It may be one of the biggest Irish sponsorships, but also one of the shortest.
Kingspan and Mercedes F1 team have confirmed today that the near €5 Million partnership is to be “discontinued with immediate effect.”
The two found themselves at the centre of a storm of protest over the weekend as the sponsorship came under stinging criticism from politicians at Westminster.
The Irish owned and based company has naming rights and strong partnerships here with Ulster rugby and Cavan GAA but this major step up into the high finance and high profile world of F1 has had a stinging backlash.
At the centre of the problem is the fact that a small proportion of the cladding insulation on Grenfell Tower in London, which burned in June 2017 claiming 72 lives, was made by the company.
It clarified its evidence to the ongoing UK enquiry into the tragedy that the material only represented five per cent of what had been used and was done so without its knowledge.
The pressure on both became too much of a distraction in the run-up to the final race of the season and while it may have been considered to pause until the result of the public enquiry, that has now been taken off the table.
“Announced last week, the new partnership included Kingspan chairing a new Sustainability Working Group for the team and aimed to deliver carbon reductions through their leading-edge environmentally sustainable solutions for the team’s future campus,” said the team statement this morning.
“However, both parties have subsequently concluded that it is not appropriate for the partnership to move forward at the current point in time, notwithstanding its intended positive impact, and we have therefore agreed that it will be discontinued immediate effect.”
Kingspan confirmed this as well but took the opportunity to stress the facts behind their being brought into the debate around Grenfell.
“We are deeply aware of the sensitivities raised in recent days, and so we have jointly agreed that it’s not appropriate to move forward at the current point in time.
“Much has been written about this over the past few days, and out of consideration for our customers and all the great people who work for us, we believe we must respond.
“We had no role in the Grenfell Tower refurbishment. However, our Kingspan Insulation UK business is a core participant in the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and fully supports the Inquiry’s important work.
“We understand that this is a complex topic, but there are some important facts that we would like to explain: 1. We did not make the exterior cladding on Grenfell Tower. The Inquiry itself has stated that “the principal reason” for rapid fire spread on Grenfell was the Polyethylene cored ACM cladding used on the exterior of the building.
“No facade system using this PE ACM cladding, regardless of the insulation used, would have passed the necessary large-scale system fire test. Our K15 insulation board was misused in this unsafe and non-compliant system.
“2. We did not supply or recommend K15 to Grenfell Tower. K15 made up approximately 5% of the insulation layer of the façade system. It was substituted without our knowledge. 3. We have completed new tests which support the previous fire safety claims of the three historical K15 large-scale system tests which came into question during the Inquiry process.
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms the wholly unacceptable historical conduct and emails which emerged throughout the course of the Inquiry discovery process. We have sincerely apologised for these actions by a small group of employees at our Kingspan Insulation UK business. This in no way reflects Kingspan’s culture or values.”
Whether the partnership and the areas of long term interest it sought to develop will be revisited is a question for the future.
