Dekko Opens New Doors For Emerald Windows With First Räum Garage Door Sale

Showing their commitment to helping customers break into new markets, Dekko Window Systems are celebrating with Swindon-based Emerald Windows after the successful sale of their very first garage door – the bold, new addition to the Räum aluminium range.

The new direction comes as Emerald aims to strengthen its offering to further cement its position as the South-West’s home improvement specialists. It extends Emerald’s long-standing partnership with Dekko where the fabricator supplies its full range of windows and doors across Infinity uPVC, Räum aluminium and the Residence Collection.

“When we heard that Dekko had launched a premium garage door range, we knew it presented a fantastic opportunity to grow our business and provide a greater proposition to consumers across the region,” commented Martin Brett, Managing Director of Emerald Windows. “You wouldn’t think twice about upselling a new entrance door with a set of windows, so why not a garage door!”

“It helps us stand out from our competitors, offering homeowners the complete home improvement package. The ability to colour-match the garage door to windows, doors or sliding doors is a great advantage too, and allows us to sell the ‘bigger picture’ to the customer. We’re delighted to sell our first Räum garage door, and we’re pleased to say we have a number in the pipeline too!”

Launched at The FIT Show 2017 during Dekko’s big debut, The Räum sectional garage door range generated quite a buzz among show-goers. Available in a range of styles and exclusive colours, the sectional garage door system combines high-end design with exceptional performance – the key pillars of the Räum brand.

Each door is manufactured using quality materials, boasting a highly-insulating and durable 45mm double skin for enhanced thermal performance and weather resistance.  It can be finished with a number of glazing options and can feature an optional side door or integrated pass door for quick and easy access. The smart, sectional design means a Räum garage door can deliver more space both inside and on the driveway than the traditional ‘up and over’ design. It can also be operated using the innovative ‘SmartGarage’ smartphone app.

“The response to our garage door range has been immense as more businesses across the industry look to reach new markets and deliver something different to their competition,” adds Kurt Greatrex, Sales Director at Dekko. “It’s great to see Emerald Windows continue to fly with another one of our product lines – joining a long list of businesses who have been able to answer any consumer demand thanks to our comprehensive range of high-end home improvements.”

For more information contact Dekko on 0161 406 0055 or visit www.dekkowindows.com

The CORGI Fenestration Installer Scheme has been asked by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (the new name for DCLG) to ask the fenestration industry to participate in its Approved Documents User Survey.  The closing date for doing this survey is midnight on the 6^th March.

The department is looking for comment on all the Approved Documents and it is vital it hears the views of those who use the documents.

Click here for more information and to complete the survey:- corgifenestration.co.uk/trade/installer-service/

All information provided will be confidential.

The new CORGI Fenestration Installer Scheme with self-certification was launched last month.  It combines the CORGI Fenestration quality mark with notifications across windows, doors and other fenestration products, including self-certification of replacement windows and doors.  Then it adds a ‘TripAdvisor’ type consumer ratings function and recognition of the best qualified workforce.  It is for installers that pride themselves on being some of the best in the industry

It comprises the CORGI Fenestration quality mark, notification & self-certification, CORGI Fenestration RateYourInstallation™, the CORGI Fenestration Skills Card, a risked based inspection rate, and a commitment to customer care excellence.

For more information on the new CORGI Fenestration Installer Scheme also go to:

corgifenestration.co.uk/trade/installer-service/

To apply to register with CORGI Fenestration:

enquiries@corgifenestration.co.uk

Tel:  0800 246 1729

Established over 14 years ago, Kolorseal Ltd provides an expert colour coating service to the fenestration industry. Thanks to the ever-increasing demand for coloured windows and doors, the business has enjoyed 30% growth in the last year alone and has now opened a second depot – Kolorseal Midlands – in West Bromwich.

Deborah Hendry, Director of Kolorseal comments: “The demand for coloured windows and doors is growing fast and being able to offer a wide range of colours is a must for any fabricator or installer.  However, in-house painting or foiling facilities require significant investment and expertise. This is where, as colour coating specialists, Kolorseal comes in. For us it’s all about process efficiency and service.  We don’t just paint; we offer a deep understanding of the best way to achieve the best quality and a fast, reliable, hassle-free solution to colour, for our customers.

