Liniar And Brett Martin Team Up To Hit New Heights

Image Above: Tony Basile (left, Liniar) and Chris Dawson (right, Brett Martin) shake on the deal.

Innovative PVCu systems house Liniar and drainage giant Brett Martin yesterday announced a partnership arrangement that will see each company supplying the other’s range to its own customer base.

The joint venture brings together two companies with a similar philosophy, as Liniar’s Business Development Director Tony Basile explains:

“We’re delighted to be working with Brett Martin, who will be supplying Liniar with high quality rainwater systems to run alongside our own building product ranges. This means any Liniar fabricator or trade counter stocking fascias, soffits and foam trims will also be able to supply Brett Martin gutter and downpipe systems as part of their range.

“In addition, all Liniar conservatory roof kits will be supplied with Brett Martin guttering included and cut to length.”

Tony continues: “We chose Brett Martin as an independent rainwater system house with a fantastic pedigree within the plumbing and drainage industry – very similar to Liniar’s own reputation in the fenestration marketplace. Its manufacturing facility and primary distribution centre is also Derbyshire-based, which helps to keep our carbon footprint low.

“And having no roofline range of its own, Brett Martin is ideally placed to be able to offer Liniar fascias and soffits to its customers nationwide through its existing channels.”

Chris Dawson, Brett Martin’s Sales Director comments:

”This partnership is an extremely exciting development for both companies. Brett Martin’s rainwater systems and Liniar fascias and soffits perfectly complement each other and provide each business with a quality rainwater and roofline offering for our respective markets.”

Chris adds “Our wide selection of gutter and downpipe profiles in a choice colours are now available to Liniar’s customers and we are particularly excited that our new Anthracite Grey colour option, which is proving a very popular choice, is also part of the package.”

“And we are delighted to now be in a position to also offer our merchant stockists the Liniar range of fascia and soffit, a welcome addition to our range.”

For more information about the Liniar range of building products, visit www.liniar.co.uk/supplies.

For more information about the Brett Martin rainwater range, visit www.brettmartin.com.

Image Above: Roof Maker CEO Paul Mildenstein

Building a UK-wide reputation over more than 15, Leicester-based Roof Maker has firmly established itself as a supplier of high quality roof lights. After its £30m acquisition by private finance group Next Wave Partners LLP, the fast-growing firm plans to significantly ramp up its activities – and now, the traditionally consumer-facing business is seeking to expand the trade side of its operation.

Roof Maker’s extensive product offering boasts exceptional thermal performance, robustness, user-friendliness and style, consisting of bespoke roof lights engineered to be best-in-class. As consumer tastes have shifted, and demand for premium, high-performance glazing products has grown, the fast-growing firm has successfully positioned itself as the leading roof light supplier to the booming higher end of the market – which, as CEO Paul Mildenstein explains, presents huge opportunities for experienced, conscientious installers.

“At Roof Maker, our ethos is clear. We want to challenge the idea that all roof light products are the same – that a roof window is essentially just a roof window. Over years of intensive investment and product development, we’ve built a portfolio of best-in-class natural light solutions with minimalistic design, energy efficiency and all-round performance that stand them out from the crowd.

With thousands of aspirational consumers looking for bespoke, stylish home improvement solutions, our products are perfectly positioned to help installers capitalise at the high end of the market. That’s why we’re now looking for experienced, established, conscientious installation firms who share our commitment to excellence, and our belief that premium roofline products should be prized just as highly as high end windows and doors.”

Roof Maker supply a selection of high-performance rooflight products. The LuxLite roof window is a sleek, stylishly contemporary aluminium roof light. The company’s fixed flat roof lights offer minimalist elegance and fantastic thermal performance. Roof Maker also offer chain-actuated, electric hinged opening flat roof lights, and pyramid-shaped roof lights featuring ultra-thin glazing connectors that maximise the intake of natural light.

Paul concluded: “If you’re an ambitious installation firm with an uncompromising commitment to quality, we’d love to hear from you. Don’t hesitate to get in touch to learn more about who we are, what we do, and how our best-in-class products can help you grow your business.”

For more information visit www.roof-maker.co.uk or call 0116 214 7112

Comar Architectural Aluminium Systems has announced Comar 10 – a Passivhaus Certified “B” product with U-values as low as 0.66 coupled with processes that are claimed to cut manufacturing costs by up to 70%.

The Comar 10 window range includes inward opening, tilt & turn and fixed lights and is internally beaded and glazed.

The company says additional benefits include high thermal insulation, 90mm deep outer frames and minimal care & maintenance.

For further information about Comar Architectural Aluminium Systems, please visit www.comar-alu.co.uk

call 020 8685 9685 or email projects@parksidegroup.co.uk

The British Woodworking Federation’s Joinery State of Trade Survey has indicated that the benefits of increased joinery sales are being balanced out by inflationary pressures such as wages and the impact of exchange rates on raw material costs. With business rates changes set to hit many joinery companies from April, the balance of respondents reported that rates for their current property would increase as a result of the recent revaluations, with almost one third expecting an increase of over 5%.

