JOHN SINFIELD INTERVIEW

We recently sat down with Knauf Insulation Northern Europe’s Managing Director, John Sinfield, and asked him about the South African market, and what he expected to see over the coming years.

Q. Thanks for your time John. Can you tell us why Knauf Insulation has made the strategic decision to enter the South African market, and why now?

Knauf Insulation is always looking at developing new markets and we think that, at this time, the South African market is the natural one for us to enter.

We firmly believe that we offer a unique proposition that gives us a good opportunity to develop sales in Africa. Our insulation solutions are non-combustible with the highest levels of thermal and acoustic performance. They are made using our revolutionary sustainable bio-based binder, the Ecose® Technology, and offer the highest compression, which makes them highly sustainable. Overall, the market is growing, and we see that enhanced building regulations in South Africa will add to this growth. 

Q. What are you expecting from the market?

We expect to see some market growth; but the real impact will be from improving the standards of new buildings, making them more thermally efficient and lowering running costs for the occupiers. 

Q. What can Knauf Insulation provide that’s different?

There are numerous factors, some of which you’ll find around this very site. Four that immediately spring to mind though are;

- Palletisation

- The fact that we make Glass and Rock Mineral wool insulation

- Our revolutionary bio-based binder, the Ecose® Technology, and

- Our wide product range spanning across a large variety of applications

Q. Africa has a low per capita insulation consumption, are you expecting this to change?

We know that applications are not as developed as we see in other markets around the world. For instance; various external wall applications as part of the buildings envelope are quite limited especially in domestic housing. We believe that the introduction of EPC’s in the future will fundamentally change people’s perception of energy consumption and the costs associated with this.

Q. Finally, what are you hoping to achieve from the African construction exhibition in Johannesburg in May?

It’s not our first time at the exhibition of course, and as is often the case, it provides us with the opportunity to meet with both existing and potential customers.

It will also provide us with the opportunity to continue to grow our brand awareness in the market, and to build on our existing investment and commitment to the region. We look forward to seeing as many of you there as possible.

*If you have a question about the exhibition in South Africa or anything John has raised in the interview, feel free to get in touch with a member of our team today by clicking here.