“The business has grown substantially in the last few years – over 30% year-on-year – and more enquiries have been coming in from a wider area than ever before.  The new Midlands depot allows us to offer this unique level of service to a wider geographical area, as well as even better service for existing customers more local to our new facility.

“The new depot is 6,000 sq.ft with dedicated spraying booths and an infra-red drying system that can dry within 3 hours.  Our standard service levels will apply, including any RAL or BS colour as standard on a 5+1 day turnaround, a bespoke colour matching service, with a free collection and delivery service within 75 miles of West Bromwich.”

For more information: visit www.kolorseal.co.uk or call:  (0121- 740 – 0217)

Ambitious Isle of Wight fabricator GTI Glazing Systems has become the latest fabricator to switch to profiles and products from Eurocell – the UK’s manufacturer, distributor and recycler of window, door, conservatory and roofline products. Director Neil Johnson cites quality of service, competitive pricing and innovation as the three main reasons for changing suppliers. “Service is important and we felt we weren’t receiving the support and attention that we should have, and Eurocell delivers that as well as providing well-designed, well-engineered products at a good price”, he says. “We’re always keen to grow and we need a pipeline of new and exciting products to do that, so Eurocell fits the bill”.

Another plus for GTI is the comprehensive range of roofline products and conservatory roofs in particular. “Conservatories are an important element to the business so we’re very interested in products like the Equinox and the Skypod that make them warm and comfortable all year around,” Neil adds.

The process of switching from one type of profile to another was very simple, he reports, with a loss of just one day’s production. “The changeover was very smooth,” Neil says. “We changed from one profile to another in the course of just one week and took only a couple of days to adjust the machinery”.

Founded by Neil and his two partners, Michael Roberts and Patrick Brady, in 1992, GTI Glazing Systems has grown to become the Isle of Wight’s largest window and conservatory fabricator and installer. GTI has more than 50 employees and numerous installation teams specialising in all aspects of the glazing and building industry. Now fabricating up to 300 windows per week, GTI has 10 teams working exclusively on windows and conservatories, while other teams focus on commercial contracts and new build projects.

“This is a company that really knows its market. All the directors are local, their business covers everything that island will need and their attention to detail is exactly what we’re looking for in a Eurocell fabricator. Our reputation depends upon the skill, experience and quality of the fabricators and installers, so we’re very pleased to have GTI on board,” comments Jason Bird, National Business Development Manager.

Switching to Eurocell profiles is streamlined and simple because each new fabricator has its own technical support engineer who handles everything from initial set-up and advice on production efficiency through to trouble-shooting. The engineer is supported by a technical team ready to advise and a skilled team of designers and engineers that can write sample specifications for bespoke projects.

Eurocell technical support extends to BFRC accredited simulators that provide specifications and reports that prove to customers that the products meet the necessary BFRC performance standards. The company also offers product training, either on-site or at its purpose-built research and development centre in Alfreton, which has a dedicated facility for product simulation, prototyping and testing.

On the marketing side, Eurocell has its own in-house design studio and marketing team to promote the fabricator’s business with services such as the RightSite customer website build service, providing either an off-the-shelf website or create a bespoke design at subsidised rates, bespoke brochures and direct mail. These include effective mailers, sales letters and campaigns to increase leads and prospects.

The post Isle of Wight fabricator GTI Glazing Systems latest manufacturer to switch to Eurocell appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

First Job: Waiter on the QE2 for 3 years, which meant I could travel the world in a more luxurious environment than backpacking! It seems a distant memory now…

When did you join current company: I joined Rocal Group in 2003, as sales manager, just over 14 years ago when the panelled door market was in full swing.

Most useful/favourite gadget: iPhone, though any device for effective business communications is a must.

Favourite/most useful website: BBC News – it’s an information-rich portal for general and business news, along with sport, culture and just about anything that impacts on your life.

Business person you admire: John Caudwell, a tenacious self-starter.

Recommended hotel for business: Premier Inn. They are consistently good, clean and cost effective.

Favourite UK restaurant: Winteringham Fields, near Scunthorpe. The food is sublime as is the location, with a working farm.

Best business decision: Rebranding the Endurance® Doors composite door range early in 2014 and subsequently investing heavily in its further development.

