The UK operation of I-joist producer Masonite Beams is to close and business will be serviced from the Swedish parent company in the future.
Neil Lewis, sales director of Byggma UK Ltd, confirmed that the Norway-based Bygmma Group is closing the Masonite Beams UK operation at the end of July and stocks would be kept at Masonite Beams in Sweden instead.
“They feel that the prices in the UK are too low, coupled with the poor foreign exchange rate between Sweden and the UK,” said Mr Lewis.
“They felt it was not viable [to keep a UK operation] at this moment in time.”
TTJ understands that the Byggma Group wants to continue to sell its I-joists in the UK market.
The Masonite regional office had already closed at the start of 2011, with several staff instead working from parent company Byggma UK Ltd office’s in Chesham. Three Masonite staff are to be made redundant, including Mr Lewis, a technical manager and a design manager.
Byggma UK will continue to be based at Chesham, where it sells other building products into the UK market.
“It’s an extremely difficult market,” added Mr Lewis. “There’s an oversupply and prices are artificially low as a result.”
Masonite Beams, which was relaunched in 2008, currently has a 12% share of the UK I-joist market.
