Staged at the Remedy Oak Golf Club in Dorset on 15 May, the tournament saw seven teams competing as four balls in a stableford team competition. The winning team comprised Wayne Crossan, Business Development Manager at Lindab Southampton; Mike Sherwood, Owner of Pinnacle Duct Work; Rhys Dear, Contracts Manager at Carford Caterers; and Glenn Hughes, Key Account Manager at Elta.

Glenn was joined by colleagues Phil Warner (National Sales Manager) and Bob Warren (Key Account Manager) who played a supporting role in the Elta sponsored golf buggy which served refreshments to the competitors – very welcome on what proved to be one of the hottest days of the year so far.

The Awards, always a highlight in the building industry calendar, took place on 5 February, with Elta a category sponsor for the sixth consecutive year. Damian Buxton, Finance Director of Elta, joined guest host Gyles Brandreth on stage in presenting the Contractor of the Year to the team from Norland.

The short list of three companies from the wide range of category entries comprised Interserve Engineering Services, Kier Construction and Norland Managed Services, with Norland taking the top spot. The award recognised Norland’s role in a £1.5 million project which included the removal of an existing problematic HVAC system and replacing it with a new one, at the Darlington Campus of mobile communications specialists Everything Everywhere (EE).

Energy efficiency and sustainability in construction and operation were key criteria for the judges, issues which are currently very high profile for Elta. As one of the world’s leading manufacturers of fans for HVAC applications, Elta are continuing in their development programme to meet the requirements of the ErP (Energy related Products) Directive. A number of compliant fans have already been introduced, with others being added to the Elta Select range to meet the energy efficiency parameters stipulated in the new legislation.

Commenting on the winning entry, the judges said – “It demonstrated their interaction with the client’s users, with training, post-occupancy evaluation and local sourcing prominent.”

The new alliance is an important development for both companies, drawing on an existing relationship between the Ball family, owners of Elta Group and the Ziehl family, owners of Ziehl-Abegg, which goes back over quarter of a century.

The 17 strong team from Elta met senior representatives of Ziehl-Abegg during their stay, including CEO Peter Fenkl; Vice President Sales (Ventilation Division) Thomas Brommer; Area Sales Manager Gebhard Schafer; UK MD Les Fish and UK Sales Executive Phil Gretton.

The visit started with a tour of Ziehl’s factory in Bieringen, a small village in the Rottenburg am Neckar region of Germany, used principally for the manufacture of aluminium die-cast axial fans. This was followed by a visit to the nearby manufacturing facility in Wurzburgerstrasse where the EC electric motors are produced and then on to the factory in Waldenburg in which radial fans, process fans and cross-flow fans are manufactured. There was also time for some sight-seeing and a tour of the famous Mercedes Benz musuem in Stuttgart.

David Ball, Vice Chairman of the Elta Group, said – “It brought back some very fond memories for me as I spent many of my formative years as a young man in the area, as my father Ray Ball spent a great deal of time with Ziehl-Abegg over the years. It was an excellent opportunity for the team to see how Ziehl-Abegg operates and to witness first-hand the quality of the manufacturing for which Ziehl are renowned. Like Elta Group, Ziehl-Abegg is very much a family business, the owners being Uwe Ziehl, grandson of the founder Emil Ziehl, and Uwe Ziehl’s two children, the great granddaughter and great grandson of the founder Emil Ziehl. We look forward to working closely with Ziehl in the coming months to ensure that we, and more importantly our customers, are well placed to meet the challenges of the new European legislation on energy and climate change.”

Joining David on the visit was David Osgerby, MD of Elta, along with various employees from the Elta Group and Elta – including technical, marketing, operations and sales – to ensure that all functional areas of the Elta Group business that will be involved in the new range of products were represented.

Jenna Chambers, Marketing Services Manager at the Elta Group said – “We all benefited from seeing the Ziehl operation in action. Talking to people like Gebhard Schafer, who has worked at Ziehl for 35 years and who guided us on the factory tours, gave us a real insight into the company and what opportunities there are now that this alliance has been established.”

