Centria International of the US, a world leader in the manufacture of metal building products and systems for non-residential walls and roofs, has recently formed a manufacturing joint venture with Rigidal Industries, a UK/Dubai company.

The new venture will manufacture and market a range of wall and roof cladding materials, most of which feature the special Centria Versacor coating system. The two companies will share intellectual properties and marketing responsibilities.

Rigidal and Centria will produce Rigidal Versacor Ultima, an upmarket, thermally-insulated composite panel with a Versacor-coated weather sheet and a range of insulation qualities including CFC (chlorofluorocarbons)-free and fire-retardant PIR foam systems.

Joint manufacturing has commenced at the Rigidal Industries facility in Dubai.

"Rigidal Industries has been battling with Centria and its predecessor H H Robertson, for nearly 20 years, competing for specifications on the major industrial developments in its region - and now they have made the decision to join forces," says Phil Elllerby, general manager of Rigidal Industries Dubai.

"We are like-minded companies - concerned with product excellence together with durable longevity, and offer incomparable technical support. Centria exhibits the same kind of professionalism that inherently exists at Rigidal Industries.

"We both strive for product development and technological achievement in a constant desire to improve quality and produce the very best products, combined with incomparable service and technical support.

He continues: "The real winners in this venture will ultimately be the clients who can be ensured of the best products combined with the flexibility of local manufacture."

Centria International's president LeRoy Thompson Jr comments: "Rigidal is the perfect complement to our international business. This venture will allow the two companies to offer significant benefits to our customers in Europe and the Middle East."

"We are very excited about this arrangement," says Peter Taylor, managing director of Rigidal Industries. "We believe that the material coatings and engineering expertise that the two companies will now be sharing will offer the building and design communities throughout the world a level of quality that they may not have experienced in the past."

"We are now jointly working on the most prestigious industrial projects across the entire GCC region and beyond," says Ellerby. "This is not a final conclusion but a first step towards a level of product excellence not previously available in the Gulf region."

Later, the joint venture intends to develop and produce further exciting architectural cladding products for use in the Middle East.

Both companies are leaders in their respective markets in the development and production of building product systems that capitalise on the design, durability and economy inherent in metal structures.

Centria is most active throughout North and South America, the Middle East, North and South East Asia and Australia.

Rigidal Industries is active in Europe, Middle East and parts of South East Asia.