UK: SIG has appointed Ian Ashton as permanent group financial officer with effect from July 2020. He succeeds Kath Kearney‐Croft, who assumed the role of Interim chief financial officer (CFO) in late February 2020.

Ashton joins SIG from Low & Bonar, where he has served as group financial officer. Prior to that, he was CFO of Labviva, a US‐based technology company. He worked for 20 years at Smith & Nephew until late 2017, undertaking various financial roles of increasing seniority in the UK, the US and Asia. His last role was CFO, Global Operations, and prior to that Ashton served as CFO of their Advanced Surgical Devices Division. He is a qualified chartered accountant and began his career at Ernst & Young.

The building materials supplier has announced the appointment of Simon King as a non‐executive director. Recently King served on the Travis Perkins executive board and held the position of chief operating officer of Wickes. Prior to that he held various operational roles at Walmart, Savola Group and Tesco.

US: Knauf Insulation North America has partnered with BIMsmith to provide 3D models of its leading insulation products for building product research and selection by architects. The models contain ‘key properties and data’ and integrate with Autodesk Revit building modelling software.

Knauf Insulation North America marketing vice president Linda McGovern said, “BIM is at the forefront of intelligent, sustainable building design. Our investment in BIM paves the way for Knauf to further our impact on the sustainable, energy-efficient construction of the future.”

UK: SIG and Kingspan have agreed to terminate the sale of SIG subsidiary Building Solutions (National) to Kingspan for Euro42.1m. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) had referred the deal for a Phase 2 Investigation on 21 April 2020. SIG said that it anticipated the investigation to conclude in October 2020. The deal will expire on 7 July 2020. Due to ‘prevailing market conditions,’ the parties terminated the agreement.

SIG said, “It has not been possible for the company and Kingspan to agree commercial terms for the extension of the agreement.”

Germany: Declare has certified Knauf Insulation’s Supafil blowing wool insulation ‘Red List Free’. The declaration signifies that Supafil contains no Red-Listed chemicals designated as harmful to health by the International Living Future Institute. Knauf Insulation Blowing Wool business development & residential market manager Thomas Baguette said, “Our Declare label underlines the natural credentials of our blowing wool. Supafil is composed of 99% glass mineral wool and less than 1% of antidust and antistatic.”