To mark the visit, during the tour of the Bieringen factory everyone signed a FE2owlet impeller, a key component in a new range of fans. This impeller will be mounted to take pride of place in the reception of the Elta Building Services Office in the West Midlands.

Elta is part of the Elta Group, a £85 million family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.

HAS employees will receive comprehensive training from Elta to ensure they have a thorough understanding of the Elta range. This training, backed by Elta’s extensive technical expertise and experience, has been a vital consideration in HAS’s decision to become an Elta distributor, providing them with the support required to expand confidently into ventilation distribution.

Commenting on the announcement, David Osgerby, Managing Director of Elta, said –”It is important for us that the companies that we choose to partner with have the same business philosophy as us and HAS certainly have a commitment to customer service and delivery that is critical in today’s competitive marketplace. We will be working closely with HAS, as with all our distributors not only on training, but also in helping to develop their trade counters to ensure we optimise our new route to market.”

Established for over 40 years, Hotchkiss Group is one of the leading ‘supply only’ manufacturers and distributors of circular and flat oval ductwork and accessories in the UK. The company constantly strives to maintain and enhance its high standards of service, delivery and quality. The high stock levels and dedicated delivery vehicles, further establish its commitment to customers. Hotchkiss are very well known and respected in the market and have considerable experience in not just off the shelf products but specialist bespoke systems which are manufactured at the Midlands based Head Office and production facility in Wombourne.

George Latimer, Managing Director of HAS commented on the appointment – ‘We are delighted to be associated with Elta, we are continually looking for suppliers with exceptional products, service and delivery. I have personally been involved with the Ball family over a number of years and it is a pleasure to be associated with them once again. HAS have eight branches covering the major areas in England, many of our customers and staff have been requesting Elta products and it is pleasing to agree a distributor agreement. All of us at HAS look forward to a long and profitable relationship with the Elta team.

Elta is part of the £85 million Elta Group, a family of businesses with operations in six countries on four continents which, together with a network of international distributors, provides quality fans and related air movement equipment to customers worldwide.

Des Collins, Managing Director of Duct Products based in Newtownwards, became involved with a project called Fields of Life in 2008. The charity was formed in Uganda in 1995, beginning with an agricultural project in Kasangati, a village 16 kilometres from the capital Kampala. From the work on this project it became clear that schooling for local children is a perennial problem and from 2000 to 2008 some 70 schools have been built in Uganda.

Des, (along with 23 other volunteers), is part of a group from the UK that will make a two week trip this August to help develop the latest project ” the new ‘Arise & Shine Primary School’ ” was created by the local parents and the church because the nearest school was several miles away. This meant that nursery aged children would need to walk a considerable distance every day to receive any education. The school is currently under construction and Des, (along with doctors, teachers) and other supporters from the UK, will be in Butebo County in the Pallisa District of Uganda to help with the setting up of the infrastructure and to provide teaching support and medical care for the community.

Des approached several of his business contacts, including David Ball of the Elta Group, for contributions towards the cost of the project which is being funded through the Fields of Life charity.

David, who is a longstanding friend of Des, felt that Elta should donate some funds to help this worthwhile project succeed. He comments “We were delighted to be able to offer some financial support to Des for what is a truly inspiring project. We do a lot of work ourselves in the schools sector of building services and, like most in the UK, tend to take the provision of education somewhat for granted. To be able to assist in some small way in a school which will have such a significant impact on the lives of the children of Kasiebai is a stark reminder that education is a right not a privilege but sometimes in developing countries a helping hand is needed in order for education to become a reality. We wish Des and all of those involved in Fields of Life and Abaana, every success in their ongoing endeavours.”

Des Collins in response said, “We have sent on ahead of us a pallet containing all sorts of things that will be useful in the new school ” encyclopaedias, reading books, paper, art equipment, even musical instruments.”