The PICS distributor in Belgium is a Dutch company named Pressplate, a company with whom we have been trading for more than 10 years, and who have enjoyed considerable success both in Holland and Belgium.

Pressplate have specialized in large commercial installations and these are normally planned well in advance. However, during the summer of 2000, at short-notice, Pressplate were given the challenge of installing 4000m² in 21 days on the Rue De Luxembourg in Brussels; we were delighted to hear of this success and immediately made arrangements for the supplies and materials required by Pressplate to be shipped to Belgium.

Under normal circumstances local contractors would have been used for the installation, however, due to a combination of factors, it transpired that local labour was not available. There being a very brief window of opportunity to complete the installation, Pressplate were facing a massive logistical problem. How could they complete the job without the skilled specialist labour to do it?

Pressplate contacted us to see if we had any bright ideas that might help them fulfil their commitments and we immediately set about the task. Within 7 days we had made arrangements for a team of 6 men, from our good friends at Traditional Paving in Oxford, to be in the Belgium Capital to carry out the installation.

Thankfully the project was completed on time and to exacting standards. The client expressed his gratitude to Pressplate for a first class project.

So, they had the drawings and the idea but were unsure of how best to proceed, and no wonder – after all, this was an area that would have to withstand vicious weather conditions with 110mph winds howling in from the adjacent Irish Sea, 30 ft waves pounding on the surface, not to mention millions of foot traffic (during more clement conditions!) over the forthcoming 20 years. To meet Sefton Council’s requirements it needed to look great, be easily maintained, hold its colour and be extremely tough and hard-wearing.

It quickly became apparent that high trafficking paints were not a viable option so a more radical solution was required.

The answer to their problem came in the shape of COLOURTOP, the new Hardened Concrete Paving System from PICS.

Working closely with Sefton Council and their artist we demonstrated how using our Colour Surface Hardener in both standard and special designer colours, we could meet the requirements of the project. We then helped them to amend the design layout where required to produce stunning results.

Two installation teams worked through vicious weather conditions to produce five themed areas of paving totaling 1500m². During construction the teams were pelted with hailstones the size of tennis balls, almost swept away by freak waves and had their concrete tent moved ¼ mile by winds gusting over 100mps…an average day on the North West Coast of England.

This year we decided to make a Special Bespoke Project Award for the best example of a uniquely creative project as a fitting tribute to the memory of Dave “Tubbs” Allseybrook who sadly lost his life in a diving accident in Egypt earlier this year. Dave was well known and respected by many in the industry who have worked alongside him over 20 years, both in the East Midlands where he began with one of the original Paverprint franchises alongside Frank Murphy and more recently in the North East working with The Patterned Concrete Company and Tony Adams. Dave will be missed and remembered by many, and our thoughts are with his family at this time.

Our Special Award has been made to Teesvalley Drainage & Driveways for Lee Bouttell's hand crafted colourful garden recreation on a driveway in Redcar, which Lee created from concept to installation. A unique and cleverly undertaken project, so congratulations to Lee.The overall winner of the Golden Trowel in the domestic installation category was Creative Driveways & Patios from Abingdon, where Pete Davies finally managed to improve on his 2nd and 3rd places in previous years with an attractive patio landscaped project.Runner up this year was Lee Paget from Celtic Landscapes in New Tredegar with his driveway project, and third place went to Heritage Driveways for their Patio design incorporating a stained compass feature.

Thanks to all the entrants again this year, start snapping away for 2010!

The warehouse in Mullingar, County Westmeath, is some 1200 square feet, and is able to store in excess of 60 tonnes of CSH with all the associated products making sure that the service they provide is second to none.

Ray intends to deliver your first few orders personally in order that you can put a face to the name, as well as share experiences and identify how else PICS Ireland can help you with your business.

Ray of course will keep you informed of all the new products and systems that may be of benefit to you.

More recently however, Transform Paving of Liverpool has been asked by the local authorities to install Picsbond as a decorative cap for a tree pit capping material. One of the main reasons it is specified is to minimise the damage our canine friends do to the soil and root system around the trees!

Picsbond is installed at circa 50mm and generally 6-10mm stones are used for this purpose. In areas of high wear these larger stones may be capped with Picsbond using 3mm stones to produce a tighter, more closed and therefore stronger more durable surface.

The nature of Picsbond is such that it will accommodate tree growth and allow water to run through the highly permeable surface and thus water the tree. It looks great, there's no loose stones or dirt to kick around and the area around the tree will look neat and tidy at all times.

Due to its ease of installation and the many practical benefits of a Picsbond capped tree pit, further utilisation is planned for the future across the UK.

Our distributor in Cyprus, who had historically been stocking, using and supplying our pattern imprinted concrete materials, saw a gap in the market for something a little different, to complement the existing paving materials used. He saw Picsbond as an ideal product to complement swimming pool and patio areas, alongside his pattern imprinted concrete business.

Initially a small show area was installed outside the offices at Paphos in July last year and since then many thousands of square metres of Picsbond have been successfully installed in Paphos and elsewhere throughout this Mediterranean island.

Picsbond has been used on many domestic paved areas in Cyprus as well as a number of areas which are open to the public, so if you’re holidaying in Cyprus later in the year, keep your eyes open and you may see some impressive Picsbond installations during your travels.

PICS have been able to nominate many local installation companies of choice around the UK and advise the teams to help ensure consistent installation quality, which means that PICSPAVE continues to be the natural choice for high traffic paving on the drive-thru lanes for many years to come.

KFC themselves continue to grow their brand, as their web-site states ;

"with over 750 restaurants in the UK and an annual growth rate of 15% KFC continues to be the fastest growing restaurant brand in the UK. During the last 5 years we have opened over 200 new restaurants and want to increase this level of opening even further over the next 5 years."

If you know of a new KFC development near you, do check out that it is on our schedule, and we can discuss the installation opportunities with you.

Disney's attention to detail is legendary and, as one can imagine, the testing was exhaustive, but after an initial meeting with Disney in Los Angeles in early 2003 and subsequent trial areas on site in Hong Kong later that year, PICS was eventually chosen to be the preferred supplier for the Decorative Concrete materials for the paving at Hong Kong Disneyland.

PICS worked closely with Ivan Chan and Disney Imagineering, the design team responsible for all the paving works throughout the site, to produce quality work to Disney’s high technical and design standards.

Paving work started in earnest in June 2004 and was completed at the end of 2005. John Linley, our hugely experienced Technical Manager, attended site on a number of occasions to provide practical and technical advice regarding the PICS products and processes; these included questions about acid staining and exposed aggregate finishes, for which the processes used in Hong Kong were still innovative and very specialized at the time.

During the project many thousands of square metres were installed in a whole variety of locations, both externally and internally and it proved to be a brilliant showcase for PICS and for the whole Decorative Concrete industry.

In all, the project was awe inspiring and the planning and organization required from the Disney Team phenomenal. If we are honest it made the Decorative Concrete element (which is also huge) seem relatively simple in comparison - although Ivan Chan, who headed up the locally sourced labour and whose responsibility it was to ensure the smooth day to day running of the installation programme, may just have disagreed!