Meet the founder: Ian Gascoyne

Insulation Warehouse Direct is run by Ian Gascoyne, founder and Managing Director of Bay Drywall and Insulation Supplies Ltd. A Sheffield man and a lifelong Sheffield Wednesday fan, Ian has spent nearly 30 years in insulation and building supplies, and he started the business for one simple reason: to give trade customers the kind of service he always wanted to give them.

Ian has loved Paignton ever since childhood holidays there with his parents and sister, and it's that long-standing connection that brought him, and the business, to South Devon, where IWD is now based in Totnes.

In Ian's own words

"I've worked for some of the biggest firms in the trade. Some were great places to work, but too often the customer was just a number and no one cared at all whether an order turned up right. I got sick of it. I'd always had a burning ambition to work for myself and run my own business, and to run it properly, with personal service and someone who actually cares about every order."

Starting on the yard

Ian started out in 1997 as a yard sales assistant at Arnold Laver, the Sheffield timber merchant, looking after stock, keeping the yard safe and qualifying on forklifts and panel saws. Quite a start for a Wednesday fan: Arnold Laver sponsored the Blades, Wednesday's biggest rivals! He moved inside onto the trade counter and phones, where he helped grow the branch's monthly sales several times over. He then became a timber and sheet materials product leader at one of the UK's big builders' merchants, in charge of buying, pricing and margins.

Ceilings, drylining and insulation

In 2004 Ian moved into specialist interiors distribution, selling suspended ceilings, drylining systems, partitions and insulation to ceiling, drylining and fire protection contractors across Yorkshire, the East Midlands and Lincolnshire. Over the next ten years he worked as a sales executive, area sales manager and business development manager, and ran a ceilings and drylining depot, where he turned a loss-making branch into a profitable one and added insulation to its range. He also learned to follow projects from tender right through to completion, which still shapes how we help contractors price their jobs.

Before setting up on his own, Ian spent several years in regional sales for a leading national insulation distributor. He was brought in to build its business in the Midlands and the North of England from scratch, beat his first-year target twice over and grew the region into a major customer base of contractors, builders' merchants and manufacturers.

Why Insulation Warehouse Direct

Ian set up Bay Drywall and Insulation Supplies Ltd, trading online as Insulation Warehouse Direct, to put all that experience to work for customers directly. The company was formed on 9 November 2022 and took the name Bay Drywall and Insulation Supplies Ltd on 20 May 2025. The idea is simple:

• Trade prices shown openly online, ex VAT, so you don't have to chase a quote for everyday orders.
• The brands contractors actually specify, from PIR and mineral wool to plasterboard, metal stud and suspended ceilings.
• Someone on the end of the phone who knows the products and takes ownership of your order from start to finish.
• Free tools to help you price up, including our suspended ceiling calculator, insulation calculator and PIR U-value calculator.

Whether it's a few packs of plasterboard or a full load of PIR for a project, every order gets the same care.

Backing his home-town club

Ian has followed Sheffield Wednesday all his life, so he's proud that IWD sponsors Owls player Max Lowe. For Ian, it's a way of supporting his home-town club and giving something back to the community he grew up in.

Talk to us

Got a project coming up, or want a price on bulk quantities? Call 03330 908479 (Mon–Thu 8am–5pm, Fri 8am–12pm) or email sales@insulationwarehousedirect.co.uk. You can find out more about the business on our About us page, or read our guides.