Wow! What happened? The political world has convulsed across Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Nothing new I suppose. The third quarter of 2022 is certainly a change from the previous two years with volumes crashing well below 10%. New enquiries are also down well below 10%. Confidence is being squeezed out of the market with ‘mini’ budgets, a series of u–turns, and increasing mortgage rates.

The dreaded R-word is here too, and the short to mid-term outlook will be challenging. The pound note margin, as opposed to the percentage margin, is critical as the costs of maintaining businesses continues to rise even when our raw material pricing is stabilising. After celebrating 30 years at Keystone this month, who said construction was boring!

But, in spite of the gloom and doom we do have our ‘Key’ areas to focus on.

The new Building regulations 2022 will require manufacturers and builders’ merchants to manage stock ranging in greater detail. Wider cavities and thermal performing lintels are becoming more frequently specified. And at Keystone we have increased our breadth of stock to cover up to 150mm wide cavities along with an extended Hi-therm range to help satisfy the variance in demand coming into 2023. It is envisaged that standard 100mm cavity steel lintel requirements will decrease, hence greater attention to stock management in line with specification will be a priority from now on.

Sustainability is another Key area, and all our Keystone packaging is fully recyclable. Combined with the use of renewable energy, electric forklifts, hybrid-electric cars, LED lighting, planting etc we have made significant strides over the years to reduce our carbon footprint. Now with science-based targets we are focused across our business to further reduce emissions by 60% by 2030, in line with the Climate Change Council’s ambitions.