Palmer forecasts long-term change in the window and door industry at FIT

Tougher second-time replacement sells and the shift away from homeownership, are driving long-term change in the window and door industry according to one industry expert.

Speaking at last week’s FIT Show as part of its seminar programme, Robert Palmer of Palmer Market Research said first time window and door replacements had dropped from 80% in 2000 to less than 30% in 2015, with ‘replacement of replacement’ installations now accounting for 70% of all installations.

Arguing that this was driving increased focus on aesthetics, Palmer said: “Homeowners want something that is tangibly different and the appearance of windows is increasingly important in the market.

“That in turn is driving innovation in the industry and the shift to premium finishes and foils in retail markets.

“While there will always be a place for standard budget white PVC-U, there has been definite shift in consumer expectation.

“The industry has responded with foils and premium finishes as well as the very substantial growth that we’re seeing in demand for aluminium.”

To this end, Palmer forecast that aluminium is on course to reach a 17-year high by 2020, topping 220,000 frames by the end of the three-year period. This, he said, would be delivered by significant growth in the bi-fold market, which he forecast was set for growth of 30% through to 2020 in all material types to 55,000 door sets. Of these, Palmer predicted that aluminium would take the ‘lion’s share’ of the market at 35,000 units.

Palmer cited ‘exponential growth’ in the solid roof conservatory market as a second key area of opportunity. According to The Window, Door and Conservatory Markets in Housing in Great Britain, (October 2016) the market for replacement conservatory roofs was up 62% in 2015 to 11,200 installations and is forecast for continuing growth through to 2020.

Palmer also forecast continuing, if steady, growth in the composite door market, which he said would increase to around 850,000 door sets per annum in the next three years.

But while citing sizeable areas of growth, he tempered forecasts with predictions of continuing challenges. Alongside the shift to tougher second-time replacement sells, Palmer said that the long-term decline in homeownership was also driving a long-term change in the market.

This, according to figures, has dropped from a peak of 14.8million in 2005 to below 14.3million last year. Conversely the private rental sector was up from around 2million properties in 2005 to 4.5million.

“The private rental market tends to be again, that little bit tougher and price driven. There are however incentives – or perhaps more accurately disincentives, for not doing so – to improve the energy efficiency of their properties.

“MEES or Minimum Energy Efficiency standards give landlords just a year to bring the energy performance certificate (EPC) rating of their properties to no lower than E for new tenants and to all existing tenancies from 1 April 2020,” said Palmer.

He concluded: “Brexit is clearly also an influence. What that influence will be right now is very difficult to predict as we know so very little about its potential shape.

“Regardless of this, however, the message is that the market, as always, never stands still and that product innovation but also end-user expectation, coupled with the impact of legislation, is reshaping how the industry does and will need to do business.”

www.palmermarketresearch.co.uk

The post Palmer forecasts long-term change in the window and door industry at FIT appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Image Above: Visitors to the Carl F Groupco stand at the FIT Show 2017.

High quality visits from decision makers, the launch of System 700 – Roto / PN’s new fully reversible hardware, freshly baked cookies and SmartSecure developments showcased on the stand combined to make this year’s FIT Show extremely successful for Carl F Groupco.

The show marked the first anniversary of SmartSecure since its launch at last year’s ‘FIT’. As part of the anniversary achievements, Carl F Groupco has achieved its goal of providing a smart hardware hub based on its electronic locking and smart access solutions.

Commenting, Carl F Groupco’s Managing Director, John Crittenden said:  “We are very much about personalised service and support. The FIT Show is therefore the ideal opportunity for us to meet up with our existing clients and showcase our range to potential customers. The exhibition also offers the chance for people to try our products and technology – this is particularly helpful for SmartSecure: once people have seen first-hand how simple and effective our smart solutions are, it is much easier to convey its capabilities.”

Carl F Groupco had expanded its stand to 96 sq metres to include a larger number of hands on displays, hospitality and a hardware selector. The company has also secured a place for the 2019 show.

For more information, contact sales@carlfgroupco.co.uk

www.carlfgroupco.co.uk         www.smartsecure.co.uk

Follow Carl F Groupco on Twitter using the handles @Carl_F_Groupco and @_SmartSecure

Timber window fabricators and joiners at FIT Show were drawn to the AluWood stand because of the low set-up costs and fast lead times the aluclad timber window and door system manufacturer provides. Visitors to the show had the choice to add the proven system to their range or buy in AluWood ready-made.

AluWood featured its sophisticated and cleverly engineered aluclad window and door system on its stand at FIT Show. It demonstrated to joiners and fabricators how easy the system is to manufacture using existing tooling and impressed visitors with its really fast lead times.

“The fact that our system is made in the UK and that we can turn around orders really quickly, caught the attention of people we spoke to,” says Callum Grant, Commercial Director, AluWood Windows.

“There were some really key things that visitors liked. For joiners being able to do AluWood windows and doors in dual colour at no extra cost, provides real value to their business.

“Because we make our window and door system in Britain, there’s no import costs and this was a big plus for visitors who wanted to find out more. We will be following up the valuable leads we picked up at the show to help fabricators and joiners to start selling aluclad timber windows and grab their share of the £77 million market.”

