The company and the brands

James Hardie Europe GmbH is a subsidiary of the worldwide operating James Hardie Industries plc (JHIplc), which was founded in Australia in 1888. Today James Hardie Industries plc is an international market leader for fibre cement building materials with enormously strong market positions in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines.

James Hardie Europe GmbH was created through the takeover of the former Fermacell GmbH in 2018. In addition to Hardie®Plank and Hardie®Panel fibre cement facade claddings, the product range also includes fermacell® gypsum fibre boards and fermacell® screed elements for high-quality drywall construction and timber construction. James Hardie Europe GmbH is thus able to offer complete wall systems for drywall and timber construction. The portfolio is rounded off by the cement-bonded, lightweight concrete panel Powerpanel® H2O with fabric reinforcement made of glass fiber for construction areas with high stress or mechanical stress. The brand Aestuver® stands for solutions in the field of structural fire protection as well as for fire protection solutions in the field of electrical installations and underground traffic systems.

 

Objectives

James Hardie Industries plc is one of the world's leading manufacturers of building materials. Together with its European subsidiary, James Hardie Europe GmbH, the Group intends to expand its European business with high-performance building boards for interior applications and facades and grow sustainably in the European market with the JamesHardie®, fermacell® and Aestuver® brands. A broad product range offers the best opportunities for this. The market demands modern building materials that can be produced efficiently within a short time frame and without unnecessarily long drying times using easy-to-handle materials and time-saving processing techniques. With the JamesHardie®, fermacell® and Aestuver® brands, James Hardie Europe has the right products and systems to meet market demands.


Philosophy

James Hardie is a company that is not satisfied with stagnation. Inspired by new and ever better technologies and motivated by our enthusiasm for innovation, we continuously expand and optimize our services to develop and offer even better products. Therefore we invest a lot in research and development, with a special focus on product quality and production efficiency, in order to develop durable and low-maintenance products. Architects, planners, builders and homeowners will find trend-setting solutions to realize their individual visions.


 

James Hardie

The company was founded more than 100 years ago: in 1888 the young James Hardie made his way from Scotland to Melbourne in Australia and founded a company for the import of oils and tannery products. With a keen sense of the needs of the Australian market, he later specialised in the building materials industry. Together with his partner, Andrew Reid, who had also immigrated from Scotland, he set up a building materials business, which was run by the Reid family until 1995 after James Hardie retired. The company went public on the Australian Stock Exchange in 1951 and in the years that followed it expanded its portfolio to include numerous new construction and industrial products.

Since the first James Hardie® fiber cement product was launched in Australia and the USA in the mid-1980s, the global player has continued to develop its innovation with its own research and product development teams. As a result of decades of research work, HardiePlank® and HardiePanel® facade claddings are now available to the market - some 6 million houses worldwide later - as a building material that is slim but particularly stable and impact-resistant, does not shrink or swell and does not crack when used for years under the most extreme climatic conditions. Thanks to the technical and manufacturing know-how built up in Australia, the company is now a leading global manufacturer of high-tech building materials, with a wide range of solutions for both interior and exterior wall cladding applications.

fermacell®

fermacell® gypsum fibre boards are the ideal complement to the product portfolio of James Hardie. The first gypsum fiber board - and thus the first gypsum fiber board in Germany - rolled off the production line at the fermacell® plant in Münchehof near Goslar in the early 1970s. This laid the foundation for the success of the fermacell® brand. The high-quality, particularly stable finishing board has fundamentally changed the entire drywall construction industry and thus made the fermacell® brand big and strong. Today, fermacell® gypsum fibre boards and the water- and weather-resistant Powerpanel® H2O boards stand for fast and economical expansion concepts for all areas of interior construction. Pioneering innovations have made fermacell® one of the best-known building material brands in the industry and the European market leader for high-quality gypsum fibre and cement-bonded boards.

 

Aestuver®

The Aestuver® brand has been around since 1989 and has developed into one of the leading German brands in the field of glass fibre lightweight concrete technology. Today, Aestuver® fire protection panels stand for high-quality fire protection solutions in the field of electrical installations and underground traffic systems. A wide range of products for bulkheads, fire protection coatings and fire protection joints is also available under the brand.

What are fermacell® gypsum fibre boards?

fermacell® gypsum fibre boards consist of gypsum and recycled cellulose fibres. These two natural raw materials are mixed and after the addition of water - without further binding agents - pressed under high pressure into stable boards, dried, impregnated with a water-repellent agent and cut to the required sizes.
 
Due to their material composition, fermacell® gypsum fiber boards are simultaneously construction, fire protection and moisture-proof boards. They are just as suitable for wall, ceiling and floor constructions as for the construction of attractive bathrooms. Due to their specific material properties, fermacell® gypsum fiber boards can be used as load-bearing and stiffening planking for walls, as fire protection cladding for wooden components and as stiffening components for ceiling and roof panels. Tests have also confirmed the excellent sound-absorbing properties of fermacell® gypsum fiber boards. They are also certified according to ETA-03/0050 as non-combustible, class A2-s1 d= according to EN 13501-1.
 
fermacell® gypsum fibre boards already meet most requirements in single-layer planking, whereas conventional gypsum boards often only meet these requirements in two-layer planking. The processing of only one board type for all application areas increases the execution safety of fermacell® gypsum fibre boards and ensures reliable and consistently high quality. All requirements can be fulfilled with only a few constructions. In contrast, there is a sheer confusing multitude of constructions with conventional gypsum boards. The high stability and load-bearing capacity of fermacell® gypsum fibre boards ensures fast and economical processing.
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