By Tom Lowe2021-02-16T10:51:00+00:00
But UK sales manager says he was never given the instruction
Arconic ordered its French sales team to stop selling the type of combustible cladding installed on Grenfell Tower over a year before the fire, the inquiry has heard.
The hearing was shown an internal email on Monday from the firm’s French sales director Alain Flacon instructing French sales teams to stop recommending Reynobond PE, a type of ACM cladding, to customers because of fire concerns.
Reynobond PE, which contained a combustible 100% polyethylene core and had burned ferociously in fire tests, had been downgraded to a lower fire rating in 2014 which prohibited its use on high-rise buildings.
Grenfell Inquiry: Cladding firm continued overseas sales despite blazes in the Middle East
Fire rips through Grenfell Tower as firefighters attempt to control a huge blaze on June 14, 2017 in west London. [DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP via Getty Images] February 14, 2021 at 12:37 pm
Grenfell cladding manufacturer did not stop selling highly combustible panels despite being linked to a series of fires in the Middle East, because it was more profitable not to, the
New Arab reported.
Before the devastating fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington, West London which killed 72 residents of the high-rise block of flats, cladding manufacturer Arconic had discussed withdrawing the highly flammable polyethylene-based panels from the market, former sales manager Deborah French told the UK s official Grenfell Inquiry.