Paul Yeates
Paul Yeates, a specialist in technical fixings, joined SIG in April 2023 as a member of the Major Project & Infrastructure team. He provided valuable support to the team by offering fixing solutions and on-site technical expertise. His strong commitment to fixing solutions led to his appointment as Business Director for the CA Division specialist fixing business, MCP Fixings, in October 2024.
MCP Fixings is a nationwide distributor of specialist fixings. They work with a diverse range of customers, including specialist subcontractors, building contractors, groundworkers, manufacturers, and steel fabricators. By collaborating with their clients, they are able to identify the most suitable products from their extensive selection of manufacturers to provide effective solutions.
After Paul’s appointment, the MCP Fixings technical team is expanding its approach by getting involved in the early design stages of projects. This allows them to provide valuable support not only to their growing number of customers but also to the Major Project and Infrastructure sector, as they work closely with the CA Major Projects and Infrastructure team.
The array of products and challenges that Paul and their Technical team assist with on-site differentiate them from other distributors. So we talked to Paul about these challenges, the importance of specialist fixings, and the range of products and services MCP Fixings can offer.
With over 27 years of experience in the fixings market, Paul Yeates has a deep understanding of the industry’s demands. Having previously worked for major manufacturers Fischer and Rawlplug, he brings valuable expertise to the table. Whether distributing commodity fixings daily to provide solutions, or providing a more technical approach, the team are able to work on any size of project , looking at the specification for a job and offering and sometimes testing, the right fixings solution for the application. This potentially saves costs for the client, but always ensuring there is no reduction in performance or integrity.
There is a lot at stake with most of the specialist fixings Paul deals with providing critical support for something within the structure of a building. Whether they be bonding anchors or mechanical anchors, or masonry screws, they all have a job to do, and with many players in the market offering great solutions, it is a complex task to understand where best value can be obtained. Changing specs can be a risk to a design engineer, but it can be done, providing that critical checks, training and testing are carried out to ensure that the proposed solution works prior to rollout.
There are some impressive manufacturing suppliers in the specialist fixings arena that MCP Fixings work with and more niche suppliers to fill the product gaps and offer some great innovative solutions. Whilst Paul and his team are the key point of contact for their customers, they often bring in these specialist fixings manufacturers to provide additional technical support.
The closer collaboration with the CA Division Major Projects and Infrastructure team has led to the MCP Fixings technical team becoming more involved in the early design stages of projects, working directly with design engineers in the civil departments. In this context, their role is not to suggest alternative solutions to those already specified but to help finalise the specifications. Often, they are shown the designs and asked to recommend fixings for specific tasks. Sometimes, this requires designers to revisit their plans if a suitable fixing cannot be found for a particular scenario. However, Paul and his team excel in an environment where designers can discuss their goals and seek recommendations on how to achieve them with specific fixings.
This Technical Team can not only offer a number of different supplier product solutions to a client, but they also install fixings to provide ‘Proof tests’ that show the anchor will work in the substrate and ‘Suitability tests’ that test the substrate to show the load on the anchor. As a Construction Fixings Association (CFA) accredited tester, Paul is often asked to do ‘Pullout tests’ to show load bearing on fixings, too.
Knowing that 85% of fixing failures are down to installation, MCP Fixings can also provide bespoke contractor training on best practices on-site for a specific fixing solution. All training and technical support is offered free of charge as part of their service but it is important in driving business growth and encouraging designers to trust the service they offer. It seems to work as a growing number of Tier One contractors trust this specialist team, are satisfied with the technical proof supplied, and are making huge savings on large contracts. They are now regularly working with design, consultant, civil and structural engineers who are engaging in works for the likes of Balfour Beatty, Siemens Energy and others on projects including Data Centres, Sub Stations and HS2.
‘A growing number of Tier One contractors trust this specialist team,
are satisfied with the technical proof supplied,
and are making huge savings on large contracts.’
Paul likes to keep what they offer simple in a complex arena, he explains:
“The key is understanding the application, speaking to the customer and coming up with the right system or solution to overcome the problem or application. The benefit of working with MCP Fixings and the wider SIG CA Division is that we can offer an unbiased solution; we are not beholden to one brand, and as a result, we can provide a fixings solution in the early stages. We often end up providing solutions for other key areas that can be troublesome for design engineers, like cable entry, ducting and geotextiles. For example, some incumbent products in the cable entry market allow water ingress, which adds remedial costs to some substations. Having spent a lot of time training with our supplier, Hauff Technik, we are able to offer a solution that guarantees a watertight system. I think the service we offer is unique; every project requires a bespoke solution, and I don’t know of any other construction distributor that provides a service in such depth across so many products.”
As a distributor member of the CFA, MCP Fixings embodies the principles of ‘ensuring best fixings practice’, as they are dedicated to providing technical solutions to meet the different challenges faced on site. So when you need a fixings supplier who can offer not only an extensive range of products but a full technical service from design to onsite support, toolbox talks, training and onsite testing… all free of charge, please get in touch with the MCP Fixings team directly at [email protected]
