50% of floor space already booked for FIT Show 2019

With FIT Show 2017 still fresh in the memory of the window, door and conservatory industry, attention now turns to the future and FIT Show 2019, especially as it hopes to top the huge success of this year’s first show at the NEC. The move to the National Exhibition Centre prompted a surge in exhibition stand bookings last year when the new venue was announced. This year sees a similar trend only this time instead of the new venue being the catalyst previous exhibitors are booking their stand space so they can start planning how they are going to top this year’s show. With 22 months still to go until FIT Show 2019 – taking place on 21^st to 23^rd May – 50% of the exhibition floor space has already been booked. And while this is quite a feat, it’s even more of a feat when you learn that the gross floor space for FIT Show 2019 is 30% larger than this year’s show.

“With the rapid growth of the FIT Show we knew we had to move from Telford to the NEC and it proved the right decision looking at the numbers from our first show in Birmingham,” said Nickie West, Event Director of FIT Events Ltd, the company behind the FIT Show. “With a visitor increase of almost 17% in comparison to our previous show we owe that to some of the most creative marketing campaigns from exhibitors and impressive stands we’ve seen yet. And having 50% of floor space for 2019 booked already just shows the commitment this industry has to its industry event.”

Some of the names that have signed up for FIT Show 2019 include: Konig UK, AluK (GB) Ltd, BSI Group, Wintech Engineering, Roseview Windows, Apeer, Renolit Cramlington Ltd, Customade Group, Profine Group, KAT UK, Leica Geosystems Ltd, Kawneer, Ultraframe, Veka, Camden, Iso-Chemie GmbH and more.

For a full list of exhibitors visit: http://www.fitshow.co.uk/exhibitors

“The fact that there’s still 22 months to go until the show takes place we’re pretty confident that this one will be a sell out if half of the stand space has already been booked in just over two months,” Nickie continued. “We’re excited for the next show as are our exhibitors. All the stops will once again be pulled out and the stands will be more extravagant and more creative because the industry has seen the results the FIT Show can deliver.”

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For 45 years, Titon says its core product has been the window trickle (or ‘background’) ventilator, claiming to be the biggest manufacturer and supplier of these products in the UK. Titon says it has maintained its position as the industry leader through constant research and product development, ensuring the company is still able to offer the largest range of trickle vents on the market today – having sold more than 50 million vents to date.

According to Titon, its trickle ventilators assist in compliance with ventilation regulations in the UK and overseas, and are suitable for all types of window – including timber, aluminium or PVC-U, offering increased ventilation that it says ‘other manufacturers cannot match’. As a result, specifiers can pick Titon products to ensure compliance for a choice of ventilation systems in different dwelling types, without constant specification changes. Additionally, says Titon, fabricators can remain safe in the knowledge that only the minimum number of ventilators required need to be used to achieve compliance.

By providing adequate levels of background ventilation, trickle vents also play a key role in removing air pollutants from inside a property and ensuring good levels of indoor air quality (IAQ). While this subject has made headlines during the last 18 months, Titon says its products have been ensuring excellent levels of IAQ for decades.

Movement of air helps disperse general moisture in other habitable rooms (besides bathrooms and kitchens); if the moisture doesn’t escape, it can build up, leading to potential mould growth problems, affecting not only occupants’ health but also damaging the building itself. It also ensures volatile organic compounds (VOC) do not stay in the air indefinitely.

High performance acoustic vents such as Titon’s SF Xtra Sound Attenuator, are also said to offer vastly improved levels of sound attenuation. The basic versions of this surface mounted aluminium slot ventilator are the shortest available capable of providing 5,000mm2 EA – while being equally suitable for domestic or non-domestic applications. This short length means fewer vents are needed to comply with an application’s required EA. Plus, there are two width variants (one for use over a 13mm slot, the other for a 16mm slot), as well as made-to-measure sizes or bar lengths for self-assembly, all of which can be used with either a plastic or aluminium canopy.

