Building Products - Businesses
Building Products Europe
Building Products Europe (BPE) is the NSG Group’s largest single business. The main Upstream production facilities are in UK, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Poland, Russia and Finland.
The Downstream part of the business includes all of the glass processing and wholesaling operations serving the European market through a network of sixty four branches across eleven countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom). The extensive range of products and services includes merchanting, the manufacture of safety glass, and the complete range of (Pilkington Insulight™) glass units.
The downstream business has developed over the last ten years into a significant contributor to European profits through its culture of service to customers, and continuous improvement of productivity and safety for the employees.
Building Products Japan
Building Products Japan (BPJ) has its main Upstream production site in Chiba (two float lines and one rolled line).
The downstream business, represented mainly by offline coating, insulating glass, laminated glass, tempered glass, fire protection glass and vacuum glazing glass production, is spread around 19 different sites across the country. Japan is also the only location where the NSG Group is manufacturing Spacia – the world’s first commercialised vacuum glazing product.
With six sales offices, BPJ offers a full range of products and services to its customers.
Building Products South East Asia
Building Products South East Asia is represented by two float lines in Vietnam, one of which was commissioned in 2008, and two float lines in Malaysia, one of which is a hybrid (float/rolled) line.
Building Products China
The NSG Group has interests in two major glass manufacturing businesses in China – SYP (four float lines, one rolled line and glass processing) and China Glass Holdings (12 float lines). It also has a 50:50 jv with SYP in a further float and a 50:50 jv with CGH in a further rolled line, which produces low-iron cover plates for the Solar Energy sector.
Building Products North America (BPNA)
Building Products North America manufactures and distributes products for the architectural/commercial market (exterior and interior), residential market, speciality glass market and fire-rated glass market for a diverse range of applications.
In addition to sales offices and float glass plants across the country, the business also has a Technical Services Department committed to working with customers to answer any glass-related technical and performance questions. BPNA has four float lines across the USA, in California (Lathrop), Illinois (Ottawa), and two in North Carolina (Laurinburg).
Building Products South America
The Group’s strategy in South America has for many years concentrated around operating jointly owned float facilities with Saint-Gobain, a relationship furthered in 2004 with the completion of the fourth joint venture line in Barra Velha, Brazil. This partnership is set to continue with the joint commissioning of a facility in Colombia. There is only one other float glass manufacturer in South America, besides the NSG Group and Saint-Gobain, namely Guardian with two lines, one in Venezuela and one in Brazil, with plans a for a second line in Brazil. NSG Group and Saint-Gobain together operate four lines in Brazil and NSG Group operates one in Argentina and one in Chile. The Group has also warehousing activities in Colombia, Venezuela, Uruguay and Peru.
The South American region traditionally has a higher growth rate than the northern hemisphere although it is occasionally disrupted by economic instability in particular countries.
