2020: A Year In Review For KORE

by Brian Flax | Nov 18, 2020

As 2020 comes to a close, we reflect on a different type of year for KORE, Ireland and the rest of the world. This year has taught us all a lot, most importantly how fortunate we are to have such hard working and dedicated employees and installers who worked hard throughout the year to keep our customers safe, well and happy. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our employees, installers and customers who have come together to support each other in these strange times. Let’s take a look at some highlights and proud moments of 2020:

As we were entering lockdown in March, KORE were celebrating at home and online as we became winners of the Small Firms Association (SFA) National Small Business Awards in the  Manufacturing and Overall Winner category. The event was due to take place in the RDS, Dublin, however all our team enjoyed the festivities online as the awards streamed live. We were thrilled to be recognised for our manufacturing success and achievements, as well as being named Overall winner on the night. Being the overall winner we were gifted with €5,000 to give to a charity of our choice, and in July we were finally able to give this cheque to our chosen charity, Barretstown.

We are so proud of all our employees and installers who made this possible, and to the SFA for showcasing our company and many other great Irish SMEs. Congratulations to all the winners in 2020, and here is to KORE winning more awards in 2021.

KORE Welcomes new employees

KORE welcomed two new employees to the sales team, Donovan Ogle and Jonathan Malone. Donovan is our Northern Ireland sales manager, also covering Cavan, Monaghan, Sligo, Mayo and Donegal. Jonathan is our Leinster and midlands sales manager, covering Dublin to Longford, up to Louth and in between.

2021 we plan on expanding the team, and look forward to working with more talented people.

KORE’s Continual Professional Development Courses move online

2020 saw KORE’s continual professional development (CPD) courses move online and become virtual education via KORE webinars. Kicking off in May, Andrew Butler KORE’s technical business development manager presented two webinars on meeting and exceeding #nZEB with KORE Fill cavity wall insulation and KORE’s Insulated Foundation System.

KORE also participated in the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC) Green Home Solutions series in June, where Andrew presented on KORE’s EPS solutions for new builds and existing homes. Later on in June we partnered with M&C Hybrid Energy to deliver a joint webinar on low energy building with a fabric first approach and renewable energy sources, like heat pumps and solar PV.

Andrew continued to educate the masses online with our virtual company CPD courses, with over 70 companies experiencing the CPD course from home. If you weren’t one of the lucky people to attend one of our CPD webinars, you can watch them on our YouTube channel.

As most events move online includng CPD’s, we also had our first virtual trade show with SelfBuild Live in late October. We virtually exhibited over a weekend period, with KORE’s technical business development manager Andrew Butler presenting on meeting and exceeding building regulations utilising easier construction methods. You can view Andrew’s talk here. KORE’s exhibit stand will be available throughout 2021.

KORE’s Insulated Foundation System receives NSAI Certification

KORE’s Insulated Foundation System received full certification from the National Standards Authority of Ireland (NSAI) under Irish Agrément Board Certificate Number 20/0424 in July this year. This NSAI certificate certifies that the KORE Insulated Foundation System complies with the requirements of the Building Regulations 1997 to 2019. This certification solidifies KORE’s commitment to innovative and sustainable products in the construction industry, and as Ireland’s only certified insulated foundation system, we are proud of our employees and customers for helping make this happen.

To celebrate our certification we held a week long virtual launch, which included two webinars for designers and contractors, customer video and written testimonials, case studies, and daily videos from KORE team members, detailing the insulated foundation system process from initial enquiry, to production, installation and future plans for the system. You can catch all this content in our launch week blog.

In August KORE also received an update to our NSAI Agrément certificate for KORE Fill Bonded Bead Cavity Wall Insulation, with a number of key changes to Cert No. 07/0293. This includes updates such as full compliance with Part L 2019 with larger cavity widths, allowable mortar joints, updated wall heights of two storeys up to 12m, and more. View the updated cert here.

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KORE successfully participated in online campaigns for health and safety, quality, the environment and workplace wellbeing

In May, KORE and our employees participated in the National Workplace Wellbeing Day with SFA & IBEC, where our team took an hour out of our work day to participate in some fun activities such as reading, walking, playing with our children, taekwondo and more. We also took part in the Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Mental Health Webinar with Rory O’Connor (Rory’s Stories).

For the third year running this September we participated in World Green Building Week in association with the Irish Green Building Council (IGBC). This years theme was #ActOnClimate where the building sector, policyholders and government were called to take action to deliver net zero buildings. KORE held an employee webinar where we discussed the impact of #nZEB on the environment, what role we play in this climate action, and steps we can take as a company and as individuals to work towards a greener future. We also attended some national and international webinars on how we can further assist in constructing low energy buildings in Ireland, and also retrofit our buildings to meet global climate action goals.

October saw us participate in Construction Industry Federation (CIF) Safety Week, where we held daily tool box talks on themes such as mental health, plant and pedestrian safety, occupational health, working safely at heights, and emergency preparedness. We also held a mental health and wellbeing webinar for all employees, an ideation session for health and safety, and ran a risk assessment and ergonomic analysis for all employees. Michael Mulligan won our ideation session with his idea to create dedicated cleaning stations for every area and every person in these areas to protect against Covid-19.

To finish CIF Safety Week we launched a 100KM in 30 Days challenge for SOSAD Ireland, a suicide prevention charity. Team KORE completed over 1,400 KMs in 30 Days and we donated €1,500 to SOSAD Cavan.

On World Quality Day in November we discussed our customer promise of ‘We will deliver the exact product, to the exact specification, to the exact site,  at the exact time, every time’. We created a blog on our quality assurance, and had a word from our commercial director Caroline Ashe Brady on our commitment to Quality, you can watch this video here.