Commenting on the company’s extensive product range, Tyson Anderson, sales and marketing director at Titon said: “We have been producing trickle ventilators for 45 years now, and window manufacturers, specifiers and fabricators rely on us for our knowledge and advice. This has become more commonplace since the recent increased industry and consumer awareness of the dangers of poor indoor air quality, plus more focus on sound attenuation requirements. At Titon, we have the expertise and the product portfolio to ensure there is always a trickle ventilator option available, which will perform to the required standards and be competitively priced.”

www.titon.co.uk

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One of the UK’s leading experts in insulated glass units with almost half of century of experience, has appointed Purplex as their PR and marketing agency.

Based in Kent and operating across the UK, The E.J. Cocker Group is comprised of E.J. Cocker & Son; which manufacturers and supplies IGUs for internal and external use in residential and commercial properties, and Slenderline Glass which supplies joiners, fabricators and contractors with advanced solutions for all heritage and sash windows.

E.J. Cocker has appointed Purplex to develop a strategy encompassing PR and email marketing to showcase their full range of products and services as well as their commitment to quality craftsmanship.

Andy Cocker, Director at E.J. Cocker comments: “We have a strong reputation within the industry for high-quality, high performance sealed units. We want to build on this further and continue to grow the Slendlerline brand as the only source for advanced, uncompromised heritage sealed units.”

“We chose to partner with Purplex because of their experience of helping businesses build their brands and gain nationwide exposure. We have ambitious growth plans and we knew to accomplish them, we had to work with the industry marketing experts.”

“We’re absolutely delighted to be working with E.J. Cocker,” comments Sam Cross, Account Director at Purplex. “With decades of experience manufacturing IGUs, E.J. Cocker is the authority in the sector and one of its most trusted names. This will be reflected in their PR coverage and overall marketing strategy as we promote their range of products and Andy and his team share their opinion on the industry.”

Purplex Marketing was founded in 2004 by Andrew Scott who was previously Marketing and Sales Director for several companies in the building products and home improvement industries. Purplex was created to provide businesses in this sector a port of call for marketing consultancy and expert PR, branding and digital marketing. Clients range from small home improvement firms to global building product manufacturers.

The post IGU specialist seals the deal with Purplex appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

In the wake of the Grenfell tower inquiry, I am able to publish a well written guest article by Mike Rigby, CEO of MRA Marketing. I also want to note that MRA Marketing worked with the Passive Fire Prevention Federation (PFPF) for five years before its merger with the ASFP. The nature of the tragedy was severe, and I can only hope that as a result, this country’s attitude to building and keeping buildings safe changes swiftly and for the better.

It takes a disaster, major loss of life or destruction to property to get Britain to focus on fire. So, fire regulations have only improved significantly after serious fires, starting with the great fire of London in 1666.

After the Grenfell Tower fire, people will remember external cladding as the culprit because the search narrowed rapidly to focus on a single cause of failure. It doesn’t seem that PVC windows were implicated in any way, despite attempts by anti-PVC campaigners to implicate them. But experience of what went wrong in previous fires suggests multiple failures will be to blame. It will be a mix of product, practice and policing, not just one cheaper product, or one inappropriate spec.

However fire starts, it’s essential to contain it to its point of origin. But typically we find many routes for fire to spread: fire doors not maintained, wedged open or missing; openings for pipes not stopped; the inadvertent creation of ‘chimneys’ behind the external cladding to accelerate fire etc. So when there is a fire there’s a high risk of it quickly getting out of control.

To reduce the number of serious fires, we need to raise awareness and change attitudes to the way we build and look after buildings.

Generally, people don’t know what they should do, nor what good practice is, and legislation doesn’t change that. Continuous large scale marketing communications so everyone does know is a first step. Then ‘policing’ to remind people, bring regulation breakers to book, and telling everyone they’ve been caught so people get it. We do it when we want to change risky practices such as seat belts, or drinking and driving. Why not fire?

Everyone was appalled by Grenfell. But the building is not a one off. Evidence suggests many buildings are at risk, and we’ll suffer more serious fires unless we improve Britain’s awareness and understanding of fire protection, and change our attitudes to the practice and policing of regulations. More legislation won’t make a difference. Those who scrupulously implement regulations will adopt the improvements. Those who don’t, won’t bother with new ones.

