Posted on March 31st, 2025

When asked about the challenges and opportunities that Victaulic faces, the topics that recur are productivity, sustainability, and change. These themes are prevalent across the whole construction industry and 2025 marks a pivotal moment for transformation. There are quicker, better, and more efficient ways of doing things that can be adopted now to maintain construction growth. The question is, how can we shift the needle when the status quo is so ingrained in the industry?

Here, Branden Kotyk, general manager at Victaulic, delves into how each of these points are being addressed across Europe.

The construction industry is largely founded on traditional methods 

The construction industry, regardless of location, is made up of predominantly small to medium-sized companies. In fact, according to the European Commission, up to 95% of construction, architecture, and engineering firms are micro-enterprises, many with fewer than 25 employees. These companies often have substantial personal investment, a long-standing history and reputation, and are therefore particularly averse to change, which can feel like a risk compared to the way they have always done things.

Flame-based pipe joining methods take time. With welding, for example, not only are there intense heat, sparks, and fumes, but a specialist welder is also required. The process is slow and multiple measures and tests are needed to ensure safety and joint integrity. Once the piping is installed, it’s virtually impossible to reconfigure the system without cutting pipe and generating waste. As the trends for the rapid construction of data centers, commercial buildings, warehouses, and battery plants, as well as the reclassification of empty office buildings continue through 2025, flexible, reconfigurable solutions will be more crucial than ever.

When it comes to pipe-joining, Victaulic specializes in providing grooved mechanical pipe-joining solutions that are a better alternative to welding, flanging and other joining methods. Victaulic provides a solution that is up to ten times faster to install, is easy to use and is ultra-reliable.

Switching from welding to grooved mechanical pipe-joining for the first time can feel like a leap of faith, especially since it’s challenging to compare costs directly. The significant savings on labor, both crew size and time spent on site, and the reduction of potential unexpected expenses make the overall installed cost substantially lower. Grooved mechanical systems also make accommodating any differences between the plans and real-world situation much easier and help to prevent any alignment issues often faced with flanged systems. There is also a simple, visual inspection of whether the couplings have been installed correctly and they can be easily adjusted if required, again avoiding costly rework.

Once contractors experience these benefits for themselves, we find they start to use Victaulic across their projects but effecting change within an industry dominated by small but impressive businesses takes time. It’s a gradual process that has to be underpinned by trust, familiarity, and in the longer term, acceptance of new technologies and methods.

We need skilled labor and efficient solutions to increase productivity

A core challenge in the construction industry is how to meet the huge demand we are witnessing. Last year, we have seen a surge in infrastructure projects related to digital transformation and sustainable energy, underscoring the need for innovative approaches to construction. Societal needs are shifting rapidly. For example, suitable space, resources, and electricity cannot keep up with the data center demand that AI has sparked in recent years. It’s a situation that requires new and different ways of thinking.

As labor shortages continue, especially for highly skilled roles such as welders, approaches to construction must change. The European Welding Federation (EWF) reports a shortage of around 300,000 qualified welders in Europe – and it’s a similar situation in the US where the American Welding Society (AWS) says the average age of a welder is 57.

Because they don’t require welding, Victaulic solutions help to maximize the productivity of labor with less training required and installation speeds of up to ten times faster. This minimizes jobsite schedules and ensures projects go as smoothly as possible with limited risk factors.

The question is, how do we democratize our technology and solutions to ensure that all projects benefit from them? Awareness is fundamental. Our colleagues spend a lot of time educating and training prospective customers through a variety of methods. In 2025, this commitment to education will become more prominent with the expansion of hands on training, whether in our facilities, at clients, or on site, and our online Victaulic University. Whether online or face-to-face, we want to take construction professionals through a range of topics related to pipe joining and Victaulic. These training sessions not only equip professionals with the knowledge to use and install our solutions effectively, but also provide opportunities to learn directly from Victaulic experts in our facilities and on jobsites. Additionally, we collaborate with renowned institutions like CIBSE to offer accredited courses that align with industry standards and provide valuable certifications.

Looking at the environmental impact of the whole lifecycle

A construction business’s sustainability journey must be about listening to and learning the needs of the market. Then, it’s about adapting to what is being called for, sharing that message, and ensuring that new ways of thinking, designing, and building are being built into the core.

Victaulic has been manufacturing mechanical pipe joining products for over 100 years and, as we step into 2025, our business aligns perfectly with evolving market demands. We eliminate the emissions and material consumption associated with welding and up to 98% of our product is recycled, which is exceptional from an embodied carbon standpoint.

Our methodology of joining piping systems is inherently modular, reconfigurable, and repurposable. It allows for the reuse of the pipes themselves, a major material component of any build. We use recycled material to create our products, and at the end of their life, they can be recycled back to their original state. These features are all naturally part of our model and really bring circularity to MEP construction. Winning the CIBSE UAE “Embodied Carbon Initiative of the Year – Manufacturers and Suppliers” Award in 2024, was proof to us that we are on the right track to help make construction more sustainable and we will continue to be the flag bearers to steer our industry on a circular trajectory.

Promoting a circular economy in the construction sector is crucial for reducing waste and for achieving national climate targets. It will require all industry stakeholders working together with a circular mindset to make sustainable progress in construction. It’s about understanding what the full sustainability implications of the business are and how they can be improved. This could be from a design standpoint, through material selection, and all the way through the end of a product’s life.

With a 105-year history, Victaulic continues to make significant progress and demonstrate how thinking differently can address the pressing needs of the construction industry.  As I said before, it can be a leap of faith for businesses to try a new method but once they do, they will recognize a transformation in productivity, sustainability, and quality.