Annual report - Exteriors

First years are always transitional periods for any organisation. The key word in 2019 was ‘transformation’, as we blended our fibrecement roofing activities with our newer, faster-growing facade business. As part of this transformation, we spent part of 2019 responding to challenges, upgrading quality and streamlining our processes.

We made tough, rigorous decisions in 2019 to really put quality, commercial excellence and customer focus in the spotlight. We tackled quality issues relating to several products, which of course had a negative impact on the performance of the division but these actions were in the interest of our customers and our long term commitment to our markets. We evolve in a competitive market place and in certain markets (particularly in Latin America), we faced economic and political instability. We were only partially able to offset this instability in 2019 through our pricing strategy and lower input costs.

It’s important to emphasise that while the present situation requires a careful approach, the future of Exteriors is very promising. We have an exciting innovation pipeline, a crystal-clear strategy and a sharp focus on sustainable growth, which will translate into results in the coming years. More importantly, fibre cement products are both our historical activity and completely in line with Etex’s focus on lightweight materials. This will be key in our strategy going forward and offers a lot of opportunities.