03/12/2021
NEWS STORY
Whilst apologising for any hurt that has been caused by his team's partnering with sponsor Kingspan, Toto Wolff defends the company in Grenfell row.
On Thursday, following the announcement of the deal, which sees Kingspan, a global leader in advanced insulation and building envelope solutions, there was fierce criticism on social media as a result of claims the company made some of the insulation used in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower, which caught fire with the loss of 72 lives in 2017.
The initial criticism was followed by the usual social media pile-on, which also saw politicians get involved.
Today, Toto Wolff wrote to Grenfell United, a support group representing survivors of the disaster and relatives of those who perished.
The leter reads as follows:
Dear Grenfell United,
Thank you for your letter about our partnership with Kingspan, which I received yesterday. The tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire was beyond imaginable to me, and it should never have happened.
On behalf of our team, I would sincerely like to apologise to you for the additional hurt that this announcement has caused. It was never our intention to do so.
The work of the public inquiry to establish the full causes of the tragedy is crucially important. Prior to concluding our partnership, we engaged with Kingspan in depth to understand what role their products played in what happened at Grenfell.
Kingspan have stated that they played no role in the design or construction of the cladding system on Grenfell Tower, and that a small percentage of their product was used as a substitute without their knowledge in part of the system which was not compliant with building regulations and was unsafe.
I know that this does not change in any way the awful tragedy you suffered, or the deep and ongoing pain felt in your community, and I would like to thank Grenfell United for the offer to meet in person for me to learn and understand better.
I look forward to coming together as soon as we can.
With my kind regards,
Toto Wolff.
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