The AluWood system is easy to manufacture and offers plenty of design choice to fabricators looking to offer customers more project possibilities. The aluminium profile uses a simple clip-on system which fits easily to the timber frame. The aluminium on the outside can come in any RAL colour and the time frame on the inside can be made of hard or soft woods, and engineered timber including Accoya.

“We’re looking to grow our network of fabricators around the UK to manufacture our proven low-cost system,” adds Callum. “The reaction to the stand proves aluclad is very much a growing market.”

To find out more about AluWood, visit www.aluwoodwindows.co.uk.

After an ‘extraordinary’ three days at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, the 2017 FIT Show has been hailed as another ‘momentous event’ in the series that first took place just four years ago.

The event was described by its organisers as an ‘unequivocal success’, with exhibitors taking ‘healthy numbers’ of sales leads from visitors ‘keen to engage and explore the hundreds of new products on show’.

The organisers have revealed that 9,935 unique visitors attended this year’s FIT Show, a number that rises to 13,285 when their revisits were counted across the three days of the event (multiple daily entries are automatically de-duplicated). This is an increase of almost 17% (16.85%) more unique visitors compared to the previous FIT Show in 2016 (8502), offering a massive boost of 62% more visitors in just two events.

Daily numbers were: Tuesday – 4808; Wednesday 5136; and Thursday 3341, figures described as ‘typical of business-to-business events’, with the middle day showing the highest numbers.

According to the FIT Show’s organisers, this year saw the most significant presence of aluminium at any fenestration industry B2B event for more than three decades. The majority of PVC-U systems producers were also in attendance, as were many machinery suppliers.

The organisers report that many exhibitors were keen to stake their place at the next FIT Show, which was confirmed as taking place in two years time on 21, 22 and 23 May 2019. Almost half of the available stand space for the next event was contracted or reserved before the doors closed, with this figure expected to ‘grow significantly’ during the weeks following this years show as companies consider their performances and look ahead to 2019.

The sold and reserved advanced stand sales figure was all the more impressive with the further 25% increase in space that was announced for 2019. This represents a doubling of the FIT Show in just two events.

The FIT Show’s Matthew Glover says that once again so much of the success of this year’s FIT Show is down to the efforts of exhibitors: “As our marketing campaigns emphasise, the FIT Show is all about the people and companies that exhibit. Exhibitors have once again worked hard to promote the event and those efforts, combined with the biggest FIT Show campaign ever, succeeded in boosting visitor numbers once again.

“And when the show opened visitors were greeted with the most creative and beautiful stands; everyone involved with the building of this event commented how impressed they were with the efforts made by exhibitors.”

The post More visitors than ever at FIT appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

The first FIT Show to take place at the National Exhibition Centre will remain in the minds of many of its participants but few will remember the event with such fondness as David Keates & Jonathon Mountford of DK Windows after they were declared the overall winners of this year’s gruelling Master Fitter Challenge. The results were announced live just hours after the competition closed at the FIT Show Gala Dinner, by celebrity host Nick Knowles.

Six teams competed to install windows, residential and bi-folding doors and a lantern roof in just two days and before the critical eyes of hundreds of their peers and a tough team of assessors, again provided by GQA. And in the face of such pressures David and Jonathon prevailed in what was declared the most professional MFC competition yet to win a cheque for £5,000 and, more importantly, the top prize in this increasingly prestigious competition. The judges also thought the duo were the best at installing bi-folding doors and were also declared winners of that section of the competition.

The runners-up were David Shaw & Nathan Daw of Shaw Home Improvements who took home a prize of £3,000, also winning the Lantern Roof section of the event, with the final cash prize of £2,000 being scooped by Dale Harrison & Colin Stubbs of West Yorkshire Windows, who also won the Window Fitting section. Mark West & Mark Hardy of Sherborne Windows won the Residential Door fitting section.

Products installed by the teams were fitted to specially designed and built competition rigs that were designed to replicate real-life technical installation conditions, although the pressures of being observed by visitors are probably less than encountered from beady-eyed homeowners. Products for the competition were supplied by FIT Show exhibitors, including AluK (bi-folding doors); Epwin (windows); Apeer (residential composite doors); and Atlas (lantern roofs). In an interesting twist, Edgetech’s new installation tape Trufit was introduced as an additional test. Once again FENSA provided their support for the event, having maintained their involvement continuously for all four competitions.

Renolit has scooped the top accolade in The VEKA UK Group’s second annual Supplier of the Year awards.

The VEKA UK Group is committed to quality in every aspect of product and service, and the team are proud to celebrate suppliers that go above and beyond in providing the materials needed for VEKA and Halo’s industry-leading PVC-U profile systems.

Other category winners included; Chick Plastics for ‘Ancillaries’ and EWS (Manufacturing) Ltd for ‘Technical In-House Design’.

Renolit won best ‘Manufacturing Consumables’, as well as being named ‘Supplier of the Year’. The company provides the high spec foils that make up The VEKA UK Group’s enviable ‘Variations’ colour collection.

