Sika UK

Although a global player, Sika Ltd’s strategic regional presence in the UK is key to providing the service and solutions that its customers need. Here at its site in Leeds, Yorkshire, over 80% of its product range is manufactured, which translates to up to 55 million cartridges plus a huge range of PVAs, wood adhesives, fillers, and building chemicals every year. The large site is currently being extended to meet the growing demand for its products.

For over a hundred years, Sika has delivered problem-solving solutions for the industry by developing, manufacturing, and distributing high-quality, innovative products while also going above and beyond to support builders’ merchants, and tradespeople. The global Sika group is defined by its world-leading research and development team, and its continual investment in developing its product range has allowed it to respond to the specific requirements of individual markets including here in the UK.

Its expertise and understanding of the market, continuous industry research, and constant advancements in R&D ensures Sika is one step ahead and always able to provide the trade with the products they truly require.

A strong bond – supporting the UK’s builders

Sika’s solutions are the hidden heroes of construction – the glue that holds a project together. Product performance and reliability are everything and it’s something that the Sika team keeps in mind to ensure all products apply smoothly and work effectively.

Sika offers an extensive portfolio of solutions for all manner of projects in the UK which ranges from generalist to more specialised professional products including industrial flooring, roofing, concrete admixtures, waterproofing, and mortars. These sit alongside a core range of high-performance adhesives, sealants, cleaning products, woodcare, tiling adhesives, plumbing supplies, foams, fillers, and more to provide a comprehensive range of building products.

A commitment to continuous product innovation characterises Sika with its dedicated in-house research and development team monitoring all products for performance and compliance including comprehensive fire, acoustic and thermal tests. Customer needs are always front and centre and this ethos underpins the company’s ‘Customer First’ approach to developing and refining its extensive range of solutions to better meet the changing needs of the industry.

Sticking together – support for builders’ merchants

Sika’s knowledgeable sales and applications teams in the UK are on hand to provide training programmes tailored specifically for merchants, whether they want to look at new products and developments or undertake refresher training on old favourites. They also provide access to regularly updated, reliable, and user-friendly product information.

Through its popular merchant roadshows, the company’s dedicated applications team has visited hundreds of local builders’ merchants all over the UK to give the nation’s tradespeople the chance to take a closer look at its high-performance range of industry-leading solutions.

The roadshows feature competitions, interactive product demonstrations, and giveaways and are the perfect way for the team to showcase the benefits of the whole range. As a result, each roadshow usually draws a crowd of tradespeople. As well as offering customers the chance to learn more about the products and how they can make projects run smoother, Sika also offers product training to merchants’ counter staff so that they are up-to-date on the latest developments and are fully equipped to give the best possible advice.

Sealing the deal – putting an emphasis on sustainability

Sika has always been a forward-looking company. Throughout its history, it has prided itself on listening to customers to ensure it continues to deliver the solutions they need when they need them.

And with sustainability a key driving factor in the product specification on projects of all sizes, Sika is focused on working towards Net Zero by 2050. As part of this programme, it is investing in its existing range to improve sustainability – but crucially, without impacting the product quality or long-term performance its customers expect.

In the last year, Sika has begun a mass roll-out of new packaging, which is manufactured using repurposed or post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic, across its core product range. This new packaging, which it anticipates will save many hundreds of tonnes of virgin plastic a year, was the result of a long period of development and testing to ensure that the storage, usability, and performance of its products continued to meet the highest standards.

And it’s not just the packaging that has been redeveloped and improved with sustainability in mind. Sika has a continuous improvement process in place to make sure its solutions are sustainable, for example, earlier this year the company launched Pinkgrip MS as part of its popular Pinkgrip range of grab adhesives. It’s better for the environment and can be used on construction sites that demand low VOC or solvent-free products and, as well as offering improved performance, it can be used on a wider variety of substrates than traditional adhesives.

At the heart of the Sika brand is its passion to create innovative, market-leading solutions and build strong relationships with the merchants who stock its vast product range, as well as with the contractors who use them.

To find out more about Sika in the UK, please visit: www.sika.com