COMPANY IN FOCUS
MAINTAINING SUPPLY IN CHALLENGING TIMES S
SQ Founder and Managing Director Ahmed El-Helw explains how his company is to continuing to serve its customers despite unprecedented challenges.
We are living through the worst supply chain disruption in living memory. Brexit or the pandemic alone would’ve caused major headaches for businesses throughout roofing, construction and beyond – the two together, combined with freak accidents like the blockage of the Suez Canal, have created chaos across many industries. At the time of writing, there are widespread shortages of timber, steel, concrete, cement and more – and earlier this year, roughly half of the businesses that make up the National Federation of Roofing Contractors reported shortages of concrete tiles. On top of all that, we’ve seen a spate of quite drastic price rises. According to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the overall cost of construction rose 14.7% in June alone – and an already serious skills shortage has worsened considerably. As demand for workers has reached a 20-year high, and construction output has undergone its biggest leap since 1997, thousands of experienced Eastern European workers have left the country in the aftermath of Brexit. The number of EU nationals working in UK construction has dropped a staggering 42%. A national shortage of lorry drivers is also having a major impact, as is the pandemic’s ongoing effect on the transportation sector – according to government figures, 9.6% of UK transport and storage categories have permanently closed their doors. RELATIONSHIPS ARE KEY So, given the massive scale of the challenges our sector and others are facing, how are we at SSQ still able to offer great products, large volumes, and short, reliable lead times? To properly explain that, we first need to look at how many UK slate suppliers operate. Often, they are businesses that buy smaller quantities of slate from a wide variety of suppliers. Cont. 20
BuildingProducts.co.uk • November/December 2021