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.
It was a decade ago that we introduced Thermoblock – It took a long time for specifiers to realise the advantages but now we are seeing sales into housebuilding booming and the range is ready to welcome a fire rated version
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: “Still relatively new to Marmox UK are the Fireboards, which have driven plenty of visitors to our exhibition stands – all 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.”
Sarah added: “Of course our original launch product – Multiboard – sustains excellent market share in tiling applications and we are expanding out wetroom options to include NEW trays with a NEW style drain, wash basins, shelves and new sizes of niche.”
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.