Darragh O’Brien TD welcomed the Guaranteed Irish House initiative as a collective showcase of all Irish based businesses that can contribute to the building of homes, schools, factories, or hospitals. He said it would raise awareness of the range of Irish construction products available to architects and developers and encouraged them to make use of the resource when determining specifications.
Homeland light the way forward with New Solus Lighting Centres
Leading Irish lighting company, Solus have launched an attractive new brand refresh, 150 additional LED lines and now announce the exclusive roll out of the innovative ‘Solus Lighting Centres’ across all Homeland Stores.
Aurivo Co-Operative Society is a global agribusiness with exciting consumer brands and a diverse portfolio. This includes 34 Homeland retail stores located across 8 counties, including a store in Northern Ireland. Based in the heart of their communities they pride themselves on their team’s friendly customer service-based expertise across the expansive range of product categories such as agri, garden, fuel, homeware, hardware, paint, pet and more. “Solus are proud to partner with Aurivo and the outstanding Homeland Stores to light the way into these darker winter months with the launch of a whole new look, a brand refresh, new packaging, a new Planet First sustainability initiative and the innovative Solus Lighting Centres which echo the customer-centric culture at Homeland.“ said David Carron, National Key Accounts Manager at Solus. The new Solus Lighting Centres are both interactive and informative. There are up to 8 bays but the size of the display can be tailored to the space available and the design and production is of the highest quality. After over a year of research and design, Solus found that customers were often overwhelmed by the complexity of choice in the light bulb sector with lots of different considerations including wattage, fitting, product type, energy benefits and more. The new Solus Lighting Centres predict and answer user’s questions in a simple friendly way. The customer is brought on a journey with clear visuals and descriptions from Halogen and LED to the new premium Solus XCross™ Filament LED range. Various shapes including the classic bulb, candle, reflectors, round and fluorescent each have their own wattage guide and
The new Solus Lighting Centres at Homeland.
fitting options be it bayonet or screw fit. The interactive ‘try me’ stations are a pioneering move and a first for the lighting sector as customers can see exactly what the bulb looks like when lit in a familiar room setting.
Solus is a proud Irish company with over 80 years of building customer trust, recognition and reliability. Solus have now increased the depth of their range with 150 additional LED lines. Solus light bulbs are built to cover all the requirements of the International Standard ISO 9001.They are active participants in the Energy Savings Trust and are members of
WEEE Ireland and Repak.
Homeland store locations.
Keystone Lintels, leading manufacturer of steel lintels, is to make their builders merchant partners “an offer they can’t refuse.” In a dramatic movie themed campaign designed to boost turnover. The company have launched a dynamic new programme of increased support to turn live project leads into sales! The powerful new message to their merchant partners is simple – let Keystone do all the hard work and we can grow together. Just tell them about any live projects in your area and their team will do the rest, the initiative will see Keystone Lintels entire salesforce follow up on leads provided by their merchant customers. Once it is ready to convert to an order, it is passed back to the merchant that generated the lead, resulting in a direct sale for them. The lead generation partnership message will be communicated to merchant partners in an eye-catching and tongue-in-cheek movie themed campaign that takes inspiration from iconic films such as Jaws, Top Gun and Toy Story. Key movie lines have been adapted to help reinforce the lead generation message and provide a memorable way of keeping the message in everyone’s minds. “Keystone has always valued our partnership with builders’ merchants and have a proud 30 year history of unwavering support to our merchant partners,” said Kris Willis, Ireland Sales Director of Keystone Lintels. “Merchants are our eyes and ears on the ground, but with a vast amount of other products to sell we try to take away the workload of chasing these jobs down, to ensure we are successfully securing orders together.” “We are simply saying let us do the job for you. Keystone’s team will chase all leads that are new to us and the merchant, to create a schedule/quote and work to convert that schedule to an order!”.
COLOURTREND LAUNCHES A NEW PALETTE
Colourtrend, Ireland’s iconic paint brand, has launched a stunning new palette featuring 28 new shades, as part of their 2020 Contemporary Collection. Updated every three to four years to evolve with trends in colour and modern life, the Contemporary Collection’s new shades are a mix of luxurious neutrals and vibrant colours, split across four inherently Irish themes. Taking inspiration from elements of modern Ireland, the four themes consist of The Irish Landscape, Architectural Ireland, Cultural Ireland and Nostalgic Ireland. Whether it’s to inspire, calm or excite, each colour has a purpose and a story, capturing one or more of these themes, all while celebrating the unappreciated role of colour in our everyday life. Speaking about Colourtrend’s 2020 Contemporary Collection launch, General Paints Group Head of Marketing, Edel Nicholson comments: “We are delighted to finally launch the 28 new shades to our Contemporary Collection. The new shades featured are inspired by our first love, Ireland, but also created with people at the core. Looking at what matters most to the people that inhabit a space. Researching the growing trends across fashion, interiors and design we developed a palette that we are incredibly proud of and one that will resonate with consumers.” The 28 new luxurious shades join Colourtrend’s iconic Contemporary Collection and are available in three interior finishes; interior matt, ceramic matt and soft sheen, in addition to three trim finishes; eggshell, satin and gloss. They are now available at www.colourtrend.ie and from Colourtrend stores and key stockists nationwide.
