James Latham to become the exclusive stockist of Paged RockPly

 Wednesday, November 5, 2025

James Latham is a big name in the world of timber, panels, and decorative surfaces. It is a premier independent distributor that has announced it is the first stockist in the territory for Paged RockPly. This groundbreaking, high-performance plywood, engineered by the innovator Paged, represents a major leap forward in material technology, particularly for the demanding freight and logistics sector. The move sees James Latham, with its extensive national network across 12 depots, bring a truly revolutionary panel product to the market—one that promises to redefine structural integrity, operational efficiency, and environmental responsibility in heavy-duty transport applications.

RockPly is not a standard plywood; it is an industry-first material engineered specifically for high-stress, load-bearing environments. Its unique composition combines premium hardwood plywood layers with an innovative rock fibre composite. This blending of traditional wood strength with advanced mineral reinforcement results in a panel with vastly superior mechanical properties.

Key performance advantages of RockPly include:

• Double the bending strength: The highly-reinforced structure grants RockPly a significant boost in stiffness and bending strength—up to 100% higher than conventional alternatives, such as non-reinforced birch plywood. This enhanced durability means a 30mm RockPly panel can withstand twice the bending force of a 30mm standard birch ply before failure.
• Superior load-bearing capability: Its heightened rigidity translates directly to far greater load-bearing performance, making it exceptionally resilient under the heavy and dynamic stresses of commercial transport.
• Maximum durability and safety: To ensure longevity in harsh operational settings, the product is finished with a robust surface coating. This finish provides essential wear-resistance, weather-resistance, and a critical slip-resistant quality, enhancing both the product’s lifespan and safety standards. Furthermore, RockPly is certified to the Bfl-s1 fire reaction class, meeting stringent fire safety requirements for construction flooring applications.

While its strength and durability make RockPly suitable for a variety of high-demand applications, its most immediate and impactful use case is in freight haulage, specifically for the flooring and lining of Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) trailers. Plywood has long been the material of choice here, but Paged RockPly introduces a new paradigm of efficiency.

The product’s exceptional strength-to-weight ratio allows for the specification of a lower thickness profile without compromising structural integrity or resistance force. This leads to a remarkable weight reduction of up to 40% in a typical HGV trailer floor.

This significant reduction in vehicle mass delivers three major commercial and environmental benefits for logistics teams operating with razor-thin margins:

1. Cost efficiencies: A lighter trailer inherently translates to reduced fuel consumption over its operational life.
2. Increased payload: With a lighter floor structure, fleet operators can legally transport greater loads, directly increasing the payload capacity and revenue per journey.
3. Significant carbon savings: The collective reduction in fuel consumption across a fleet directly lowers CO₂ emissions. To put this in a real-world context, a fleet of just 100 trailers adopting RockPly is projected to generate a saving of 154 tonnes of CO₂ environmental benefit equivalent to the annual absorption of CO₂   by approximately 6,000 trees.

Andrew Laverick of James Latham highlighted the product’s impact, stating that Paged RockPly is a “real game-changer” for the freight and logistics sector. He elaborated that its “slender profile enables incremental gains without compromising structural integrity,” contributing “significant added value” through enhanced efficiency, increased payload, and a reduced environmental footprint. The exclusive distribution partnership leverages James Latham’s deep market expertise and expansive reach to ensure the swift adoption of this innovative solution.

Marek Paszynski, Country Manager for the UK and Ireland at Paged, commented that James Latham’s “extensive knowledge of engineered timber panels accelerates the implementation of this revolutionary product in the Transport Industry.” He further noted James Latham’s understanding of the daily challenges logistics teams face, from vehicle maintenance and load optimisation to the critical industry drive to reduce the carbon footprint. This collaboration is set to enhance user experiences across the entire transport supply chain.

Paged RockPly is currently available from James Latham’s twelve nationwide depots, ensuring full accessibility across the UK and Ireland. The product is stocked in thicknesses ranging from 10mm to 30mm, with standard panel sizes of $1250*2500$ mm and $1500*2500$ mm, with custom sizes available upon request to meet diverse industrial specifications. This exclusive stock arrangement positions James Latham at the forefront of supplying high-performance, sustainable engineered wood solutions to key industrial sectors, cementing its role as a leader in innovative timber and panel distribution.

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Tags: decorative surfaces, HGV trailer flooring, high-strength plywood, lightweight panels, logistics efficiency, reinforced plywood, rock fibre composite