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 Shackerley (Holdings) Group Limited is celebrating a 25-year business partnership with Mirage S.p.A., the world’s largest producer of large format unglazed ceramic floor and wall coverings, based in Pavullo nel Frignano, Modena, Italy.
This 25 year relationship has underpinned the successful development of the UK market for ceramic granite ventilated rainscreen systems, which has had a major influence on the way British architects enhance the exterior appearance of buildings, provide thermal and acoustic insulation and protect the outer envelope from the elements.
Shackerley’s partnership with Mirage originally centred on floor and wall tiling solutions for demanding heavy traffic locations such as airports, railway stations and shopping centres. However, it took a very different turn as a result of advances in manufacturing technology which enabled Mirage to perfect the process of creating dimensionally accurate ceramic granite slabs in unusually large formats, up to 1250x 1750mm. These slabs were impermeable (Class B1A), exceptionally strong and hardwearing, and ideal for use in exterior cladding applications, being relatively thin and lightweight compared with natural quarried stone. Shackerley was determined to introduce these slabs as potential facade panels to the architectural community in the UK and to overcome the prevailing perception in Britain that ceramic cladding belonged indoors: an understandable reaction to a number of high profile mortar and adhesive system failures on the outside of buildings in the 1970’s.
Shackerley’s answer was to develop and patent Sureclad, a mechanically fixed ceramic granite ventilated rainscreen cladding system, which not only went on to capture the interest and confidence of Shackerley’s architectural audience but also earned the company its second Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the Innovation category.
Today Shackerley has exclusive rights to distribute Mirage’s large format ceramic granite rainscreen façade panels in the UK and Ireland. Offered as part of its extensive portfolio of ceramic granite rainscreen solutions the panels are imported from Italy, prefabricated at the company’s Lancashire factories and supplied ready for fast-track installations on new build and refurb projects.
Brian Newell, founder and Chairman of Shackerley (Holdings) Group Limited said: “For a quarter of a century Shackerley and Mirage have worked together to bring the many benefits of ceramic granite to the attention of UK architects, contractors and their clients, first in floor and wall tile format and now as ventilated cladding façades.”
He said: ”Mirage put its trust in Shackerley and we have helped the company to establish itself in the UK and Irish markets as the premier manufacturer of this remarkable material. We in turn have invested enormously in our prefabrication facilities to provide a complete system, ready to install, which has made us market leaders for ventilated ceramic facades.”
For further information please contact Shackerley (Holdings) Group Limited on 0800 7830391, email info@shackerley.com or click on www.shackerley.com
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