At the big Cat Sanctuary in Headcorn, Kent, around 50 of Marmox’s staff and family members gathered to relax and celebrate the company’s 25 years in business.After visiting Lions, Tigers, Pumas, Jaguars, Cheetahs and Leopards, they enjoyed a buffet lunch before the founder – Harry Parsons – cut a cake suitably decorated with the Marmox company logo and gave a short speech on, as he put it, ‘how it all started.’
This was followed by Sarah Viney, Harry’s daughter and Managing Director and her brother Johnathan Parsons who is Business Development Director, together with long time member of the Marmox team, Finance Director, Richard Kent-Smith presenting certificates to many of the long serving employees and as an extra thank you, under each guest’s glass on the dining table was a lottery ticket – so at the end of the visit to the Cat Sanctuary, three lucky winners’ prize was to feed the Tigers.
As is appropriate at such a milestone, celebration thoughts inevitably turn to stand-out memories of the past and also to what the future might bring.Back at work then, Sarah reflected: “It was a decade ago that we introduced Thermoblock to tackle cold-bridging at places like the floor/wall junction, with their concrete mini-columns ensuring structural continuity. It took a long time for specifiers to realise the advantages under SAP etc., but now we are seeing sales into housebuilding booming and now the range is ready to welcome a fire rated version: only awaiting final award of its BBA certification.”
Sarah continued: “Then, though the uptake of our recently developed Fireboards can definitely be considered a slow burn, there have been plenty of visitors on the stand at exhibitions keen to hear about what is a unique Class 1 non-combustible product and sales are starting to grow.Crucially, Fireboard offers ways of satisfying the new Building Safety Act, as well as addressing the concerns of building insurers.”
“Looking to the future, Marmox is in the process of introducing another product with the same core and coating as Fireboard. This is a special brick slip panel, developed with a slip manufacturer, that is basically a Fireboard ‘receiver’ with a recess sculpted to take the slips, which makes it easy to handle and fix in place.”Sarah added: “Of course our original launch product – Multiboard – sustains excellent market share in tiling and wet room applications: along with a diverse range of shower trays, drains and related products.”
While Marmox remains a family business, staff retention across the company’s various departments is excellent, with the stability this offers boding well for the future.Here, Sarah sees the industry as shifting towards off-site fabrication, in the knowledge Marmox is well place to respond.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:
MARMOX (UK) LTD. CAXTON HOUSE 101-103 HOPEWELL DRIVE CHATHAM KENT ME5 7NP.TEL:01634 835290FAX:01634 835299
EMAIL:sales@marmox.co.uk
WEB:www.marmox.co.uk
