Grenfell insulation products maker sold six years after deadly fire

Photo of the Grenfell Tower in west London a year after the fire that cost 72 lives

France’s Saint-Gobain has agreed to sell one of the companies implicated in London’s fatal Grenfell Tower fire six years ago.

The Paris-listed building materials group will sell its majority stake in Celotex to Soprema, a company based in England, according to a stock exchange filing. Celotex made insulation used on Grenfell — called RS5000 — which was found to have fueled the blaze on June 14 in 2017 that killed 72 people.

“This sale will not affect Saint-Gobain’s commitment to the Grenfell inquiry or any inquiries by the Metropolitan Police,” a spokeswoman for Saint-Gobain said. The relevant legal entity dealing with civil lawsuits will remain within Saint-Gobain, she added. 

Celotex’s assets will be transferred to a new standalone company, which will be 75% owned by Soprema, with Saint-Gobain keeping a 25% minority stake “for the time needed to ensure a smooth transition,” Saint-Gobain said. It did not disclose the sale price. 

Then-British prime minister Theresa May launched a public inquiry into the Grenfell fire. The first phase of the inquiry concluded in December 2018, with findings published the following October. 

The inquiry has finished hearings and is preparing the final report for Phase 2. This will examine the causes of the chain of events, including how the tower came to be in a condition that allowed the fire to spread. 

The blaze was ignited by a faulty refrigerator on the fourth floor, and quickly spread due to Celotex’s flammable RS5000 cladding. Within half an hour, the flames had reached the roof and all four sides. 

As the building burned, residents were told to stay put, in line with the policy that presupposed that fires would be contained within single flats. More than two-and-a-half hours after it started, the control room decided to revoke the policy and advise residents to leave the tower, according to key timings set out by the inquiry’s first phase. 

In Ireland, Kingspan, the insulation products maker, also gave evidence in the early stages of the official London inquiry in which it said a small amount of its so-called K15 product was used as an insulator in the residential building. 

Kingspan has repeatedly said it had no part in the exterior cladding and that only a small amount of K15 was supplied and "substituted without our knowledge". It had also condemned "unacceptable historical conduct and emails" which emerged during the inquiry between employees at its Kingspan Insulation UK business.

Bloomberg and Irish Examiner