Francis Cholley has been the Managing Director of SWISSPACER since March 2022. After his first year in the role, he takes positive stock – and looks to the future with confidence. Sustainable development remains a central topic for the future.

The last year was overall very satisfactory for the manufacturer of warm wedge spacer bars, says Cholley: “Like others, we also had to battle with price rises for raw materials and energy. Which makes me all the more pleased to note that we were always able to cope with the constantly high level of demand, despite the shortages of raw materials.” The positive report also includes the launch of the new SWISSPACER Ultimate Pro: the spacer bar can be processed even more easily. “The changed material composition gives our product even more elasticity. Which means even more robust processes in production. In particular, manufacturers of very large insulating glass units evaluate that as very positive, according to the tests.”

Despite the good first quarter, the managing director also considers the imponderables in the current year: “The downwards trend can still happen as the year progresses because the renovation market will not compensate for the lower demand for new builds – we are monitoring this very closely.”

Which makes it all the more pleasing that the company is very well positioned internationally and now able to realise substantial sales outside Europe. Whether on the American continent or in Asia – there are many countries that are increasingly turning to European specifications and local know-how. Also of great interest are potential new applications for insulating glass units – not only in classic window and façade solutions. Wherever the aim is to optimise insulating glass units in terms of their properties for insulating against heat or cold and minimising condensation, the warm edge spacer bars make a small but mighty difference.

Sustainability remains the central issue

“The construction industry and especially the housing market are obviously key factors when it comes to countering global warming,” emphasises Cholley. “I am firmly convinced that a small carbon footprint will quickly become an integral part of product performance and competitiveness. Values that are achieved for the construction and operation of a building are already key features – and each component is expected to make a contribution to them.”

The company is also observing how the government-defined specifications for the quantity of bound CO2 in new builds are changing in different countries. For example, France has now capped the total amount of CO2 that is allowed to be produced when constructing a building. “These developments will strengthen across Europe and beyond and have a big impact on the market,” Cholley is certain.

SWISSPACER is one of the few manufacturers of spacer bars able to provide an environmental product declaration (EPD) for all spacer bar widths. Especially when it comes to the carbon footprint, the company is the clear benchmark in the industry. “We are pursuing a strategy of adopting a leading role in matters of sustainability  and decoupling corporate growth from carbon emissions,” explains Cholley. “For us, this means that we will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of the data from 2017 – regardless of the actual production volume in the coming years. We are striving to achieve a reduction in direct and indirect emissions of around 30 percent. For all other emissions given off during the overall lifecycle of the product, such as for transport or in waste management, we believe we have a good chance of reducing these by around 15 percent,” says Cholley with optimism.

Customer benefits at a glance

SWISSPACER also sees supporting customers to the best of its ability as being an important task. Whether with individually tailored technical services, in the preparation of EPDs or the expansion of digitalised processes from customer order to production and delivery. “It’s how we want to improve the customer experience because that is an important part of the competitive advantage that SWISSPACER wants to offer its customers,” says Francis Cholley.

Even after almost 30 years at Saint-Gobain, the position of managing director at SWISSPACER is something special for Francis Cholley: “Personally speaking, working at SWISSPACER has given me the possibility to visit countries or work with nationalities that are new to me. It’s always good to see how you can continue having new and sometimes challenging experiences, even after so many years in the industry.”