At UK Construction Week, Finishes and Interiors Sector (FIS) and Barbour Product Search signed a new partnership agreement focussed on promoting excellence and supporting specifications in the finishes and interiors sector.
With buildings anticipated to go through 30 refits over their lifetime and accounting for 11% of construction spend, the finishes and interiors sector is a vital part of the built environment. It is also a complex arena with aesthetic, acoustic, thermal and fire safety performance all intrinsic to an effective fit-out. Ultimately the way buildings are finished impacts the safety and wellbeing of everybody who lives, works, learns and plays in them. Through this partnership Barbour Product Search and FIS aim to educate and inform the wider construction industry on regulations, technical performance, innovation in products and processes and to deliver technical content and industry news to the specifier audience to support best practice.
FIS CEO Iain McIlwee commented “Whether it is acoustic performance, fire safety or innovation in construction, we want to ensure that specifiers know that they can turn to our community for help. Through FIS specifiers have access to a wealth of knowledge and a community of vetted members, but this can be lost in the noise – there is so much confusing and conflicting information out there and who specifies is an ever increasing complex area, making it more and more difficult to target communications. Collaboration is the answer.”
“Barbour Product Search is a natural partner here and we are excited about the opportunity and the message that this new partnership sends out. Barbour Product Search is part of the Barbour ABI group, one of the leading lights in terms of construction intelligence and they command a powerful network and we are confident that through Barbour Product Search our expertise will blend with theirs and ensure the specification world is better informed about the options open to them to ensure buildings are finished effectively and safely.
Simon Mahoney, Group Director of Barbour ABI said “We recognise the importance of this sector and have also been impressed with the expertise, energy and drive that we see evident in FIS. It just made sense that if we were going to step up our work in this arena that we should do it with the leading trade body. We are very much looking forward to working with FIS and their membership over the coming months to really develop a finishes and interiors hub on Barbour Product Search that supports decision making in our community and promotes excellence in the sector”.
The agreement between Barbour Product Search and FIS was signed on the Barbour ABI stand at UK Construction Week today, the two organisations are now working to deliver the platform in time for launch at the FIS AGM and Rethinking Construction Conference on the 19th November.
More information on the partnership is available here