In the second of our series of interviews with senior people in the flooring industry, we talked to Contract Flooring Association’s CEO Richard Catt to get his thoughts on the current state of the flooring industry, what the biggest challenges have been for the industry in the past few years, what challenges the future holds, and what the CFA is doing to support members.
What is your take on the state of the flooring industry at present and what’s the outlook going forward?
RC: I think the immediate future is reasonably bright. Certainly talking to members, a lot of them on the materials side of things, as well as contractors, seem to be saying things are steadily improving, especially from 2-3 years ago things are much brighter within the industry. Having said that, it’s still a little bit regional. I think the improvement is swelling up from the South, they are ahead of the curve, and London is its own micro economy, which has been picking up recently, so I think that is always a reasonable indicator from our point of view of how the industry is moving as a whole. But Scotland has been, and still is to some degree, having a slightly tougher time.
Many members now are looking at order books that are moving forward and they have got weeks, if not months, of orders already in place. The challenges they now face are managing the orders and keeping up with the general administration of the business. It’s a different, and a better challenge, than they have been facing in recent years, but it’s still a challenge.
What other challenges is the flooring industry facing?
RC: We have had an on-going issue in our industry for several years, and that’s a problem with payments. If you’re a contractor working under a main contractor this is a particular concern, according to our members, and it is a main reason why so many contractors shy away from working for main contractors. This is a serious issue, and that’s probably an understatement, and it’s a real challenge because subcontractors have their own overheads and they can’t keep waiting to be paid so that they can pay their workers and suppliers. But some are being made to wait, 60 or 90 days, or even longer in some circumstances, and that makes the whole business model very difficult to sustain.
It has been the topic of many discussions we’ve had with members, and the topic of many trade articles. It remains a massive issue today, but we are realistically optimistic that we can work to solve the problem. The other main area that has been a challenge to the flooring industry recently is a shortage of talent and skills coming through.
A skills shortage is something we hear a lot about in the media and you have just touched on it there. Do you see that continuing to be a major challenge in the future? And what are going to be the most significant challenges in the years ahead?
RC: Definitely the skills and labour shortage that we have noticed in recent years is going to be one of, if not the, major challenge for the industry in the future. We have an ageing workforce across the construction industry and the flooring industry is no different. We really need to be working to increase the number of skilled young workers coming through so the industry can maintain itself in the future and continue to grow. But as well as the skills shortage we are facing, I think we need to be increasing the skills training on offer from those in the current workforce who will be mentoring that younger talent. One of the things we need is more, and better, training organisations that can train new managers to teach skills to younger workers.
We already work closely with existing organisations to try and make sure skills needs are being met, but we need to be doing more. That is one of the things F. Ball is really fabulous for, because they have great training facilities and they keep up with the latest products and training techniques. F.Ball has a strong belief in training and supporting the industry’s workforce, almost in a philanthropic way.
Looking at the more immediate future, what are your, and the CFA’s, plan for the year ahead, and what will be your key priorities?
RC: The Government is asking the industry to deliver on bringing through a younger workforce and they want three million apprenticeships across the wider industry to be created by 2020 to include getting younger people into the flooring, and wider construction industry. They have challenged the industry to deliver that. They have also introduced a new form of apprenticeships in a new ‘trailblazer’ scheme. What this does is it moves the focus more to the employer, allowing them to design the standards and skills tests the employee must meet as part of the apprenticeship.
It should encourage more businesses and trades to take on younger people, because they have more of a say over how the training will work and they can design the learning specifically to the employer’s needs. It is a whole different way of working than before, particularly at delivery, when employers will have much more freedom over who they use for structured training.
It brings new challenges to contractors and manufacturers because they will have more responsibility for setting standards, or developing how apprenticeships will work within the industry. But it also brings more opportunities to better equip a younger workforce with the right skills because employers know what skills and training are missing and they can make sure to add that into learning plans. Of course, CFA have always represented our members’ in the development of apprenticeships and qualifications, and would continue to do that under the Trailblazer scheme.
I think also that we need to start investing all the way through the industry because there are a lot of guys who need our support. Whether it’s current workers who may need their CSCS cards, or those younger people who need support and training. All these things have to be priorities for us and the CFA needs to make sure we are there to support our members however we can.
Sounds like the industry is well placed to meet those challenges in the future. Thanks to Richard for taking part in this latest ‘In conversation with’ and we look forward to the next issue, where once again we’ll have another interview with a leading industry figure.
To find out more about the role of the Contract Flooring Association and applying for membership visit www.cfa.org.uk