Barton’s British premium quality to boost SRI LANKAN construction industry

The local construction sector recently saw the launch of the Barton brand in the country, a top notch, premium range of quality electrical cable protection systems.

With Sri Lanka’s changing skyline, Barton, brought by international entity Liberty Building Solutions is set to uplift the quality of constructions.

Mirror Business sat down with Liberty Business Solutions Chief Executive Officer Richard Botting, who was in Sri Lanka recently for the product launch.

During the brief discussion, Botting shared the significance of entering the Sri Lankan market, aspiration, and future plans.

BY Shabiya Ali Ahlam

Can you tell us about the brand Barton and Liberty Building Solutions?
Outside of the UK and the EU, Liberty Building Solutions is the ‘rest of the world’ distributor for the premium quality Barton range of electrical cable protection systems. It is a part of the Liberty House Group, an international industrials and metals business specializing in commodities, metal recycling and the manufacture of steel, aluminum, and engineering products. The current turnover is over US$6.8 billion per annum.

Barton has been used on premium projects such as the Shard, Wembley Stadium, Burj Khalifa, and Heathrow, Gatwick, and Dubai airports. In Abu Dhabi, Al Maktoum, King Khalid and many more. These are just a few.

Our markets go from UK in the North all the way to Australia in the South. The product range is designed to protect electrical cabling.

Q: Could you elaborate on that?
So every building has electrical cabling, light and power cabling and this is a protection system. It’s done in an industrial scale. The product has been around for about 50 years. This is typically a premium quality product. It’s specifically used in all buildings where public safety is important. We typically would be in schools, airports, malls, places of worship, super tall towers, and stadiums. Literally everywhere where public safety is important.

Q: Fifty years, but this is the first time you are making an entry to Sri Lanka.

‘‘The volumes initially will be that we will import. We have big hopes for Sri Lanka, so we are sure importing will grow.

This is the first time we are making an attempt in Sri Lanka, the brand itself. It has been present within Europe and in the Middle East for about 25 years. We have had it in Australia for 20 odd years. With the wider network of the group we belong to, which has got four hubs, London, Dubai, Singapore and Hong Kong and present in 34 countries, we have been looking at which offices we can work with to move into new markets and territories. Our aim, with the support of the market, is to be the market leader here. That is our intention.

Q: So why step into Sri Lanka now?
Simply because if you even drive from the airport to downtown Colombo, the number of tower cranes you see here tells us there are a lot of construction activities taking place. And I think the construction activity now is starting to go up in terms of height. So seeing development like the John Keels Holdings (JKH) new project, the China Harbor to come, we know the airport phase two will soon kick off, these projects are typically the type of development that will take our product. I feel like we are riding the wave into Sri Lanka now. We are looking forward to it. This is important for us.

It is not a new strategy. We have looked at this market before to see how we could enter, but now we have the support of our sister company, Simec Lanka, where we can join together as a team. We will bring in the technical expertise and the product, while Simec Lanka has the market expertise. So it is a combination that works very well.

Simec Lanka will provide the Sri Lankan market with a local presence, technical backup, commercial support, and a strategic stocking of the essential installation materials to ensure the highest levels of customer service.

Q: Your target market includes a substantial proportion of government projects. So has Liberty Building Solutions already engaged with any dialogue with officials?
For our launch that took place recently we invited a cross representation. That is from developer, architects to government officials. We brought together industry professionals to showcase the Barton team’s quality, value, and experience in supplying fast track concurrent large projects.

It is quite fortunate for us because our products are being used extensively elsewhere, and because the construction industry is relatively small, there are already contractors here that have used our products. Hyundai for example is working on the Waterfront project, and we have worked with them elsewhere. It is not entirely new for them. That is another reason why the barriers to entry for us in Sri Lanka are significantly lower.

 Q: You state the product is rather new, so what has Sri Lanka been using so far?
Depending on the height of the building, it dictates the sort of systems used. In the lower category of buildings where fire safety is not important as high rise, they typically use plastic system. As you start to go up in height or the physical space that is being developed is larger, you would move to a steel based system. Steel based systems would have been used here for sure in one way or another, but I suspect they have been used in relatively small developments that too with products that have come from China or the far East. So they have been used here, but not the premium quality.

Q: Where do you suppose Sri Lanka stands in terms of quality of its constructions?
From what I am seeing now, I think is a step up in the quality of construction which is being delivered here. That is primarily because of the type of development that is taking place 

‘‘This is the first time we are making an attempt in Sri Lanka, the brand itself. It has been present within Europe and in the Middle East for about 25 years. We have had it in Australia for 20 odd years

 here. As you start to go towards the luxury end hotels, the larger shopping mall, the marina type development, you have to have higher quality standards. Particularly when you are bringing in international contractors, they have international standards. I believe the standards are very much taking a step change up. And this is perfect for us as that is where we plug in.

Q: With the aim for being a market leader in Sri Lanka, will you be importing your products or setting up a plant here?
The volumes initially will be that we will import. We have big hopes for Sri Lanka, so we are sure importing will grow. We are appointing Simec Lanka as our in-country distributor. We will have a stock center for sure. Our main market is typically large development.

There is another tier of the market, the retail sector, which needs a stock here. We are in discussion as to how well we can establish that here.

We are already in talks with various companies and government entities here to invest in manufacturing in Sri Lanka.

Q: What is the timeline you are looking at?
We do a lot of tubular products. We are in active discussion to look at bringing a separate business of ours here which is manipulating tubes for aerospace. We supply Rolls-Royce with jet engine components, and we have a center of manufacturing in the UK for that. We are looking to relocate part of that into another part of the world so to reduce the cost. We are actively looking at Sri Lanka for this. Sri Lanka has the ideal position for this. So that is an aerospace led investment. The timeline for that will be quite quick. As long as we get the support from Rolls-Royce, that a year away. So big plans for Sri Lanka.