Havwoods: behind the scenes
10 Jan 2024
Paul McManus is Havwoods’ Head of Global Product Compliance based in our Head Office in Carnforth, Lancashire. Paul joined Havwoods six years ago, and initially worked in a role of a Purchasing Manager. His background is in procurement, having worked previously as a buyer for a main contractor.
Today Paul looks after the Havwoods’ product compliance, due diligence, legality and regulation of the Havwoods products, all of the environmental certifications, product testing, and quite a wide variety of other tasks that help bring new products into the market.
‘I thoroughly enjoy my role working in Havwoods compliance. In my Purchase Manager times I established relationships with our suppliers making it easy for me to move onto this new role. I also developed a thorough knowledge of the Havwoods products,’ Paul says. ‘Working in compliance is interesting as it gives you a different perspective into the market having to know so much about the background of each products, where they come from and how they have been manufactured.’
‘My absolutely favourite product at the moment has to be the Bog Oak! The story behind this thousands of years old product is totally unique, and the colour is just stunning. We now have a whole family of Bog Oak products, it is available even as a Versailles panels. What’s really interesting too is the product testing, which tells you when the oak tree fell into the bog, and how many (thousands of) years it stayed in!’
When asking what Paul though of working for Havwoods, he said: ‘Havwoods has a unique working culture. Everyone is genuinely passionate about the products and their roles in the business. Serving our customers is at the heart of everything we do. Everyone embraces change and are keen to continue improving and growing all the time. We have a great team culture here, very down to earth atmosphere, and everyone is working together to offer the very best products and services to our clients.’
Paul says that he feels privileged to be working on the new Havwoods product portfolio and to be part of developing the wood surface concept at Havwoods. In 2023, the business took a huge and exciting step expanding from wood flooring into wood on all surfaces, which is likely to be the biggest and the fastest change in the Havwoods history. This saw the introduction of 200+ new products and this time not just flooring products! This year the trend will continue and for example the Acoustics category is certainly one of those to look forward to.
‘Havwoods is a market-leader for exceptional wood flooring, but the last 12 months have demonstrated the power of going beyond the flooring giving the business endless opportunities for timber surfaces’, Paul concludes.
To contact Paul please email paul.mcmanus@havwoods.com
We take it further
For us at Havwoods, sustainability is a matter of extreme importance. It affects everything that we do, and we are continuously taking new steps to improve our action in this area. We do our utmost to ensure that our timber is ethically and sustainably sourced and work only with reputable timber companies.
Learn More