Renolit’s CEO Dave Hall commented: “We are honoured to have received The VEKA UK Group Supplier of the Year Award. We have a long-standing trading relationship with the Group of over 20 years. In this time, VEKA has grown and developed its business model significantly. This has naturally led to higher expectations in terms of service, quality and innovative products. VEKA’s collaborative and professional approach has allowed our business to develop, adapt and grow with them. For this reason in particular, we are proud to receive the award.”

Purchasing Manager for The VEKA UK Group Nicola Woods explained: “The VEKA UK Group is the UK’s No.1 for PVC-U profile, and there’s a whole lot of work that goes into maintaining our position as the country’s leading supplier.

“A good example of this commitment to quality is how stringently we select our suppliers. Each one must meet a host of requirements and undergo constant monitoring to ensure these standards don’t drop.

“At the end of every month, our key suppliers are provided with a ‘vendor rating report’ which outlines how we have judged their performance. They are graded on quantitative data such as number of non-conformances and ‘on time in full’ (OTIF) deliveries, but also on qualitative data such as customer service, flexibility and timely responses to queries.

“This means we can keep a close eye on the supply chain to make sure no problems arise, allowing us to continue providing the best possible customer experience. Suppliers must achieve or exceed a benchmark score each month – without fail – in order to remain on our approved suppliers list. This data also enables us to offer well-deserved praise where it’s due! These awards help us to acknowledge the hard work of our top suppliers.

“Along with the entire team at The VEKA UK Group, I’d like to offer my sincere congratulations to Renolit on being named our ‘Supplier of the Year’. This is certainly not easy to achieve and shows a great deal of commitment to exceptionally hard work and fantastic service on their part.”

Specialist fabricators considering dipping their toes into CNC machining should take a look at the ITALMAC ONIX Hybrid Machining Centre from Haffner Murat. That’s the opinion of Dave Thomas, Managing Director of fabrication machinery experts Haffner Murat and it’s an opinion backed up from feedback from the first fabricators to take delivery of the new machine.

The ONIX Hybrid Machining Centre has been designed to help fabricators of specialist products improve quality and cut fabrication time in order to deliver a healthier bottom line. As its name suggests, the Centre can be used with PVC-u and aluminium profiles, which gives it incredible versatility.

The ONIX Hybrid Machining Centre is ideal for use on flush casement systems, bifold doors, patio doors and French doors. And as well as cutting and routing, it can also undertake handle and drainage prepping and milling operations.

The Centre has eight tool positioning and programming for R9, Warmcore, Modus, Optima and any other box or flush sash system. It machines on three sides of the work piece and comes complete with an automatic tool changing facility as standard, while a fourth axis can be added to create variable angles. Logikal programme and testing plus a barcode scanner means the machine can fit into the most high tech set up.

Dave says: “The ONIX Hybrid Machining Centre is a very smart investment for specialist fabricators looking to take their business to the next level because it can drive quality throughout an operation.”

Haffner Murat is the official UK agent for the ITALMAC range of machinery, a range that has an international reputation for the latest technology with skilled engineering and competitive prices. Combined with Haffner’s legendary service that is committed to adding value to its customers’ businesses and you have a winning combination.

www.haffnermurat.com

Trade fabricator Flair Windows invested in its first SMR-4 Four Head Welder from Haffner Murat last November. The company has been so impressed with what the machine has brought to its fabrication set up it has just invested in a second! Ryan Lugg, Director at Flair Windows, commented: “Our experience with the SMR-4 welder is that it does everything we were told it could do. It’s very easy to use – even our apprentices have picked it up with no problem. More importantly, it has helped us improve the quality of our finished product and the speed of our manufacturing. It has made a real difference to our production, which is why we’ve just invested in a second machine.”

As Ryan’s comment suggests, the SMR-4 Four Head Welder is a machine that revolutionises the welding process by dramatically speeding up fabrication and improving quality. The machine welds corners, transoms and cruciforms on all heads. The heads automatically position for corner and transom support fence positioning and it also has self centering transom alignment. It is easy to operate and an essential purchase for any fabricator looking to move up a level. Ryan says Flair decided to purchase the company’s first SMR-4 welder because the team was so impressed with what Haffner Murat had to offer. He said: “We researched the market thoroughly before deciding to invest in the SMR-4. We hadn’t worked with Haffner Murat before but the advice we received from Dave Thomas and Andy Webb was superb and was instrumental in us choosing their machinery.”

Flair Windows is based in the Midlands and trades UK-wide. It manufactures Kommerling Chamfered C70 and Ovolo O70 sculptured profiles and offers a bespoke service for PremiLine and PremiLine Pro patio doors, the PremiDoor 88 lift and slide patio doors, bi fold doors, french doors, PremiFold slide and swing windows and doors and the Visofold 1000 folding doors from Smart Aluminium. It manufactures around 1000 frames a week and offers a five day delivery turnaround. Dave Thomas concluded: “We are delighted that the SMR-4 welder proved such a hit with Flair that the team has decided to invest in a second one. We’re not surprised, though – it’s no exaggeration to say the machine is revolutionary and our customers are genuinely astonished at the difference it makes.”

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