ALUPROF EXPANDS CONSULTANCY TEAM’

Picture above: John Higgs – Project Consultant

As the demand for Aluprof systems continues to increase across the UK, two new Project Consultants have joined the rapidly expanding UK division.

John Higgs joined the team in July and covers London and the Southern region.  Having extensive knowledge of fenestration systems, especially their applications and specification, John brings a wealth of knowledge to the team. “I wanted to join Aluprof as I feel they have a wide range of systems that can cope with any project requirement in the UK, no matter what size or complexity.  I particularly enjoy getting involved at early design stages where bespoke design solutions are required and I get particular job satisfaction sharing experiences through CPD presentations and feedback.”  John’s interest outside of Aluprof include travel, golf and motorcycling.

Andrew Pease also joined the team in July and covers the Northern region.  Andrew’s background is in project design and estimating, so is well placed to offer the company’s principles of Value Management to any project.  “I believe my background in Mechanical Engineering offers me a valuable insight to the challenges of design and specification of fenestration systems.  Having practical and on-site design experience I am able to offer product support, particularly in structural and interface design requirements.”  When not supporting specifiers, Andrew can be found cooking Greek dishes and exploring the great outdoors.

Aluprof’s philosophy encompasses the principles of ‘Value Management’ which looks across the facade supply chain to offer the best value for each bespoke project requirement. This innovative approach enables Aluprof to be highly competitive on any size, complexity or location of any project.

The companys’ extensive range of systems extend to unitised curtain walling, sliding folding doors, commercial doors systems and a wide range of window systems all of which are increasingly being specified on a variety of residential and commercial projects across the UK.  All systems are designed and installed by selected, specially trained companies to ensure each product meets Aluprof’s exacting standards.  Further information is available on the company website at aluprof.co.uk and specialist advice is available directly from Aluprof’s UK offices on 0161 941 4005.

Yale is proud to be headline sponsor of National Home Security Month (NHSM) for its fifth year this October. Highlighting the importance of home security, NHSM is driving demand for security products and installation services nationwide.

In the UK, a quarter of homeowners admit to having no home security measures in place* with most turning to security reactively when something goes wrong, rather than preventing the issue beforehand. NHSM is trying to change this attitude, by pushing home security to the forefront of people’s minds at a time when statistics show domestic burglaries increase. This presents a lucrative opportunity to installers and fabricators alike to raise awareness of the subject and engage with customers.

Paul Atkinson, Sales and Commercial Director for Yale, commented: “NHSM has always been a great campaign for us to get involved with as its key objectives are closely aligned with the values and messaging we at Yale promote. It also takes place during October, coinciding with the clocks going back – a pivotal point for security sales and when consumers awareness of home security peaks.

“The new ‘Child’s Play’ theme is ideal for homeowners by showcasing the simplicity of home security. What’s more, the weekly themes provide us with an ideal opportunity to promote our range of products and services from the smart security focus of our Smart Living offering to the traditional hardware that Yale is synonymous for.”

Week two is of particular significance for door and window fabricators and installers, as it looks at securing the entry points of a home and valuables within it. This provides an ideal opportunity to up-sell British Standard locking solutions, such as the Yale Conexis, Platinum 3 and 1 Star cylinder and Platinum 2 Star cylinder pull as well as all the usual high security locking mechanisms for doors and windows, and to also ensure that customers are promoting solutions that meet the most up-to-date standards.

What’s more, a number of homeowners are put off DIY home security solutions due to time constraints and being unfamiliar with new products. This presents an ideal opportunity for fabricators and installers as 40% of consumers agree that they’d prefer to use a professional to install home security solutions as opposed to trying their hand at a DIY job**.

However, opportunities are not limited to week two. More and more trade professionals are investing in smart security devices such as smart door locks and smart home alarms that can be controlled and configured at the touch of a button. As a result, week three of the campaign presents ample opportunity to promote the Smart Living range of products, providing installers with a great opportunity to capitalise on a growing marketplace.

