British Precast’s PRECAST2013 event welcomes 400 delegates

1829 British Precast welcomed over 400 delegates to PRECAST2103, the biggest event of the year for the manufactured concrete products industry, which was held at the popular King Power Stadium in the city of Leicester, England.

Highlights included keynote speeches and award presentations by Judith Hackitt, chair of the Health & Safety Executive, and Patrick Declerck, president of BIBM, the European Precast Concrete Federation; the launch of the new Code of Practice for Safe Installation of Precast Concrete Flooring and Associated Components by the Precast Flooring Federation with signing of pledges by members; presentation of awards for health & safety projects and leadership , innovation, construction projects, sustainability and supply chain sustainability; an announcement of the sustainability achievements of the sector with ten of the 12 stretching targets set in 2008 being reached by 2012, the other two being only narrowly missed.

•    Safety demonstrations were given by 6156 Cemex UK showing vehicle configuration to take account of vulnerable road user, and speed restrictor systems by.

With 55 trade stands and information booths, dozens of seminar presentations and over 400 visitors this was the largest event staged by British Precast the trade federation for UK concrete product manufacturers.

Some 230 delegates attended the  Awards Lunch presided over by Martin Clarke the outgoing chief executive of British Precast who is moving to a part-time role as senior director reporting to president Andy Dix after 11 years at the helm. Dr Andrew Minson will take over executive director on the same date and will also maintain his role as executive director of The Concrete Centre.

Main award winners were:

•    Outstanding contribution to health & safety: Glenn Regan [Forticrete], Stephen Carr [Spiroll Precast Services], Darren Palmer [Cemex], Ian Kenning [CPM Group].

•    Health & Safety Award: 1343 Hanson Formpave (safe working environment for employees with disabilities and health-related issues).

•    Innovation Award: Buchan Concrete Solutions (SCHOOL system and demonstration unit).

•    Sustainability Award: Hanson Building Products (curing system energy savings).

•    Project Award: joint winners Decomo UK for Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Glasgow, and Thorp Precast for the new Cooperative Head Office, Manchester.

•    Associate Member Sustainability Champion Award: three winners 7235 Lafarge Tarmac for its automatic vehicle tyre inflation system; CSM [UK] for a materials efficiency exemplar project at St Ambrose School Sports Hall and 4860 BASF for its Life Cycle Analyser.

The next annual event PRECAST2014 will be again be held at The King Power Stadium on 1 May 2014 and will celebrate the 50th anniversary since the federation was formed in 1964.

Germany has accepted an invitation to be the guest country at this special event. Dr Ulrich Lotz director of the German precast body Betonverbände Baden-Württemberg and managing director of Europe’s largest annual precast event Betontage in Neu Ulm [18-20 February 2014] was a special guest at PRECAST2013 and assisted in the awards ceremony