BWF Policy & Communications Executive Matt Mahony commented: “With the cost of doing business a concern for many in our sector, we surveyed what the consequences of the Business Rates Revaluations would be and were concerned to find that almost a third of respondents indicated an incoming business rates increase of over 5 percent. The high street may have been a major focus of the ‘business rates revolt’, but further cost rises for our industry are unpalatable. There are undoubtedly companies that will benefit from the changes, but on balance our industry looks to be getting a bad deal from the revaluations – this is especially galling as we have long campaigned for low energy manufacturers to be incentivised and it makes no sense to include plant and machinery in rateable value when trying to drive investment and job creation.

“Looking at the rest of the survey, on the whole we saw a stable, although by no means easy quarter for the woodworking industry. Sales volumes had increased for 26% on balance and were anticipated to grow again for the next quarter (Q1 2017), but at a lower growth rate than before. Further depreciations in the Sterling also raised the cost of imported materials, meaning that raw materials continue to be the main driver of input price inflation, with wages & salaries also having a big impact on costs.

“Realistically it’s not a bad picture at this point of time, although uncertainty over the impact of Brexit continues to linger in the background as it has been for the last couple of quarters. You can see the impact on costs, but thankfully this doesn’t seem to have hit the investment intentions of joinery businesses or their plans to take on more staff.

“In the longer term the big questions are whether government and industry can work effectively to deliver new plans for housing and manufacturing and also to what extent the market will be able to capitalise on Brexit. First the sector will have to get to grips with the major changes in training which could help address the availability of skilled labour and the issue of joiners having to provide a broader spread of services to fill main contractor skills gaps on site.

Key points from the BWF Joinery State of Trade Survey Q4 2016 include:

– A balance of 20% of respondents reported that business rates for their current property would increase as a result of recent Business Rates Revaluations in England & Wales with 32% of respondents indicating that their rates would increase by over 5%.

– A balance of 26% of joinery companies reported an increase in sales volumes for Q4 2016 from the previous quarter. This follows on from 55% of joinery companies reporting an increase in sales volumes in Q3 2016 from Q2 2016.

– Manufacturers felt that sales volumes would improve in the next quarter, with a balance of 34% predicting an increase for Q1 2017, and a balance of 22% predicting an increase over the next year.

– 19% of companies reported a current order book of future work extending beyond 3 months – down 9% from the previous quarter – with 58% now saying that their order book extended from between 1 and 3 months.

– Demand was listed as the most likely constraint on output over the next year by 45% of respondents. Capacity and labour availability came next, with 21% and 18% of respondents feeling that they were most likely to constrain output. Raw material prices had become the main factor for 13%.

– 39% of respondents on balance reported increasing their labour force in the last year, with 57% of respondents anticipating an increase labour force over the next year.

– Raw material costs were noted as the main inflationary factor for unit costs for 87% of respondents, with wages/salaries increases pushing up unit costs for 81% of respondents on balance.

– Exchange rates were a factor in inflating unit costs for 57% of respondents – having risen from 5% a year previously.

– 67% of respondents on balance reported an inflationary impact in unit costs through fuel costs.

– Investment in product improvement had been increased by 50% of companies on balance over the past year, with a balance of 51% to boost investment over the next year.

– Investment in manufacturing equipment spending had been increased by 53% of companies on balance over the past year, with a balance of 66% to boost investment over the next year.

As a benefit of membership, British Woodworking Federation members can view the full BWF State of Trade Survey plus the latest economic reports produced by the Construction Product Association industry forecasting team.

www.bwf.org.uk

Darren Cunliffe

Darren Cunliffe has joined Ultraframe as head of customer services on a mission to ‘put the customer at the heart of every decision it makes’.

With an impressive track record of working in businesses both in the home improvement industry and in the roadside assistance industry, Darren feels his expertise of working in high-pressured environments and offering ‘immediate solutions’ will bring real benefit to Ultraframe customers.

Darren explained: “A vast amount of my experience has been in businesses where the customer service team has been relied upon to deliver immediate solutions to issues and it’s that fast-acting approach that I want to finesse at Ultraframe. You hear a lot about ‘customer excellence’ in most businesses and I am really impressed by what I’ve already seen at Ultraframe, but like any function there is always room for improvement, particularly around upskilling and empowering the team to take immediate and decisive action. I’m also keen to ensure that our fabricator customers get the service they need. Fabricators have a unique set of requirements compared to our retail customers and it’s vital that we continually recognise that and deliver on it.”

Commenting on Darren’s appointment, operations director, Andy Crowe, said: “Darren has previously worked in some really challenging environments where delivering an immediate and credible solution to an issue has been critical. His expertise at process management together with the customer service team’s knowledge will deliver a fantastic resource for our customers.”

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(L-R) William Gilsenan and Daniel Foster have joined Promac Group’s apprenticeship scheme

Promac Group has recruited two new apprentices to its in-house engineering and customer support team.

