What can we expect from 2024? After a rollercoaster year for the industry, MiTek heads into the year with optimism.
Tim Garner, MiTek UK & Ireland’s Commercial Director, breaks down a 2023 that exceeded expectations. See what’s in store for our next 12 months, with big plans driven by technology and talent.
2023 was predicted to be a bad year for the industry, underpinned by high inflation, rising costs and mortgage affordability. Everyone was braced for a challenging year, but what I’m hearing more and more is that the reality was more of a mixed bag.
Last year, here at MiTek, we predicted that our product quality and relationship focus would see us through an uncertain year. That turned out to be exactly what happened.
Weathering a stormy year with courage
Interest and market adoption of Posi-Joist keeps growing. We’re now focusing on trials with housebuilders, major household names. These trials include 2023’s Energy House 2, alongside Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland and Barratt Developments.
We’re currently gathering side-by-side trial data in partnership with a wider group of specialist timber engineering and housebuilding clients. That’ll help us put some solid numbers behind Posi’s positive impact on construction, compared to the traditional approach. How much can housebuilders save in labour costs and time, alongside the many other benefits in respect to delivering net zero carbon homes?
Then there’s our Dedicated Services, which housebuilders started using for the first time this year. It’s proving to be vital for people who want to scale their design and drafting teams up and down, especially in a turbulent market. Likewise, component manufacturers continue to use Dedicated Services to get consistent, quality design support, against the backdrop of an ongoing skills shortage.
As new clients have begun to build lasting relationships with the Dedicated Services team, 2023 saw a cohort of customers alongside the MiTek team fly out to Vietnam to meet the team face-to-face. Everyone agreed it was a fantastic experience. The reality of what they witnessed on the ground at our new HQ, completely surpassed all expectations.
Meanwhile, we’ve taken care to nurture talent at home. To address this, we launched a new internship programme as part of a global company-wide strategy, which saw four T level students join us this year. On top of that, we’ve strengthened our tech support team by creating and filling four new roles, and our machinery department, with two new roles filled.
2023 was a record year for MiTek machinery sales, and seeing customers investing in highly automated offerings like our Mark1 truss press with EasyJig and lasers, and the High Speed Posi Press is brilliant to see, and reflects the strong underlying confidence within the industry.
Investing in technology and sharing success in 2024
To the future, then. 2024 will see us focus even harder on technology. PAMIR Walls will expand, bringing more user groups into its development. It’s not strictly true to say this one’s in the future; some clients are already using it live for specific sets of applications. This year, we’re getting it into more customer’s hands for more vital development feedback.
Greater adoption of technological tools is a trend I think we can expect to see across the wider industry this year as it progresses towards digital transformation.
Our cloud-based management software, MiTek Optics, is also moving through development this year. Like PAMIR Walls, we’re focusing on widening our set of user groups in 2024. We already know it’s a worthy successor to MBA. Now, it’s ready for more customers to get hands-on and see how it performs in the real world.
Beyond that, the future depends on a lot of things outside our control. We can’t ignore a General Election looming, hopefully with plenty of noise being made about building homes. Clearer policy would be a big help overall; 2023’s planned Future Homes Standard consultation has already been kicked into 2024.
We can only hope for better. When people trust that the government is serious about measures like the FHS, they get serious about sustainable building. For now, we’re doing all we can to boost wider confidence ourselves. We’re sharing our trial data, elevating developments with our Design Optimisation service, and creating opportunities throughout the industry. And our recently updated and improved EPD creds, will be crucial to supporting wider industry progress in sustainable construction, a challenge which can only be tackled by working collaboratively.
A growing appetite for timber and a focus on climate resilience will also become more embedded behaviours this year as experts predict, which will continue to pave the way for greater climate resilience of built assets.
Putting the right people in the right places
As for me, there’s a lot to feel good about for 2024. I’m looking forward to taking my own trip to Vietnam in March, as we open our second office there. Everyone who’s visited MiTek Services comes back blown away with what they’ve seen from the team out there, and it’ll be great to celebrate MiTek Dedicated Services hitting 2,500 employees and opening the new building.
We are lucky to work in partnership with so many brilliant businesses, and I always enjoy getting out and spending time with customers to keep abreast of their news and plans.
Internally, it’s brilliant to see good people doing well here at MiTek. People like Adam Williams, who’s due big congratulations on his promotion to Technical Director for the UK & Ireland, and Ian Watson who has stepped up to become Head of Technical Operations. People like Michelle Sweet, James Hobson, Michal Pecuch and Ian O’Neil; new members of our technical support team who are already busy helping clients and making a real difference. Ian O’Neil is based in Ireland, and I’m delighted that we now have ‘boots on the ground’ in what is a very important market for us.
With stabilising interest rates and gradually improving inflation, we are starting 2024 with cautious optimism as consumer confidence begins to grow. We love being part of this industry and working with great customers and great people, and I am excited and proud to tackle the year ahead alongside the incredible MiTek team.
