Kingspan Group PLC on Wednesday said it ‘welcomes’ the Grenfell Tower Inquiry phase 2 report, and reiterated the ‘wholly unacceptable historical failings’ of its UK insulation business.
The phase 2 publication is the Grenfell Tower Inquiry’s final report, initially expected at the end of last year but delayed on multiple occasions.
The Grenfell Tower fire in June 2017 caused the deaths of 72 people.
All of these were avoidable, inquiry Chair Martin Moore-Bick stated, commenting that residents were ‘badly failed’ by the government, the principal contractor and some sub-contractors, the London Fire Brigade and others - who contributed to varying degrees ‘mostly through incompetence’ but in some cases through dishonesty and greed.
Around 5% of the tower’s insulation included Kingscourt, Ireland-based Kingspan’s K-15 combustible foam material. The company however has denied wrongdoing and said in 2023 that the material was misused without its knowledge.
The phase 2 report on Wednesday, meanwhile, ‘explains clearly and unambiguously that the type of insulation (whether combustible or non-combustible) was immaterial,’ Kingspan said.
Moreover, it stressed that ‘the principal reason for the fire spread was the PE ACM cladding, which was not made by Kingspan’. (The cladding in question was made by Pennsylvania-based industrial materials manufactuer Arconic Corp.)
‘Kingspan has long acknowledged the wholly unacceptable historical failings that occurred in part of our UK insulation business,’ the building materials supplier continued. ‘These were in no way reflective of how we conduct ourselves as a group, then or now.
‘While deeply regrettable, they were not found to be causative of the tragedy.’
Kingspan added that it ‘has already emphatically addressed these issues, including the implementation of extensive and externally-verified measures to ensure our conduct and compliance standards are world leading’.
Shares in Kingspan were up 0.1% at €79.00 on Wednesday morning in London.
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