New Block Mould creates new opportunities for KORE

During the summer KORE installed and commissioned a new Nuova IdroPress Vertical Block Moulding machine, made possible with funding from European Regional Development Fund and Ireland’s European Structural and Investment Funds Programme through Enterprise Ireland. This exciting addition expands our production capabilities, increasing the overall quality of our product and offers benefits both in-house and for our end-users onsite.

This smart technology will increase production, with 25 blocks produced per hour, as well as increasing block size to block sizes at 5m x 1.25m x 1.25m, meaning we are now able to produce close to an entire carton of extra material when compared to the previous block size, whilst doubling production overall. Block quality has increased with greater density control and correction. This machine will offer new opportunities for KORE as we respond to market demand in both Ireland and the U.K.

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KORE explodes with content

2020 has been a creative year at KORE with original content on our website and social media channels. We have created blogs on topics such as ventilation, airtightness, thermal bridging, EPS and the circular economy, cavity wall insulation challenges and more.

On our social media channels we have diversified content with a variety of features including our installer spotlight, where each week we highlight a KORE approved installer, their services, offerings and contact information. We also created a host of videos on our YouTube channel from online training videos, insulated foundation system on site videos, KORE Retrofit customer testimonials and more.

Our insulated foundation system launch week had an extensive content collection with written and video testimonials, customer journey and system process videos, case studies and more.

We have updated our website with new product pages for KORE Floor insulation solutions, KORE Insulated Foundation System, Void Formers and more. We have also added new products to our site including KORE XPS, KORE T-Beam and KORE Inverted Flat Roof. More on these products below.

KORE introduces new products

This year KORE has worked tirelessly to develop innovative products for the construction industry.

KORE T-Beam floor insulation is an alternative solution to traditional block and beam floors for use in a variety of applications where ground conditions are poor. This insulated flooring system is design to minimise thermal bridging at the wall-to-floor junction and ensure proper airtightness throughout the building envelope. KORE’s bespoke T-Beam Insulation can be used with most construction types, including cavity wall construction, solid block walls, timber frame and SIPs. KORE supplies t-beam insulation to a number of manufacturers across the country, who then provide the t-beam insulation solution as a complete system.

KORE Extruded Polystyrene (XPS) is a high performance insulation material that offers a high compressive strength while being resilient to water penetration. KORE XPS is available as XPS 300, 500 & 700, offering a high thermal conductivity between 0.033 to 0.038W/mK depending on thickness and compressive strength. It is the perfect material for a range of applications including roof, industrial and agricultural, civil applications and ground floor and basements.

KORE Inverted Flat Roof  is a high performance profiled insulation board (EPS200 & EPS300) that can be used in conjunction with an inverted flat roof system. The product consists of rigid boards cut from moulded blocks of EPS. KORE Inverted Flat Roof is lightweight, easy to install, meets & exceed building regulations, low water absorption properties, and is suitable for use on inverted flat roofs or zero pitched untrafficked roofs for both the commercial and domestic industry and green roof construction.

KORE multi-width cavity closers are available for cavities ranging from 50 to 150mm, or can be cut to any size from KORE EPS. The product acts as a thermal break to the cavity and is an effective vertical DPC barrier at the jambs. The closer achieves the required thermal resistance (R-Value) at the reveal of door/window openings when the frames are fixed to allow 30mm overlap in the cavity. The cavity closer seals the insulation, preventing heat loss and preventing water vapour or damp to enter the cavity.

For more technical information on any of our products, please contact our technical team.

KORE Retrofit experiences huge success in the 2020 Better Energy Communities Scheme

Despite the Covid-19 lockdown and the closure of the construction industry for some time, 2020 was another successful year for KORE Retrofit. Under the 2020 Better Energy Communities Scheme we completed 54 projects, including 35 domestic projects, 15 commercial, 3 community projects and one public sector, totalling 5.6GWh of energy savings, and 1,259 tonnes of CO2 savings per year.

Below is one of the domestic projects completed this year under the SEAI Better Energy Communities Scheme with KORE in Dublin. The house started with a building energy rating of G, and had the following measures installed:

  • KORE External Wall Insulation
  • KORE Floor Insulation
  • Triple Glazed Windows & External Door
  • Mitsubishi Air-to-Water Heat Pump

After all retrofit measures were completed, a new Building Energy Rating (BER) OF A3 was established. We deliver these energy efficiency projects seamlessly, quickly, and at an affordable price for our customers. We aim to upgrade even more homes and businesses in 2021, please check out our dedicated retrofit website to find out more.

KORE Training Academy

The KORE Academy launched its first online training course in Autumn this year with KORE’s Insulated Foundation System Installer training. All contractors must complete this six part programme before installing the system on site. The course has been hugely successful. We then launched KORE’s Insulated Foundation System Engineers training, a two-part programme designed to allow engineers to upskill in offering the foundation system to customers.

Most recently we rolled out KORE Fill installer training to our list of approved contractors nationwide. All courses offer exclusive training on KORE products, and are available on your desktop or smartphone. If you would like to participate in one of our courses, please contact us.

KORE Retrofit certified to ISO 9001:2015

December started on a high for KORE Retrofit as we became NSAI certified to I.S EN ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management Systems. This certification acknowledges our commitment to quality management, including customer focus, continual improvement, relationship management and more. Well done to all of team KORE Retrofit who made this possible.

A huge thanks

2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, and as a small company we are grateful for the support we have received from our suppliers and customers. We’d also like to thank our dedicated teams in both our EPS and retrofit departments for making 2020 another successful year despite the obstacles we’ve had to overcome. Moving forward, we’d like to thank everyone who continues to support local, small and medium businesses throughout Ireland and we look forward to seeing everyone in 2021. Here’s to a brighter year ahead!