Mental health specifiers targeted by IPS specialist

BioClad, which manufactures and supplies bespoke IPS units, and also supplies hygienic and antimicrobial cladding to the healthcare, pharma, education, retail, hospitality, and commercial sectors, has established its first in-house IPS manufacturing unit in a new York facility, and – to ensure a more efficient supply – brought under one roof distribution of its wall cladding at a new Harrogate depot. As The Network’s editor, Jonathan Baillie, discovered from Sales director, Claire Redhead, the company is also looking to extend its reach into acute mental healthcare.

BioClad was established in 2008 as a company in its own right by Lindsay McKenzie, the current CEO. At the time its main focus was supplying ‘hygienic’ wall cladding to customers throughout the UK and Ireland. Today this is still a key part of its activities, but to its product range it has since added antimicrobial wall cladding, integrated plumbing systems (IPS units, for short), antimicrobial safety flooring, antimicrobial heavy-duty doors, and antimicrobial wall and door protection worldwide. As you would expect given that its wall cladding systems are heavily targeted at healthcare facilities, among the cladding’s key properties are ease of installation and cleaning, chemical resistance, and a robust construction.

Prior to concluding a ‘partnership’ agreement with BioCote – which has been established as a supplier of antimicrobial silver-ion technology supplier for over 25 years – and with which BioClad has a licence to embed the company’s silverion additives into its wall cladding during manufacture, Lindsay McKenzie had run a separate business supplying more ‘standard’ PVC cladding since 1995. The BioClad website states that the integration of BioCote silver-ion technology into products and surfaces during manufacture provides ‘integral protection’ against microbes including MRSA and E. coli, even ‘deactivating’ Influenza H1N1 by up to 99.99% within 24 hours. Laboratory tests and real-life studies have verified that the technology, which ‘works 24-hours-a-day’, eradicates 80% of microbes within 15 minutes, and ‘up to 99.99%’ within two hours.