EH Smith has opened a new Porotherm Training and Demonstration centre in Olton, West Midlands. The merchant, a distributor of the clay block walling system produced by Wienerberger, uses the new centre to highlight its benefits through demonstration days and corporate training in how to lay Porotherm.

The £100,000 centre has a spacious room for presentations alongside a large, fully equipped training facility and work area. Phil Griffiths, Porotherm sales manager at EH Smith, said: “It’s an excellent facility which gives us the space to showcase the benefits of using Porotherm and help train businesses which are new to it.”

Among the companies that have taken advantage of the new training facilities is McCarthy & Stone, which used Porotherm to build a development in Dorridge, West Midlands, and is currently building a large new development of bedroom apartments in Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.

Tim Lightfoot, construction director at McCarthy & Stone, said: “Using Porotherm changes the critical path, so that instead of getting our first units weather tight at week 25, we would be looking at week 20. You’re not only decreasing your heavy build period but also giving yourself more programme certainty to deliver, so it’s a huge benefit to us. By hitting our weather tight date earlier, it enables us to create our show home quicker and get potential customers in quicker; 16 weeks ahead of opening rather than eight.”