From caravans to MMC – how Euramax Solutions is helping build the houses of the future

For fifty years, Euramax Solutions have been serving the UK holiday home market. Managing Director Nick Cowley explains how that expertise is now allowing them to make major headway in modular construction.

What do caravans and the homes of the future have in common?

Ask most people, and I’m sure the answer would be: “not very much.”

But bear with me, and I’ll explain some similarities that might surprise you.

First, I’m going to tell you a bit about Euramax Solutions – the huge Barnsley window and door manufacturer that I’ve led since 2019 – and why we’re qualified to try and answer that question.

Euramax was founded in the 1950s, and back then, it was completely different to the business it is today.

The two brothers that started it made windscreens for cars, tanks and farm vehicles. But by the ‘60s, that focus had shifted to the leisure market, and for many years the bulk of their business came from making aluminium windows for narrow boats.

From there, it wasn’t a huge leap into the holiday home sector, where Euramax has had a major presence ever since.

Goodbye to brick-built construction?

But to go back to my initial question: houses are complex, brick-built structures largely put together on-site, whereas holiday homes are much more simple.

Large numbers of caravans can be quickly put together in a factory and then sent out to customers and campsites around the country.

So on that basis, the conclusion you’d surely have to come to is that the two are nothing alike.

Except that’s not how many houses are being built anymore. In the 2020s, construction is changing, and fast.

While it’s been around for decades, recent years have seen a dramatic rise in modular construction – and in the decades to come, it’s going to soar.

Why? Because of the country’s ongoing housing shortage, an increasingly severe skills shortage, and, perhaps most of all, pressures to drastically cut construction’s carbon footprint.

Modular offers a solution to all three of these issues – and, at Euramax, gives us an opportunity to apply fifty years of expertise in the holiday home market to help build the houses of tomorrow.

Precision manufacturing, just-in-time delivery

Since the ‘70s, we’ve managed to get serving the caravan sector down to a fine art.

We manufacture quality windows and doors at our state-of-the-art Barnsley facility, then deliver them to a customer’s factory at exactly the point they need them, thereby allowing them to maximise efficiency and prevent any delays.

In many ways, making modular buildings is just like making more complex caravans. In a similarly efficient, well-honed process, products are assembled in a factory, with components only arriving exactly when they’re needed to ensure maximum efficiency.

So in recent years, as we’ve begun working with some of Britain’s most respected modular housing providers, we’ve begun offering them the same service – quality products, with just-in-time, lineside delivery.

It’s a service that not many UK window manufacturers are able to offer – but our commitment to lean, efficient manufacturing, and our long legacy in the leisure sector, means we’re excellently positioned to help modular builders across the UK thrive and grow.

With an enormous housing shortage – the government has committed to building 300,000 new homes a year, but the closest we’ve got to that so far is 250,000 – and national targets to not just reach net zero by 2050, but 85% less carbon by 2035, demand for modular will soon be higher than ever.

If you’re a modular builder looking for a window supplier who understands the challenges of MMC, speak to Euramax Solutions today.”

For more information on Euramax and its work in modular, visit www.euramaxuk.com or call 01226 361639.