Summary
• TFS was established in 1998 to produce peel-off protective films for wood-based panel flooring systems.
• It has invested to expand its product range to include coatings and laminates.
• TFS devotes a lot of time to R&D and obtaining performance and quality certification.
• Its Partner Programme provides collaboration and support for product development.
• Partners can use TFS’s showroom to demonstrate products to their customers.

Three years ago, in the depths of the UK recession, Jean Richardson, founder and managing director of Trade Fabrication Systems (TFS), had to make a decision: to carry on as usual and see what happened to the market; or “take the bull by the horns” and expand the business.

In a characteristically bullish approach, she decided on the latter.

Ms Richardson set up the Merseyside company in 1998 to produce peel-off protective films for wood-based panel flooring systems. The products were quickly adopted by housebuilders throughout the UK, so much so that the vast majority of T&G chipboard flooring now going into housing has peel-off protection. By the time the recession hit, TFS was a multi-million pound company producing the same portfolio of products with an expanding customer base.

However, Ms Richardson recognised that to develop the company further, she needed to reduce reliance on the new build housing market (although it remains the company’s core business), increase the range of products and diversify. This required a “great deal of capital expenditure in new plant and equipment”, including a new coating line, which has been key to TFS’s product expansion, and a move from the original 38,000ft² premises in Newton-le-Willows to a 60,000ft² business unit on the outskirts of Warrington.

“We took some very heart-wrenching decisions because we were expanding and increasing capital expenditure during the recession. It was a tough call to be brave enough to do it but it has paid dividends,” said Ms Richardson.

New structure

Around the same time, she appointed Howard Morris as general manager to oversee the day-to-day running of TFS and to help her to take a more strategic view of the company.

Mr Morris’s background is in panels. He joined Mallinson Denny in 1984 to sell cement particleboard and then moved to Noranda (now Norbord) becoming sales director for sterling board, and later Weyerhaeuser as UK panel products manager and European sales manager for OSB. Prior to joining TFS he was a regional manager for Knauf Drywall and sales director at SIG Insulations.

With new premises, a new coating line, spray line and sanding equipment, and new management structure, TFS set about developing new ways of adding value to wood-based panels.

The result is a wide range of coated and laminated panels for a wide range of sectors – and the ability to develop products to customers’ specifications.

“The market sectors reflect where our existing customers are operating – retail, landscape, decking, commercial,” said Mr Morris. “We said ‘you’re already supplying a timber based product into those markets, so what can you do to add value to those items?’ We wanted to offer existing customers the opportunity to add value but also be aware that there are other markets out there that aren’t reliant on UK construction.”

The new products include coatings for commercial and domestic flooring, such as lacquered chipboard and OSB which is ideal for social housing and student accommodation; fire retardant coatings certified to Class 0; and antibacterial coatings for clean room environments such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools.

Laminated and bonded boards include OSB with a pre-applied breather membrane; insulation panels bonded with rigid and rock fibre insulation for use in wall, roof, soffit and flooring applications; and panels with acoustic matting.

Complete systems

Any of these products could be enhanced to create a complete system by adding a coating or peel-off film.

“A piece of chipboard is a piece of chipboard. This is about sexing it up,” said Ms Richardson. “Stop looking at it as a piece of chipboard and look at what’s on top.

“Instead of the merchant buying a floor panel, they buy a complete flooring system because we offer the tapes and adhesives as well. It’s a lot easier for the contractor because they get all the products together, rather than sourcing them all from different suppliers.”

TFS has also developed pre-primed and finished V-jointed MDF for internal cladding, particularly suitable for home offices and studios; and it has made its first foray into solid timber with its TradeDeck AS slip-resistant coating for decking. This new coating is already being used in outlets of coffee shop chain Costa, and in holiday parks, and TFS has established 18 outlets in the south of England.

TradeDeck can also be used on pallet tops to stop goods slipping during transit, and for packing Case floors for additional grip when loading.