After Lakanal House ten years ago, where six people died, around 200 tower blocks across the UK were risk assessed and local authorities rectified them at considerable expense. There was an investigation and report with recommendations. But who put them into practice?

Fire professionals warned that Lakanal or worse could happen again, and it did. Nine years later, this February, Southwark Council was fined £570,000 for breaking fire safety regulations. Let’s hope someone in Government is listening this time.

Mike Rigby

CEO

MRA Marketing

The results are in for Thermoseal Group, with the specialist insulated glass (IG) component manufacturer and distributor of over 2,000 IG products, reporting highest ever customer satisfaction ratings from its latest Customer Satisfaction Survey.

With 38 years supplying to the window industry, Thermoseal Group supplies to the majority of IG manufacturers in the UK and now to a range of export customers in 22 countries across 5 continents.  Its long-standing service to the industry is a direct result of its focus on customers and ability to respond quickly to market demand.

The Group’s Head of Marketing and Communications, Samantha Hill, tells us:  “The data collected is invaluable to our continual efforts to provide a premium service to customers.  As any intelligent supplier would do, we value our customers and take all feedback on board to improve our products and service.  As we have increased our focus on manufacturing, working with customers has become more important to us in developing our products to suit current manufacturing methods, whilst ensuring we offer industry-leading product performance.  This is why we have set up our own Technical Centre and EN1279 test facilities to ensure that we continually enhance our products, closely monitor the quality and focus on innovating new products to futureproof our offering.

“The Customer Satisfaction Survey is just part of what we do to ensure that we maintain 2-way communication with our customers.  Our dedicated account managers continually seek customer feedback and work closely with our technical centre and branch operations to improve our products and service.  We also have a range of product trials running with a selection of our long-standing customers to ensure that the products we introduce into the market are worthy of our industry-leading status.

“Our survey is distributed to all of our customers and contains a range of questions relating to our products and service.  There are also some key questions in there seeking opinions on the industry and future plans.  This way we can work with them to ensure that we continue to meet their requirements.  In the latest survey, we achieved the highest customer ratings yet, with the average overall rating of 96% with the knowledge and capability of our sales team commended throughout.  We are obviously delighted with the results.

“Our customers gave us some invaluable product feedback and suggestions for future innovation which we are currently reviewing in line with our plans to develop new products. The service feedback was also extremely helpful and as a result we are already putting new systems and processes in place to ensure that we offer the best service available.  Part of these plans include a new delivery tracking system and a premium website with a range of new services to improve the way we interact with our customers. We are also working with customers to carry out presentations and tailored training on our Thermobar and Thermoflex Warm Edge Spacer Systems and their contribution in the production of highest performance IG units.

“As a thank you to all customers completing the survey, Thermoseal Group entered all respondents into a prize draw.  Mark Christie from Christie Glass and Louise Wright from Windowright Ltd were both presented with a FitBit Charge 2 and Andrew McKenzie from Ace Glazing received a nice champagne to celebrate with us.

“Thank you to all customers for taking part in the survey.  We value your feedback and will look to strive for 100% next time.”

To find out about Thermoseal Group and its comprehensive range of insulated glass components and machinery for glazing manufacture, call +44(0)121 331 3950 or visit www.thermosealgroup.com.  For full information about the Group’s warm edge spacers see www.thermobarwarmedge.com and www.thermoflexwarmedge.com.

Liniar House, an impressive new 178,000ft² facility, has been unveiled as the latest stage in the incredible success story of HL Plastics. More than 150 invited guests attended the event to see business magnate Lord Digby Jones officially open Liniar House, the home of the company’s new warehouse, training centre and showrooms. CEO Roger Hartshorn commenced the proceedings, describing the history and ethos of the company while referring to the impressive timeline that adorns the walls of the new Liniar showroom and charts more than 40 years of growth.