Week four coincides with the clocks going back and onset of the darker evenings. As a result, this week explores how homeowners can protect their properties and secure their gardens and outbuildings. The final week of the campaign has a seasonal focus, centering on Halloween and Bonfire Night – statistically the worst time of year for domestic burglaries and damage. This is an opportunity to promote TS008 compliant letterplate restrictor to prevent key fishing and lock manipulation.

Fabricators, distributors and installers will be offered support to provide consumers with details on how to ensure their door and window security meets required standards and also to promote their services. NHSM supporters will also receive a range of promotional collateral that can be distributed to customers to help raise awareness of the campaign.

For further information about National Home Security Month please visit www.homesecuritymonth.com or contact info@homesecuritymonth.com. For information about Yale DWS, head over to www.yaledws.co.uk.

*The Express

**Yale

Specialist IGU and conservatory roof supplier, Double R Glass & Roofing Systems is pleased to offer at no extra cost, a 20-year warranty on its insulated glass units, providing a strong downstream sales tool for its fabricator and installer customers alike.

Ian Sims, Managing Director of Double R, explains: “A 20-year warranty is a great sales tool for installers selling to the homeowner, because what better assurance of quality than the promise to replace the unit if it fails at any time in the next 20 years? Similarly, for fabricators, the ability to offer this warranty to installer customers is a valuable tool to have in their armoury.

“We are able to offer this 20-year warranty, at no extra cost, through our membership of Edgetech’s Super Spacer Dealership scheme and as long as our customers sign up to the free fabricator or installer Dealership programmes as appropriate, they can benefit from the extended warranty. By signing up to the scheme they also have access to a whole host of additional marketing materials too, but whether they use that or not, they can still enjoy the benefit of the warranty.”

“We want to build long term relationships with our customers and our offering is built around that. That’s why we offer a wide range of quality glass and conservatory roof products, excellent service built on solid relationships and of course this 20-year warranty.“

For more information visit www.glassandroofs.com or call 01933 443658

Glazed roofs for a wide variety of applications are reportedly at the core of sales for Prefix Systems, across their network of fabrication sites which cover the whole of the UK.

The company says it is in a unique position as the only glazed roof supplier with such a geographical reach and localised technical support, for the conservatory and lantern roof sector.

Its 22-year experience has seen considerable change in the specification of the conservatory roof, with more choice than ever before in terms of colour, glass specification and architectural detailing. This also extends to the new contemporary Urbanroom gutter shroud, which has been designed and developed by Prefix Systems exclusively for their customers.

Recent major investment at Prefix Systems has seen the introduction of a state of the art paint line ensure they are well positioned to cope with growing demand for colour roofs. This investment will enable the company to offer its customers any roof in any colour, backed up by superior quality and improved lead times.

The evolution and increase in demand for glazed home extensions has come about in two distinct roof forms; true orangeries such as the iX250 and the glass and tile hybrid, in the form of the impressive Warmroof hybrid.

The iX250 utilises a fully insulated, structural deck, which is supplied in easy to handle ladder sections and is topped off with a glazed lantern roof, including the Prefix Opus hardwood timber offering to the inside face. While the Warmroof hybrid combines our award-winning solid Warmroof, with triple glazed panels integrated into one structure, ensuring maximum natural light with stunning aesthetics both internally and externally.

Chris Cooke, co-director of Prefix Systems said: “Prefix was built on the success of the conservatory roof sector and this remains very much the core of our business 22 years later. There’s considerable scope for new thinking in conservatory and extension design and we’d like to think we’re at the cutting edge of this new view, with an unrivalled product range, combined with our renowned levels of customer service.”

www.prefixsystems.co.uk

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Business Micros has proved once again that it is the first choice software provider for the composite door sector, with the supply of a completely custom built system for leading composite door manufacturer DOORCO.