The key to TFS’s product range is that there is really no definitive product.

“One of our specialist distributors is in the retail market so they’re now selling not just MDF but MDF with a finish,” said Mr Morris. “We’ve also just done a hotel job where we applied lacquer to oak-veneered MDF and then added our peel-off on top so the oak panelling was protected until after installation.

“It depends on what the customer wants,” he continued. “We lacquer OSB but the more lacquer we put on, the more permanent it is.”

And for OSB hoarding panels, TFS has invested in a machine that coats the panel using less paint, and at lower cost.

Adding value

While TFS spent money during the recession, its investment has helped its customers and their customers to make money, enabling distributors to offer a wider range of solutions and for their customers to use more efficient, less labour intensive solutions.

“During a recession everyone reviews what they need to do and we said we can give them those bullets to fire,” said Mr Morris. “If you want a fire retardant coating we can do that; if you want the product stained and finished, we can do that; if you want it stained, finished and a peel-off protection, we can do that – now take that to your buyer in the retail market.”

Adding value to boards also helps to mitigate the rising cost of transport.

“Because of our storage facility, distributors can say they want 17 pallets of flooring and five pallets of treated OSB. Also, distributors want low stock holding but manufacturers have a major cost in distribution, so the more items, the more value you can put on that vehicle, that helps profitability,” said Mr Morris.

For Ms Richardson, in the latest developments at TFS there is a certain amount of history repeating itself.

“When we developed the peel-offs we went to the major builders and said ‘your floors are a mess’, then building techniques changed as health and safety required a first floor working platform. We told builders we could solve their problems,” she said. “In effect, we created the market and it’s what we’re now trying to do with the coating products.”

Mr Morris agrees. “Because of the recession, panel producers have divested themselves of key staff so we need to forward think for our customer; we need to help them along,” he said.

“The coating line has done very much what the peel-off film has done,” he continued. “If there weren’t peel-offs, chipboard would have stopped being used as a flooring material and they’d have gone back to using solid timber.”

In the background

But despite its pivotal role, TFS has remained in the background, adding value to four panel producers’ products, which are then shipped out under the producer’s branding. It can also plug gaps in the market by processing imported panels.

“We’ve always been in the background,” said Ms Richardson. “We’re a bit like the Intel inside your computer.”

And a large part of what goes on in the background is TFS’s devotion to R&D and obtaining the necessary performance and quality certifications. It works with many of the UK’s main research bodies – BRE, TRADA, Edinburgh Napier University, Bangor University – to develop products and then gains certification, such as BBA or British Standard Class 0 fire retardant – before taking the product to market.

“We offer the whole back-up,” said Mr Morris. “We’ll present the process as a whole package or as a joint development.”

This can require tremendous investment before TFS even has a sale, but, for Ms Richardson, it’s the very essence of the company. “You need very strong nerves from a financial point of view because the costs of R&D are very hard to quantify, but it’s what we do – we’re marketeers and R&D people,” she said.

Partner Programme

TFS also develops solutions through its Partner Programme, which it has recently extended to include distributors. “Following increased enquiries from merchants we felt it was important to support this growing customer base. By extending our Partner Programme to provide national coverage, all members can benefit from a collaborative and supportive approach to product development,” said Mr Morris.

Partners can also use TFS’s showroom in Warrington to demonstrate products to their customers.

As well as investing in new machinery and processes, TFS has also been investing in its staff, developing management and NVQ training, and gaining Investors in People accreditation.

Ms Richardson has a sense of pastoral duty to her staff, which is reflected in their long service. Most have been with TFS since it started and the company’s fork lift driver Terry Lloyd has worked with Ms Richardson for 24 years.

So where next for TFS? “We’re constantly looking for new opportunities, new partnerships, building relationships with our suppliers,” said Ms Richardson, adding that there is also the possibility of establishing manufacturing bases abroad.

However, in the meantime, the plan is to establish the new products firmly in the market and get the TFS name better known as the company behind these panel solutions.