Roger stated: “Liniar House will take customer relations to a new level. I am confident the strength of HL and its staff will continue to thrive with the facilities and culture we have created. HL Plastics now has the most integrated, well invested single site PVCu facility in the UK.”

Roger introduced special guest Lord Digby Jones, with the former Director General of the CBI and Business Ambassador of UK Trade and Investment delivering an inspirational and hugely entertaining speech. Having toured HL Plastics’ impressive facilities earlier in the morning, he praised Roger’s achievements and said it was a “privilege to share in the success” of the company.

Further speeches were given by Martin Thurley, Managing Director of HL Plastics, and Nigel Bishop, Sales Director of Avantek Machinery, before guests were invited to explore the stunning new Liniar showroom. Covering every product launched by the innovative systems company, the showroom beautifully displays the full and diverse range and provided a real buzz among visitors as they got ‘hands on’ with the products.

After lunch guests were given the opportunity to take a guided tour of the entire facilities, including the new Avantek showroom, the only one of its kind in the UK – featuring a range of fabrication machinery which customers can touch, feel and trial before buying, some from stock. Customers, associates, staff and invited press were all suitably impressed with the new building and the thought and investment that has obviously gone into it.

Mick Clayton, CEO of GQA Qualifications Ltd, commented: “It was great to be at the opening of Liniar House and have the opportunity to hear from Roger and Martin on the story so far and what’s next; whilst on a completely different scale, the ethos and culture that was highlighted is very much something that we at GQA try to operate and promote. Lord Digby Jones was also an entertaining speaker with a number of common sense anecdotes and thoughts that fit perfectly with the theme of the day. The day looked to be a great success and the facilities are fantastic.”

Charlotte Davies, Head of Marketing for Edgetech UK, said: “The new facility is impressive and the large showrooms are a great addition as it’s good to be able to experience the current range as well as reflect on how far the company has progressed over the years. The tour impressed upon me the attention to detail and pride that everyone at Liniar takes in what they do and it made me proud to be part of the same group as such a market-leading company.”

Martin Dera, Director at Homeworks Solutions in Bath, was highly impressed with the new facilities: “As I have come to expect from the team at Liniar, the official opening day spoke volumes for the company’s ethos, as well as to serve as an indicator for future growth plans. Everyone I spoke to on the day had high praise for the new purpose-built facility and the showrooms, as well as the future Liniar Training Academy – which I would definitely like to attend once it’s up and running. As an installer we are at the end of the supply line and frequently overlooked, at least prior to our association with Liniar. We really are made to feel like part of the family and our invitation to attend the opening day only goes further to reassure this belief and encourage us to push the Liniar brand forward at the coalface.”

Throughout the day, many guests commented on the extensive timeline on the wall of the new showroom, which begins in 1974 with the formation of HL Plastics, and leads up to 2017 with the launch of the EnergyPlus90 Passive House window system and the opening of Liniar House. This huge graphic leads visitors through each step of the company’s progress, with world events from the same year putting things into a wider context. It’s difficult to believe that Liniar’s chamfered window system was launched less than 10 years ago in 2008, given the incredible progress of the brand over that short period of time. It will be very interesting to see how that timeline continues to grow – there’s still plenty of space on the wall!

The post Lord Digby Jones officially opens new 178,000ft² Liniar House appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

First Job: I join the Royal Navy as an Engineering Officer at 18 and was lucky to be sent to university by them.  My first design job was at Dyson just as the firm was starting.

When did you join current company: I joined Ultraframe in 2004 when the company was still a PLC.

Most useful/favourite gadget: Strava APP on my Iphone.

Favourite/most useful website: www.theengineer.co.uk.

Business person you admire: James Dyson.

Recommended hotel for business: Mitton Hall.

Favourite UK restaurant: Inn at Whitewell near Clitheroe

Best business decision: Sticking with Ultraframe even through the hard times.

Other interests: Building my house – an ongoing project and cycling.

