Encos looks for cash to develop growth of eco-friendly bricks

The firm, spun out of the University of Leeds, has started testing commercial production of its environmentally-friendly bricks, made from recycled materials.

Chief executive Mark Nichols said the company now plans to raise an unspecified sum from investors. It believes the Government’s Green Deal, a plan to improve the energy efficiency of British properties, will boost demand for its bricks and brick slips.

The Leeds-based company last week began production trials with Somerset brick maker S Morris Ltd.

Its carbon-neutral products are made by baking a combination of recovered aggregates and vegetable oil base.

Mr Nichols said the firm is confident of demand for its products despite the deep construction slump.

“UK consumers quite clearly do not want to pay extra for sustainability but they want it,” he said.

“The building materials industry is probably at its worst position in its history in the UK.

“We know as a business we are not in the greatest position to launch a new product, because obviously we’re going to take someone’s market share.”

But he said the sustainable nature of its products has led to strong demand from construction products firms, architects and building groups.

The coalition’s Green Deal aims to make the country’s 26 million households and 4.5 million businesses as energy efficient as possible.

Under the scheme, householders and businesses will be able to get cheap loans for energy efficiency work, such as insulation and cladding, without having to pay up front.

Payment will be deducted from energy bills and loans will be tied to properties. The Government believes the Green Deal supply chain could support 100,000 jobs within five years.

Mr Nichols said the scheme is “big enough to create a new market” for its brick slip cladding, which he said cut heat leaking from homes.

“There’s a huge environmental and power-saving benefit,” he said. “The idea is to clad externally a very significant proportion of homes in the UK. We think we’re the world’s most sustainable masonry unit.

“I get inquiries every week from cladding companies asking when it’s available. We’ve got a number of the major players who’ve started to knock on our door.”

The firm is also looking at overseas markets, such as north west Europe and Australia.

In Australia, it is considering a licensing agreement with one of the country’s biggest brick firms, said Mr Nichols.

“All options are open” for the firm over commercialising, he said, adding he hopes its products will be on sale by the end of 
next year. “We are looking to raise money. That’s a lengthy process and we will be looking for money in the next couple of months.

“We won’t be looking to IPO (a floatation on the stock market) in the next round. There’s a potential to IPO but also great potential in terms of trade interest.”

The firm’s initial products were made from waste including human effluent and chip pan fat. But Mr Nichols said Encos has made them more appealing to consumers, and now uses limestone scrapings and rapeseed oil residue.

Encos’s bricks have undergone a battery of 32 tests at a £200,000 test facility at Yorkshire Water’s Knostrop site in Leeds.

This included freeze-thaw weathering, thermal shock and accelerated ageing, and the results “give comfort that it would meet the design life conditions”, said Mr Nichols.

The bricks and brick slips are now awaiting approval from the British Board of Agrément, which certifies building products.

Encos’ production trial is making bricks at a rate of 38 every 12 seconds, as part of a joint development agreement which permits further co-operation.

The firm has assembled a high-profile board in anticipation of 
its commercial launch, appointing two new non-executive directors.

David Szymansksi is a former managing director of Hanson Building Products, and is a non-executive at the Building Research Establishment.

Michael Driver is an architect, brick specialist and associate lecturer at the Cambridge University School of Architecture and was CEO of the Brick Development Association for eight years.

Encos is backed by IP Group, which turns university research into business, and Sustainable Resource Solutions Ltd.

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