On Thursday 2 July, Cleaner Safer Group opened the doors of The Building Performance Hub in High Wycombe to a mix from across the group’s brands, partners and wider network. It was the first time the full CSG portfolio had been in one room, and it landed on the same week CEO Barry Cope marked one year in the role.
The Hub was busy before the doors opened, and preparations had been ongoing for multiple days. Exhibitors were setting up as the first attendees arrived – laying out kit, plugging in demos, and getting banners into position.
Outside, the sun was up and the wood-fired pizza oven was getting ready. The Hub acted as the perfect venue, showing a real working training space rather than a hotel function room – offering real stoves, hands-on practicals, and demo spaces to tour.
Barry’s numbers led the room as he walked through a newly launched CRM that now holds over a billion data points across the group, and the many possibilities of what this unlocks:
Barry also traced back where the group has come from, starting with his first day. What he called the ‘Cleaner Safer Couple’ – HETAS and Woodsure on their own – is now a group covering solid fuel installation, maintenance and fuel supply, air tightness, sound insulation, ventilation commissioning, and the wider built environment. The Open Day was the first chance to see all of it in one room, and for Barry to share his genuine pride from the past year.
Coincidentally, the day was also one day after Barry’s first anniversary as CEO. Year one saw a group merger, leaving the ‘Cleaner Safer Couple’ behind us, the approval of a new HETAS Approved Training Centre at the Hub, a new CRM launch, a focus on automation, and being stronger communicators to all our registrants. Year two, he was clear, is where the group pushes harder.
‘With over a billion data points across the group, we can see patterns in installations, air quality and consumer habits that the industry hasn’t had access to before, and no other organisation in the country can match. Year two is about what we do with them.’
Attendees moved between two areas: tours of the Hub, and product walkthroughs from suppliers on the solid fuel side. The tour route ran through the working spaces used for air tightness testing and sound insulation, and finished at the full-sized training house – now home to the newly approved HETAS training centre.
That gave the Hub a dual role as working venue and showcase – every brand got to demonstrate what it does in the environment where the work happens, not from a slide.
Nine supplier partners were on the floor with us, and their stands were where the room spent most of the day, getting to know products, innovations, and the people behind them.
Recoheat brought heat recovery demos that tied straight into the wider conversations about efficiency and air quality, while Svantek’s sound measurement equipment sat naturally with the SITMA side, letting attendees see the testing arm of the group in action.
Chimella, Wohler, Rodstation, Flue and Ducting, NoMorePly, Concept Engineering, and Rotary Power Sweeping made up the rest of the line-up, and between them covered a sizable chunk of the supply chain our registrants work with week in, week out.
Genuine thanks to all of them for turning up and showcasing their kit in the new space. Nathan Henton from Wohler UK commented:
The CSG Open Day was a fantastic event that gave me the opportunity to connect with both familiar and new faces among customers and exhibitors.
The conversations moved fast between demos and following Barry’s welcome. Training kept coming up – how it needs to change, who it needs to reach, and the candid feedback is what we need to improve. The Future Homes Standard, now confirmed for next year, air quality as a whole, and the Defra consultation on solid fuel burning that the whole industry is waiting on were also central to conversations.
Others centred on our registrant network – how it grows from here, and the push for Ready to Burn to be adopted into legislation in Wales and Scotland, both of which sit outside the current scheme and are something we are actively pressing for.
Underneath most of it, a version of the same question: what should this group be pushing for as an industry voice, and how bold should we be about it? Barry had already answered that in the welcome – bolder than we’ve been.
The next event at The Building Performance Hub is set for Thursday 8 October, with the eagerly awaited results from Defra’s consultation being the focus. The solid fuel arm of the business will be the focus for this next event, and it is crucial that we, as an industry, work though government’s decisions together.
We’ll be in touch with everyone who attended, everyone who exhibited, and everyone who couldn’t make it this time.
Thanks to everyone who came through the door on Thursday, and to the exhibitors who made the day what it was.
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