Working Day: I like to be at work before 8am. When I arrive I dedicate myself to the team, helping them break through problems, guiding them in the right direction, and checking the quality of output. I try and involve myself as much as possible with customers, not only the business owners but the guys on the ground who are hands-on with our system installing roofs every day. Some days I will be in my scruffs, tools in hand working alongside installers and seeing our roofs from their point of view. It’s important we share these insights internally. A large part of the day will be spent coordinating the activities required to bring new roof systems to market, looking at patent applications and so forth. As the office clears at the end of the day, this is usually my time to think about the more strategic design issues or sketching up an idea and leaving it on a colleague’s desk for the morning. When I go to bed I still think about the business and have a sketchbook beside my bed to capture ideas as I have them.

Working Location: I am based at our offices in Clitheroe only a short cycle from home (if the day allows). The offices are open-plan which encourages interaction between the team. There is always a balance to be had between distracting people who are trying to get work done and getting useful involvement – we get the balance right – most of the time. I do have an office but I am often sat at the desk of one of the team. I also have a dedicated area in the factory to build prototypes; it’s a great facility and allows us to bring our ideas to life, then test them and see if they are any good!

Generally, trading over the last 12 months has been very good, but with some caveats. Growth has been more variable by customer than it was a year ago. Installers that are selling modern high-quality solutions are showing strong double-digit growth. Our core glass roof sales have grown significantly in the last 4 years and grew again last year albeit at a slower rate. This is good because it means the solid roof sales are incremental for those customers able to support the additional fitting capacity required. We are continually looking at ways to speed up installation, enabling our customers to sell more and fit more with the same manpower.

There has been a slowdown in the rate of growth since January and with the election we predict growth will continue to be more modest until the summer. While there is more uncertainty in the market we do expect the market to step back up again later this year. Managing inflation and the impact on raw material costs is an ongoing challenge – one that affects all manufacturing businesses, our R&D effort goes some way to mitigating this issue.  In terms of specific roof sales, we believe our customers are enjoying much better sales of modern performance conservatories. Designed properly, these extensions are highly desirable and meet the need’s of today’s homeowner regardless of their design brief, but critically, deliver excellent ‘profit per fitter’ – the measure we use to assess if products are fit for purpose.  Modern conservatories, simple beautiful orangeries, fast to install replacement roofs and high performance quick-to-build extensions are part of the toolkit we give our customers. We anticipate our customers will be able to exploit these markets to generate ‘above market’ growth in 2017.

The next two years will see a higher level of innovation than ever before. Our business mindset is one of continual innovation so our existing products and services continue to improve. This keeps the core business relevant. Then on top, we have a pipeline of new innovation that opens up additional growth opportunities for our network partners while simultaneously lowering installation costs.  An example of continual innovation is our LivinRoof, the introduction of a composite panel last year as an alternative to aluminium. This means it’s available today cheaper than when we launched it nearly three years ago. As a business our entire focus is all about product improvement – both in terms of the thermal performance and improved installation speed. UltraSky Lantern is a great example of how we’ve really challenged the market around thermal performance claims. Many lantern systems claim to be thermally broken, yet we know they’re not, because we’ve tested them at our facility in Clitheroe. Eliminating cold bridging throughout the entire roof, not just the ridge, has been our focus. From a retailer’s point of view they have to have absolute confidence in the roof they’re selling and fitting; if we make a statement about our roof, it’s factual.

Our new UltraSky Roof brings slimline aluminium roofs to the orangery market in a way that takes the market forward again. Not only is it a fully thermally broken system, it works beautifully combined with Loggia columns, bifolds and aluminium windows – creating a stunning, contemporary orangery. Alongside, we’ve also developed a new structural portal – UltraSpan – which enables large open spans to be achieved. It’s designed in such a way that it’s completely hidden in the UltraSky Roof – all the structural integrity you need without compromise on design.  Let’s mention UltraRoof380. Always watertight on day one, and usually complete on day two, this is a great example of a beautiful product that delivers profitable growth for our customers. This has been in the market for 6 months and sales volumes have been strong. We’ve worked incredibly hard to ensure lead-times are competitive and by the summer we will be able to offer P and T shapes. Feedback from retailers and installers is absolutely critical in this business. As I mentioned earlier, I spend a good deal of time on the road observing installations, it’s only through this process can we refine and develop new products, or indeed steer our marketing effort. Through our PR programme we frequently use case studies to illustrate the benefits of our systems and this feedback from the homeowner and the retail installer is invaluable. A recent UltraRoof380 installation by Tom Tonks at TT Installations really stands out in my mind. We developed UltraRoof380 with a clear focus to develop a roof system that not only looked fantastic but also performed well on site, with fast installation times and the least number of components. Chatting to Tom Tonks recently really demonstrated that this vast investment was worthwhile. He describes his first installation as “effortless”. This is exactly the sort of feedback we like. That said, it’s important we listen to all feedback – it’s only through this process can we make improvements.

