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TWST: Can we begin with an introduction to Kingspan, including a brief historical sketch?

Mr. Mulvihill: The Company was founded in County Cavan, Ireland in 1971 and has grown into a leading player internationally in its chosen markets. The Company floated on the Dublin and London Stock Exchange in 1987. The turnover at that stage was somewhere in the order of about €25 million. Turnover this year will be in the order of €800 million, so there has been fairly significant growth since then. We have taken very little capital from the markets through all those years. We probably raised no more than €20 million through all of that period. The current market cap is €550 million.

TWST: Can you run through the core product categories and the end markets?

Mr. Mulvihill: We have 5 main product categories. We classify them as insulated panels, which represents about 35% of Group turnover. Insulated panels are structural products and the market is industrial / commercial type buildings, other than high-rise office buildings. We supply these products to the Irish, British, Western and Central European markets. The second main product category is insulation board which go into the total insulation market -- any building that needs insulation is capable of using a Kingspan insulation board. Our main focus for those products is UK, Ireland and Benelux. The next category of products is what we classify as building components. These are lightweight metal sections which we supply to the structural steel and cladding markets. The fourth category is access floors. Our focus there is the UK and the US. These products create a void for cable and air management in office buildings. Finally, we have environmental containers, which are a range of products molded in plastic that go into domestic housing markets in the UK, Ireland, and Continental Europe.

TWST: Is it just access flooring that is going into the US?

Mr. Mulvihill: Yes, we just do raised access flooring in the US

TWST: Has that been a new entrance for you?

Mr. Mulvihill: Yes, that was an acquisition we made in January 2001, a company called Tate Access Flooring. Tate is the predominant manufacturer of raised access flooring in the US and they have about 65% market share in the US. Now the use of raised access flooring in the US is quite limited. The market penetration is only something like 10%, and we see a significant opportunity to increase penetration.

TWST: You have just secured a result on the arbitration proceedings arising from the acquisition of Tate. Have you any comments?

Mr. Mulvihill: Well, we are very pleased with the outcome which gives us $40m compensation. We were led to believe when we acquired the company that its business was in much better shape that it actually was. The Arbitrators found the vendor liable for breach of contract, common law fraud and to be in breach of Federal Security Laws. The $40m will be applied against the goodwill on acquisition and in the short term will reduce the Group debt.

TWST: What is the advantage of raised access flooring? Can you tell us more about that product?

Mr. Mulvihill: Traditionally it has been used in the UK as a system for cable management; in other words, to run the cables in the void created by the access floor. It gives a lot of flexibility in terms of where power points are placed, and if you're not happy with where it's placed, you can simply lift the panel and take the wires to a different point in your office. You can change partitioning and so on with very little disruption. However, we're promoting the use of access flooring in the US, more as an air management system. We demonstrate that the building cost of a high-rise office can be reduced by up to 10% by using the void created in an access floor for air management; in other words, for under-floor air-conditioning. So, it's a fairly compelling argument in favor of the access floor to combine it with under-floor air-conditioning and reduce the initial building cost and running costs.

TWST: What are your overall objectives for the next couple of years? What do you need to accomplish in order for that time period to be a success?

Mr. Mulvihill: If I can extend that to a five-year period, without anything other than bolt-on acquisitions, so basically organic growth, we can see our turnover and our profits doubling. Again, that will be driven by the conversion of markets in our favor, both in insulated panels and in insulation boards. And we are looking for some growth in that period in our access floors, particularly in the US