Bond It puts the seal on growth with £1m warehouse investment

BOND IT, the building chemicals manufacturer, is investing more than £1m in a new distribution warehouse to help cope with demand for its products and give it a platform for future growth.

The Elland business makes adhesives, grouts, sealants and PVAs for trade customers including independent retailers and builders’ merchants.

The company is set to turn over around £11m this year and has averaged double-digit growth every year for the last decade, said managing director David Moore.

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The new warehouse is 13,700 sq ft and takes the total footprint of Bond It to 60,000 sq ft.

Mr Moore said: “It’s all to grow. It’s to satisfy our current demand but we also plan to continue double digit growth and see no reason why we cannot do that.

“I don’t think the market is increasing. It’s very static. But we take market share. If we are turning over £11m there is still a lot for us to go at out there.

“As things get tougher, the customer is being a little more choosy over who he deals with and that’s opening opportunities for ourselves.”

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The company has no major debt and is cash rich, said Mr Moore.

“Things tightening up has been good because it has opened doors. Customers are now more willing to look at who they are going to buy their products from.

“When they do that it opens the door, we get in and we have a good story to tell.”

Bond It was founded by WMS chairman Joe Moore, a well-known figure in the window industry.

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It passed through owners including Sheffield Insulation Group and US conglomerate MASCO before Mr Moore and his two business partners bought the brand a decade ago through their company Seal It Services Ltd.

“We have not got any plans to exit at this moment in time,” said Mr Moore. “The plan is to grow.”

The new warehouse has helped create seven jobs and will help safeguard the future of the existing 53 employees.

Elsewhere on the site, the company has a manufacturing plant for processing polymers to make its range of building products.

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Craig Whittaker, the Conservative MP for Calder Valley, will officially open the warehouse tomorrow with members of Huddersfield Giants. Mr Moore said he wants to increase his international trade and yesterday the company shipped its first order to Poland.

“Obviously we sell to Ireland; my partners are Irish,” he said. “The biggest export market would be Cyprus, followed by United Arab Emirates.

“We have customers in South Africa and we have sold one or two orders to South Korea.

“We are actively looking at expanding our export business. 70m people live in the UK. Seven billion live in the world. That’s our policy.

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“It’s a new learning experience for us. Our exports have tended to be people knocking and asking for products rather than us going out and selling it.”

Mr Moore, 54, has been in the industry for 34 years.

He said: “Probably one of the best things I have learnt is to play with a straight bat.

“If you are straight with the customers they are straight with you and keep on coming back. The customer cannot sell your product if you have not given him the things he wants.

“In that time people have got smarter. They understand value for money. The market is harder. People are more astute. They know what they are looking for.

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“You just have to match what you have got to offer with what they are looking for.”

The company said it invests heavily in research and development to helps its customers stay abreast of changing market conditions and demands.

It relaunched one of its most popular adhesive products in the summer with a new formulation offering “improved bonding qualities”.

Mr Moore said Bond It is bucking the general economic trend by offering a good service.

“A good service on a quality product range,” he added.

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Firm’s different guises

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BOND IT has been through a number of different owners in its life.

WMS chairman Joe Moore, a well-known figure in the window industry, founded the company to supply silicon to the double-glazing sector.

One of Yorkshire’s largest companies, Sheffield Insulation Group bought WMS for £56.2m in 1992.

SIG Architectural Products went through an £82m MBO in 1997 and was renamed Avocet Hardware.

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US corporation MASCO bought Avocet a year later for around £100m and decided to sell the Bond It business to management.

David Moore and partners came in for Bond It a decade ago. And the rest is history.