With National Apprentice Week 2017 on the horizon (6-10 March), the company has appointed Daniel Foster and William Gilsenan to its apprentice programme.

Joe Hague, managing director, Promac Group said: “We know how important people are to our business. We’re as much a service provider as we are a supplier of machinery.

“The competition out there for enthusiastic, skilled and committed people is fierce. Apprenticeships offer us a way of not only recruiting the very best people for our organisation but also equipping them through formal and on-the-job training, to support us in offering our customers exceptional service and support.”

Joining the business in the autumn, William aged 17 and Daniel aged 18, admitted that their introduction to the business had been accompanied by a steep learning curve.

Daniel said: “It is pretty daunting when you come in. I joined straight from sixth form and had no real background in engineering.

“But you get to know the basic principles quickly. Once you get hydraulics and pneumatics, everything else really builds off that.”

William and Daniel, will each complete a four-year programme including class room based theory as well as its practical training, before qualification as fully-fledged Promac technicians.

William explained: “Ours is a four-year course but you can also extend that to six-years and longer to come out with more advanced qualifications.

“It’s quite a lot to get your head around initially – I came in straight from college – but you pick things up and I’m really enjoying it.”

According to government statistics, engineering apprenticeships remain the single most sought after and highly valued of all apprenticeships offered in the UK.
Since the beginning of summer last year, more than 650,000 young people have enrolled nationally in training schemes, while in the last academic year 899,400 signed-up, up 3.2% on 2014/15 and the highest number on record.

Employers say that qualified apprentices are 15% more employable than those with other qualifications. Government stats also suggest that apprenticeships boost productivity to businesses by on average £214 per week.

www.promac.co.uk

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Planning was not a problem when a resident of one of Yorkshire’s best-known seaside conservation areas chose to replace timber windows with PVC-U. In fact, once the planners had seen frame samples, it was put through on the nod without even needing a formal planning application.

It comes as no surprise also that neighbours of the house, beside Scarborough’s Victorian Esplanade, had not realised that the new windows and French doors were not timber.

The frames were in the Residence9 system fabricated by The Glazerite UK Group Ltd and the result, in white foil finish was ‘a dream job’ according to Sales Manager, Barry Smith.

“It was the first R9 installation in this area” he said. “It’s also generated a lot of interest from neighbouring properties, especially in and around the Conservation Area.

“When the owner first came to us, he was looking at vertical sliders in another system but immediately changed his mind when he saw the Residence9. It was easily the closest thing to the timber he was replacing and the result speaks for itself, a dream job.

Glazerite added Residence9 to its already extensive portfolio in 2014 and, according to Group Director Jason Thompson, the Scarborough installer’s reaction was far from unusual. “This system is quite unlike anything else on the market. There are certain locations where nothing else will do, so only an installer who can supply it will get the job.

He continued: “This is a typical example of why we strive to offer one of widest choices of systems and materials, so that the installer has something to answer every customer’s needs, with the ease of a single source for everything.”

The Glazerite UK Group Ltd is VEKA’s largest trade fabricator in the UK and a long-standing Network VEKA member. It offers a fully nationwide service based on manufacturing units in Northants, Peterborough and Greater Manchester as well as its South West distribution hub in Bristol serving South Wales and The West of England.

www.glazeritewindows.co.uk

Since the launch of their 70mm flush sash window, TruFrame has experienced strong sales growth, now in excess 200 frames per week, as more installers embrace the traditional timber look and unique hardware options for this new window type.

Flush sash windows are the ‘in-vogue’ product of the moment, as is the increased demand for dummy sashes and equal sightlines and this is something that is being increasingly adopted in the replacement window and new build sectors. TruFrame utilise Liniar’s multi-chambered Energy Plus profile systems to make these highly energy efficient windows, which can be further enhanced with the adoption of the glazing flipper and thermal dam sections.

The welded flush sash window is fully hand finished utilising TruFrame’s unique four step hand finishing process, while the fully mechanical Refine™ option, is fully hand assembled and offers incredible levels of finishing detail in the corners. There is also a dedicated marketing package for the product brand.

Hardware options include contemporary handles, whilst period inspiration comes from the optional key-locking monkey tail handles and peg-stays. There are 14 in stock colour options from the contemporary look of anthracite grey to the period inspired chartwell green, ensuring that the flush sash window can be installed sympathetically on different types of brick/stone and on various types of property.

David Firmager, managing director of TruFrame commented: ‘The flush sash window is more than just a passing fad and I fully expect to see sales grow to 10% of all frames made. With options of fully welded or fully mechanically jointed, we have different price points covered and the considerable benefit of hand finishing on all frames, backed by a single 10-year warranty underwritten by us.’

For further information on becoming a TruFrame partner visit www.truframe.co.uk, e-mail sales@truframe.co.uk or call the office directly on 01664 410 140. You can also add to their growing following on Twitter @TruFrame.