LivinRoof has been the most successful campaign to date, no question. We brought a fresh perspective to the market when we launched LivinRoof, challenging the status quo that a solid roof had to be tiled. But since its launch it has gained real momentum in the marketplace and sells itself due to its contemporary external appearance, preferred by 50% of customers coupled with stunning internal shaped glazing features. While LivinRoof is still growing we have been surprised how quickly UltraRoof380 has caught up in terms of volume and both solid roof systems now sit side by side in our range showing that the solid roof market is more than just about tiles. For installers it’s hidden costs that can damage cash flow. Cheaper roof systems might appear to be better value, but in the long run, problems can be costly. Having to go back and rectify issues, spend more time installing on site, or using additional components all add up. We’ve worked hard to design roof systems that are simple and quick to fit with 100% reliability.

The opportunity for retail installers in today’s market is vast. We’ve proven time and time again that using an Ultraframe system can deliver better thermal efficiency than a traditional extension using brick. This fact alone really opens the market up for retailers to take on profitable work. From modern conservatories, contemporary orangeries, large conservatories that need upgrading – the art is to focus on a small number of designs that work in your market.

Several years ago as the market was in decline we made a very clear commitment that we would develop a range of roof systems that would open up new market opportunities for our customers, ensuring that there is an Ultraframe roof for every job. This was a big decision, and one that has taken significant investment across the business to deliver against this promise. It certainly brings a layer of complexity to our operations, but as we see retailers growing their businesses and winning work they might have previously lost to a builder, the decision back in 2011 was right.

The post Andrew Thomson, Design & Development Director, Ultraframe (UK) appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

As part of an ongoing commitment to sustainability and constantly striving to improve its green credentials, REHAU was delighted to once again receive SmartestEnergy’s ‘Renewable Electricity Commitment’ certificate.

The certificate, authorised by the Carbon Trust, recognises that REHAU’s factory in Blaenau, warehouse in Runcorn and offices in Manchester and Ross-on-Wye, will be running off 100 percent renewable electricity until March 2021.

The award is reviewed annually to ensure companies with the accolade remain supplied by recognised providers. The renewable electricity being used by REHAU is certified by the Carbon Trust to be compliant with Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 2 guidance, which means the firm can report zero carbon emissions for purchased electricity.

Martin Hitchin, Chief Executive at REHAU, said: “As a global company, we understand we have a responsibility to run our company in a sustainable and environmentally-friendly way. We are committed to  protecting the environment and using natural resources responsibly.

“We believe in building our principles from the ground up which is why our stance on sustainability is clear from our energy supplier through to the groundbreaking products we develop.

“Our smart products have been designed to actively reduce carbon emissions. We also make a valuable contribution to environmental protection through our qualified recycling solutions made of polymeric materials.

“Although we are incredibly proud of the work we have already done in this area, we are not willing to sit back. We have clear objectives that we want to achieve by 2020 that include: reducing primary energy consumption by 20%, reducing carbon emissions by 25% and reducing water consumption by 40%.“

REHAU has also implemented a code of conduct for its suppliers. Based on internationally accepted standards, the code of conduct ensures that everything from environmental laws to labour laws are adhered to within the supply chain. The company actively takes into account environmental criteria when selecting suppliers to ensure that they also appreciate the importance of corporate responsibily and run their businesses in a sustainable way.

For more information visit www.rehau.uk