Friars Walk is a partially under-cover shopping centre and leisure complex in Newport city centre, South Wales. It has several levels and includes a range of high street shops, eateries, a cinema, a bowling alley and a soft play area.

The new shopping and leisure scheme offers more than 36,230 square metres of retail and leisure space including a department store, multiplex, shops, restaurants, car park and bus station.

As a result of Friars Walk, Newport’s catchment has grown from 211,000 to 367,000 with an estimated footfall of 10-12 million per annum (Source: Javelin/DTZ). This will double retail sales in the city, adding £100 million per annum.

Specialist roofing and cladding contractor Metclad Ltd were employed by main contractor Bowmer & Kirkland to provide the roofing and cladding works.

Metclad used the expertise from Fixfast to ensure that the best fastener systems were used for the correct applications. For the flat roofing the efficient thermally broken systems were used, so that the construction met all the regulatory standards.

When it came to the facade work, Fixfast supplied fastener systems designed to be aesthetically pleasing. The main system was our DrillFast Lacquered range which was used for all the coloured facades where the fasteners were in any way visible.

If there was any need to have panels fixed back without showing any fixings at all, then Fixfast supplied the specialist Sika Tack adhesive system.