LAST UPDATE | 4 Sep
THE GRENFELL TOWER inquiry has said Irish firm Kingspan “cynically exploited” an “unsuspecting market” with “false” fire safety claims.
The long-awaited report into the June 2017 fire found that it was the result of “decades of failure” by UK governments and the construction industry to act on the dangers of flammable materials on high-rise buildings.
Cavan-based Kingspan was one of the firms to be heavily criticised in the report.
A small number of Kingspan’s K15 insulation boards were found on the columns around Grenfell Tower.
The company has long said its K15 insulation product made up 5% of the insulation in the tower block and was used as a substitute product without its knowledge. In a statement this afternoon Kingspan said today’s report “explains clearly and unambiguously that the type of insulation was immaterial”, adding that the “historical failings” of its UK insulation business were not reflective of the wider group.
The report published today found that Kingspan made “false claims about K15” with the “knowing approval of a senior manager”.
“Kingspan was keenly aware that there was a lack of detailed knowledge about BS 8414 and BR 135 among its customers, many of whom were unfamiliar with both,” the inqury found.
BS 8414 and BR 135 are tests which evaluate the fire resistance of a building product.
The report said Kingspan “cynically exploited” the industry’s lack of detailed knowledge about insulation and cladding fire safety tests, and “relied on the fact that an unsuspecting market was very likely to rely on its own claim about the product and to accept its claims about K15’s suitability for use as reliable”.
The report also noted that Kingspan’s “strategy was to go after every job”.
As a result, Celotex, the manufacturer of the majority of the insulation boards used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, “embarked on a dishonest scheme to mislead its customers and the wider market” in an attempt to break into a market which had been dominated by Kingspan.
The inquiry added: “As Kingspan knew, K15 could not honestly be sold as suitable for use in the external walls of buildings over 18 metres in height generally, but that is what it had succeeded in doing for many years.”
Kingspan had relied on the results of a single cladding fire safety test performed in 2005, on a system whose components were not representative of a typical external wall, the report said, and found that the firm continued to rely on that test despite changing the composition of K15 in 2006.
Further tests on systems incorporating K15 in the following two years were “disastrous”, the report said, but Kingspan did not withdraw the product from the market, “despite its own concerns about its fire performance”.
In 2009, Kingspan obtained a certificate that “contained false statements about K15”, the report said, and on which it relied “for many years to sell the product”, adding that it made a “calculated decision” to use the certificate to “mask, or distract from, the absence of supporting test evidence”.
In a statement today, Kingspan said it “extends our deepest sympathies to those impacted by the tragedy”.
Kingspan said the report “explains clearly and unambiguously that the type of insulation was immaterial”.
The first phase of the report found that the Grenfell Tower cladding did not comply with building regulations and that this was the “principal” reason for the fire’s rapid spread.
This cladding was not made by Kingspan.
Kingspan added that it “has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business”.
“These were in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a Group, then or now. While deeply regrettable, they were not found to be causative of the tragedy,” said Kingspan.
“We remain committed to playing a leading role in providing safe and sustainable building solutions, including continuing to work with government and industry partners,” added Kingspan.
It’s understood that Kingspan disagrees with some points made in the report regarding the company and its practices.
During the first phase of the Grenfell Tower Inquiry in December 2020, text messages sent between some senior members of staff at Kingspan were read out.
The messages were between Peter Moss from Kingspan’s technical team and colleague Arron Chalmers.
In response to a text message from Moss asking if K15 had the highest fire safety rating of Class 0, Chalmers replied: “Doesn’t actually get class 0 when we test the whole product tho LOL!”
Moss then asks if “we lied” to which Chalmers replies: “yeahhhh”.
Chalmers also said in the text exchange: “All we do is lie here.”
Meanwhile, Philip Heath, a Divisional Business Development Director with Kingspan, said in an email that building consultants who raised fire safety concerns can “go f#ck [sic] themselves”.
Heath apologised for these comments at a hearing and said he was in a “dark place” due to one of his friends and colleagues being terminally ill.
The Chief Executive of Kingspan Gene Murtagh said this “conduct” of “a small number of employees in the UK” was “unacceptable” but that these “historical process shortcomings” do not reflect Kingspan’s “high standards” or on the company’s “culture or values”.
Meanwhile, the relationship between some Irish sporting figures and organisations and Kingspan is under scrutiny.
Ulster Rugby has reiterated that its association with Kingspan is coming to an end in June 2025, but Cavan GAA and Shane Lowry’s representatives have yet to comment.
Ulster Rugby have held a long association with the Kingspan company going back to 1999, with the Ravenhill grounds named after the company.
However, it was announced in January by Kingspan that it would cease its sponsorship of Ulster Rugby.
“20 years is a great innings and feels like a natural stepping off point,” said Kingspan at the time.
Cavan GAA also has a strong relationship with the company, with Kingspan having its head office in Kingscourt.
In recent years this relationship has grown closer, with the county grounds in Cavan town now officially known as Kingspan Breffni.
When contacted on Wednesday lunchtime, a Cavan county board official said there would be no statement forthcoming, or clarification of their position.
Efforts to contact Horizon Sports, which represents the interests of golfer Shane Lowry who wears the Kingspan logo on his golf shirts, received no response at the time of writing.
Some of the bereaved and survivors of the tragedy have called on Lowry and others to end their sponsorship arrangements with Kingspan.
His relationship with the company commenced one month before the fire.
-With additional reporting from The42
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