DOORCO switched to Business Micros mid way through 2016 because it wanted a provider who could keep pace with its dramatic growth, and ensure that DOORCO continues to deliver the outstanding customer service which has made it such a favourite with fabricators and installers.

The system has taken Business Micros more than 12 months to build because it is a bespoke software solution, designed specifically to enable DOORCO to deliver on its primary objectives which were to guarantee faster deliveries and improved OTIF scores for its distribution and manufacturing customers, without sacrificing product quality or consistency.

The project involved teams at Business Micros’ Newton le Willows sales and installation centre and at its Dumfriesshire programming centre, working closely together to develop a solution which met both the practical and technical requirements of the door manufacturer.

What makes this software set up particularly special is the fact that customers, as well as DOORCO’s processing team, can now log in directly to order and process their own prepped slabs, with the system effectively ‘remembering’ every customer’s individual prepping information and automatically planning that order into production.

It has the potential to save huge amounts of time because so much data is stored or automatically generated from within the software rather than having to be inputted every time.

The software builds the order for DOORCO, plans it into production and then even tracks it around the factory using a series of Scanpoint stations, giving the production team a constant overview of performance.

The first phase of the project has been such a success that Business Micros and DOORCO are already moving on to phase two which is to add despatch planning, further EDI links and customer relationship management (CRM) to the software set up over the coming months.

Jayne Sullivan, DOORCO’s Operations Director, commented: “Because our business is unique in the composite door sector, it made sense for us to work with an experienced, well resourced supplier who could deliver us the custom-made IT solution which we knew we needed. Just as we do with our customers, we’ve worked collaboratively with Business Micros throughout and we’re delighted with what we have delivered together. It is saving customers’ time and giving them greater flexibility, whilst at the same time improving our efficiency. Our OTIF scores are already improving and our product quality and consistency remain second to none.

“With Business Micros we now have the right partner by our side for the next stage in our growth, and an IT set up which we know will keep pace as we continue to expand.”

DOORCO’s growth in 12 months has been dramatic. Hitting 2016’s sales by June this year, sales during the rest of 2017 are forecast to be further boosted by unique new products like LINKS and Monza II. The IT investment is a key part of the company’s multi-million pound strategic investment programme which is designed to help it stay ahead of customer demand, continue to deliver on robust operational targets and ultimately offer a more streamlined customer experience.

www.businessmicros.co.uk

A glass engineering company based in Chessington has achieved landmark growth, after seeing a 30% increase in productivity.

Structura, which has an annual turnover of £15 million, designs and manufactures a range of curtainwall products including roofs and canopies for a range of clients including Guys and St. Thomas’ NHS Trust, Heathrow Airport and The National Archives.

The company says it is looking to cement its position by expanding its client base and increasing its product range, after securing an asset finance facility from Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking to upgrade its I.T. system.

The funding facility has also supported the purchase of a computorised double headed saw, which has significantly increased the speed of aluminium cutting in the manufacture process, growing Structura’s output levels by 20%.

Through increasing its efficiency, the company now has the capacity to expand its presence across the education, transport and leisure sectors.

Structura is now working with new translucent wall and roofing material Kalwall, to secure future projects. It currently employs 96 staff and is looking to hire more technicians to support its growth.

Rob Sanders, co-founder and director of Structura, said: “The business is going from strength-to-strength as we gain momentum and branch into new sectors. We needed to free-up capacity in order to continue to win high-profile clients and secure future projects. The funding support from Lloyds allowed us to do this and in turn devote more resources to our growth strategy.

“By working with the latest materials, we can offer our clients choice and stay on top of the latest industry developments. We’ve been with Lloyds Bank for the past 25 years and they’ve provided upfront advice on how best to manage our growth. This support means we can expand our business at the right pace for us.”

Vanessa Spires, relationship manager for manufacturing in the South East, Lloyds Bank, added: “The manufacturing and engineering industry is highly competitive and companies need the best facilities behind them. Structura is experiencing rapid growth in its field and the tailored support package we’ve provided will deliver lasting benefits for the firm.

