UAP, the specialist in locks and hardware for doors and fenestration, has promoted Julian Roberts to the role of Technical Services Director.

A fenestration sector professional with more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, Roberts has been part of the team at UAP Fullex for more than 20 years, and since 2020 has been Product Certification Manager across all five UAP brands.

With this promotion as a non-executive board member, Roberts takes over the role of  Technical Services Director from John McLoughlin, who will remain involved in the company’s product development activities as a consultant, following his retirement at the end of April.

Roberts was responsible for setting up the Fullex testing facility and operating it as a UKAS-accredited testing laboratory for several years. He brings that wide-ranging testing and technical knowledge to his new role, and will retain hands-on responsibility for new product testing, along with quality assurance and certification testing for existing UAP products, and technical support for customer product development.

He will be responsible for co-ordinating UAP’s technical services team, and working with colleagues across the business to progress new product development projects and provide technical support to both colleagues and customers.

Roberts said: “UAP is a company that prides itself on technical excellence across all our brands and I am delighted to be given responsibility for ensuring our technical services team continues to deliver that commitment across both our existing portfolio and our future products.”

David Jennings, Chief Executive of UAP, added: “Julian was a natural choice for the role of technical director because he has such knowledge and expertise of the fenestration sector, UAP’s products and our goals for future innovation. We’re excited to welcome him to the leadership team at UAP and are also delighted that John McLoughlin has agreed to continue supporting the company with his valuable technical expertise in a consultancy capacity as he steps down from his director role to retire.”