The results of our first  Pilkington energiKare™ advertising campaign  are now in and the results are staggering. An amazing 15.4 million adults saw the television advert at least once, with most seeing it on average 3.4 times. So, with  70 local and regional newspapers featuring Pilkington energiKare™  last month, awareness of our energy efficient glazing has now reached an impressive 47%! Thousands of homeowners visited our website throughout the campaign with 28% of them clicking through to search for a supplier and linking straight through to our Partner’s sites.

Pilkington has provided a range of glazing in the Visitor Centre at the Building Research Establishment (BRE), the world leading construction consultancy in Watford. Pilkington Activ™, Pilkington Eclipse Advantage™ and Pilkington energiKare™ ranges were installed in the doors, panels, screens and entrance to the centre and showcases our diverse offering to both commercial and residential buildings. The Visitor Centre,  at the BRE Innovation Park, provides information about all of the products on show  as well as a range of new designs and technologies.

We are proud to announce that a brand new house with  our glazing as an integral feature has won the Best New Home category at the prestigious Grand Designs Awards. The beautifully designed, four bedroom house in Somerset uses 45m2 of our solar control glass, Pilkington Suncool™ Brilliant 66/33, to form the majority of the home’s ground floor. The glass walls are an impressive design feature which has already seen the project receive a national accolade - overall winner in the Telegraph’s Homebuilding and Renovating Awards.

The season is over and football fans up and down the country are left to fill the soccer void by either picking a top team to support in Euro 2008 or by becoming a fan of cricket or rugby. No matter what sport he chooses to follow this summer, Steve Ramsden will be watching it in style on a 42inch HD ready wide screen TV, because he has been crowned the Pilkington Fantasy Football Manager of the Year.

The first British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) ‘A’ rated windows featuring Pilkington energiKare™ have now been installed. Sheerframe fabricator H Jarvis Ltd supplied and fitted the PVC windows in a refurbishment project in Teeside. The H Jarvis energiKare™ Premium has been created using the Sheerframe 6000 profile from L.B. Plastics in conjunction with Pilkington energiKare™ energy efficient glazing. Seven timber windows have been replaced by ‘A’ rated PVC windows in a three-bedroom semi-detached bungalow in Billingham.

To ensure that  our customers receive first class service for  Pilkington energiKare™ and Pilkington Activ™, our Product Specialists, Lee Ackroyd, Roland Sarin and Tony Smith   will now represent both brands in their new Regional Sales Development Manager roles.  Each will take Regional responsibility for developing sales opportunities in both product lines working closely with all levels in our customer base.  They will act as a Regional product focus point also to  answer questions  on support requirements, product literature and technical advice.

Our new  trade advertising campaign highlights the benefits of  glazing with Pilkington energiKare™ and becoming a partner in our scheme.  The series of adverts feature “nature” photography  to illustrate  each benefit and confirm that Pilkington energiKare™ offers a great sales opportunity and a way to add value to your business. 

The April showers saw more than just rain as press coverage showered in to head office for all of our brands. Pilkington energiKare™ was represented in Ideal Home, BBC Good Homes, Traditional Homes and Interiors and Glass and Glazing Products, while Pilkington Activ™ featured in both the home titles and trade publications. Our Pilkington Texture Glass range also caused a splash in Glass Times, while David Stoker discussed the year ahead in his regular column in Glass and Glazing Products.

We still have a number of places available on this year’s  Product  Knowledge training courses. The courses are designed to give you thorough insight into how glass is manufactured and how it behaves, along with full product and technical information and  how to specify glazing. The two courses, PK1 and PK2 range from an introduction to glass to a more detailed programme involving the determination of glass specifications.

This month the following updated literature is available to download from our website:
• Pilkington Activ™  flyer for your customers
• Pilkington Activ™ Neutral product datasheet
Don’t forget our website is jam-packed with useful information about our  products,technical information  and  building regulation updates. You can access all of this at a click of a button by logging onto www.pilkington.co.uk. Alternatively, it is available via our helpline by sending an email to pilkington@respond.uk.com, by calling 01744 692000 or your dedicated direct customer line.

Our website has a new look this month! We have simplified our home page www.pilkington.co.uk to make it easy for visitors to find the information they seek. This work was undertaken as part of the re-launch of the www.pilkington.com website where the opportunity was taken to streamline the site, removing most of the ‘corporate’ material relating to the former Pilkington plc. The result is that www.pilkington.com is now the main ‘commercial’ site for the Group, covering both Building Products and Automotive.