“We’re committed to helping businesses across Britain prosper which is why we’ve grown our net lending to SMEs by over 31% across the last six years – ensuring more companies can achieve their ambitions.”

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The Paddle2Pedal GM Fundraising team has completed its challenge of canoeing 100-miles down the river Wye, abseiling down the rock face at Symonds Yat, and then cycling 120-miles back up to Oswestry, raising more than £90,000 for Hope House Children’s Hospice in the process.

Sponsored by the Epwin Group, Paddle2Pedal is GM Fundraising’s first all-female challenge, with seven members of the team having previously never ridden a bike before, and only one member having any experience of paddling a canoe.

The team is hoping to raise over £100,000 in total and donations can still be made at the following Just Giving page: www.justgiving.com/companyteams/GMFP2P

The post Mission accomplished! appeared first on Glass & Glazing Products Magazine (GGP).

Image Above:  (Left to right) Photo shows Ian Short, managing director of Morley Glass and Glazing; Oguzhan Kukul, mechanical engineer at Best Makina and Jolyian Lee, agent and engineer, JSL Euromatics.

Morley Glass & Glazing, which specialises in manufacturing Uni-Blind® sealed units with ScreenLine® integral blinds inside, has invested £700,000 to increase production capacity at its factory in Leeds.

The fast-growing business has added a second IGU production line to the 50,000 sq ft factory premises it moved into 12 months ago.  It can now manufacture 3000 sealed units with integral blinds inside per week.

Ian Short managing director at Morley Glass & Glazing said: “We moved into these larger premises last year and used the opportunity to set up a production line specifically to manufacture sealed units with integral blinds inside. At the time, we invested in a 58-metre long automated sealed unit production line from Best Makina.  We’ve been so impressed with the quality and efficiency of the equipment that we’ve now invested in a second line to further enhance our capacity and meet customer demand for our popular product range.”

Morley Glass has achieved 30% year-on-year growth as demand continues to increase for its Uni-Blind® sealed units with ScreenLine® blinds inside, and this growth is set to continue.

The Uni-Blinds® range provides the widest choice of integral blinds in double and triple glazed units, with all manual, solar and motorised versions available in the industry’s shortest lead-time of 10 days from 11amany Friday.

Morley Glass & Glazing provides unrivalled technical support for Uni-Blinds® customers too, being the only UK supplier of integral blinds to have dedicated customer support engineers on the road. It also stocks the largest range of ScreenLine® system spare parts in Europe with the enlarged factory enabling it to stock £1 million of Screenline® components with most parts supplied within 24 hours.

For more information about Uni-Blinds® visit www.morleyglass.co.uk.

David Walker, Caldwell managing director

Having posted its mid-term financial results, hardware manufacturer, Caldwell UK, says it is on-course to end the year having ‘significantly increased’ turnover on the previous year, with the final results to be announced in December.

The company describes this as a ‘major achievement, considering the economic and industry climate’.

David Walker, Caldwell’s managing director, commented: “When you consider macro-economic factors such as Brexit and the general election, the results are pleasing.

“At a customer level, we have also brought on a record number of new accounts. This has been partly offset though by a dip in demand for some products, from a small number of existing customers. This has been due to what seems to be a national decrease in consumer spending on new windows and doors.”

David says that demand for its core offering of products for the vertical sliding sash window market has remained strong though, with the recently upgraded Ultra Lift 6 and Torso II proving to be ‘very popular’ with manufacturers.

Caldwell says it has also invested heavily in resources and infrastructure in 2017, launching its new robotic bi-fold testing facility, which tests the strength and durability of bi-folding doors and their hardware.

The business is also set to launch a state-of-the-art automated cyclic door testing rig, to test resistance against security attacks and ensure PAS24 compliance.

www.caldwell.co.uk

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