Reports

1. INTRODUCTION

In recent years, the UK market for insulation materials has expanded strongly and is showing significant change, primarily reflecting growing emphasis on energy efficiency in key construction markets.

As a result, a leading supplier of insulation materials wanted to develop a more detailed understanding of the UK Insulation market in non-residential applications in terms of size, trends, key drivers, end use markets, and future prospects.

2. OBJECTIVES

The overall objective was to develop a detailed understanding of the UK insulation market in Non-residential applications. Specific objectives are outlined below:

• Detailed assessment of overall market size in terms of volume. Review of recent trends and overall forecasts through to 2014.

• Review of key market drivers – energy efficiency, thermal / acoustic / fire protection, Building Regulations, sustainability / environmental factors etc. Impact on future development and prospects.

• Overall analysis by key end use markets – this included a detailed analysis of key end-use stors including:

Commercial offices

Retail

Industrial / Warehousing

Healthcare

Education

Others

Analysis by each key sector included the following:

• Overall construction trends – size, key growth sectors, future prospects up to 2014 etc.

• Overall insulation sector size – market volumes, trends, key characteristics, drivers etc.

• Market and specification drivers - key influencers in specification process and key factors influencing choice of insulation materials in respective segments (thermal, acoustic, fire protection, type of application etc). Growing impact of environmental / waste minimisation regulation and issues.

• Competitor analysis - key suppliers, market positioning, sector strengths, trade perceptions, overall strengths & weaknesses etc.

• Product mix – mineral fibres, foams, composite panels etc. Mix estimates, review of changes in product mix, key drivers for change, future prospects and key factors influencing change etc.

• Distribution - key distribution channels and changes within the industry

• Review of current and recent changes in construction methods (e.g. offsite manufacturing – Volumetric and panellised systems, SIPs, Timber frame etc).  The influence of these changes on the development of the insulation market (specification, buying processes etc).

3. METHODOLOGY

Research for this project involved a mix of desk research and primary research.

Desk research was used to assess key construction market sectors, trends, drivers and future prospects over the next 5 years. AMA have substantial experience of most construction sectors and we used our range of published reports as a basis to assess key areas of opportunity – eg: Building Schools for the Future programme, Olympics, Health, etc.

We also assessed the impact of changing construction methods in different sectors – particularly growth of offsite construction (volumetric buildings, timber frame, steel / light steel framing, SIPs etc) and their impact on the insulation market including specification and procurement routes.

In terms of primary research, we undertook around 100 - 120 telephone interviews across key sectors. These involved the following sectors:

• Architects / Specifiers.

• Contractors.

• Consortia members (Health, Education etc).

• Key suppliers.

• Distributors – Specialists, Builders Merchants etc.

Following completion of the field research, AMA collated and analysed the information, and produced a comprehensive spreadsheet of market data together with a detailed report outlining our findings.

Researching non-domestic markets – particularly where RMI activity is important –is particularly difficult and involves considerable interpretation of findings to provide an overview of market size. As a result, findings are broad estimates only, but AMA have considerable experience of undertaking these type of projects. 

4. LOGISTICS

The timescale for a project of this nature is around 10-12 weeks depending on the full scope of the survey. The project covered a wide range of non-domestic applications where there is limited published information other than overall construction values. Costs for a project of this scale would be in the range of £12-18k.

5. OUTCOMES

The outcome of the research was the development of a better understanding of the non-domestic insulation market, in particular assessing the following:

• Overall market size, trends, key drivers

• Overview of product mix – quantification of product mix

• Detailed spreadsheet incorporating assessment of volumes used in different application sectors – including both new build an dRMI

• Review of key players – product strengths, sector specialists, success factors / market positioning

• Key specification process issues.

• Forecasts of future prospects over next 4-5 years.