Other interests: Fitness classes, while my three dogs and five children keep me fully busy at all other times.

Working Day: My working day typically starts around 7:45am, unless I’m on the road any earlier and I’m always eager to get in and make a daily plan. As we’re a group of companies my remit goes beyond our hugely successful Endurance® Doors brand into foil lamination, extrusion and other manufacturing processes, including door panels. It’s important for me to touch base with our new team of senior management early in the day and inevitably there are meetings and important customer visits to attend. At the end of the day I’m a person who adopts a clean desk policy and so it’s important for me to catch up on all phone messages and e-mails before leaving around 6:30pm, though we operate a 24-hour operation.

Working Location: I now live just 3 miles from the office; however, for the first 10 years I had a 150-mile round trip. A short journey home after a long day is a pre-requisite for spending family time and recharging the battery for the following day. I firmly believe that effective management requires rest, focus and commitment. My physical office is close to the action in customer service and sales, which is a great barometer of how we are operating as a business. It also means that I can address any customer needs quickly and effectively and also through our senior management team. On the days that I’m out on the road, technology also allows me to interface with the main office.

Few people know that we were one of the founders of the solid core composite door sector back in 2002, when we traded under the Rocal brand. At that stage in the composite door life cycle, GRP doors dominated, yet we dared to be different. For the first ten years, we built a strong business and spent considerable time fine-tuning our product offering, particularly with the core of our door. We wanted a solid timber core that didn’t warp, twist or delaminate and furthermore offered additional performance enhancements to eliminate the risk of water ingress. Today, the Endurance® Doors specification includes the taping of all apertures and also the integration of our unique Moisture Barrier System to the foot of each door, in the form of a cellular foamed extrusion, manufactured within the group. For over 4 years we have also been working with 3D Laminates with their unique CoolSkin product, which offers a life expectancy in excess of 25 years and comes with a comprehensive 12-year warranty. This door skin provides a unique finish to our doors that is a perfect match for the foils used on our Rehau door frames, unlike GRP which must be painted, stained or embossed.

As an industry, we need to be mindful of the fact that an entrance door is subject to far more wear and tear than a typical replacement PVC-U window and consumers will expect effortless long-term performance and striking good looks, something that’s part of our product mantra at Endurance® Doors. Our customers wholeheartedly buy into this philosophy, as our impressive financial performance shows. In 2016, we proved to be one of the fastest growing brands in the composite door sector, with sales up over 40% on the previous year and November 2016 we were up an incredible 63% on the previous year. Growth has in fact increased in 2017 with audited figures just short of 45% for the first six months with the trend continuing into July and August.

The composite door market is growing, there is no doubt about that, yet our statistics are clearly highlighting the fact that we’re taking market share. The market has clearly polarised between the cost-effective GRP doors and the solid-core composite doors, with the latter segment outgrowing the other. Consumers are inspired by the designs and colour options inside and out from solid-core composite doors and we’re now able to offer 17 different door slab finishes and similarly 14 different door frame options. We don’t rely on door blanks, rather we are a manufacturer of bespoke entrance doors and there’s a clear and fundamental distinction here, which is also reflected on our Door Designer. This online Door Designer is receiving heavy usage from both installation partners and consumers looking to create their ideal door. It’s a relatively simplistic process that doesn’t require an App, but does allow for an accurate design to be created, saved, shared or even placed on top of an existing image of the homeowner’s property.

We’ve also created a Preferred Installer network who enjoy pre-qualified sales leads and our latest statistics from Google show that web traffic is up over 300% on the previous year, whilst we rank very highly across the board of search terms. Our marketing function has already grown, with two full-time members of staff managing our activities, along with key external partners. While digital marketing technologies and techniques have helped generate direct enquiries, more traditional means of support are all part of the marketing mix. Our 92-page brochure is a comprehensive resource for anyone in the industry and has been recently supported by The Finishing Touches publication, designed to communicate glass and hardware options, helping to create the most individual of designs for an Endurance® Door.

Market research remains a little-used tool within the industry, but now we’re harnessing the Survey Monkey platform to generate further customer feedback, on what we do and how we can respond to the needs of our customers. The result of this is the #youaskedendurancelistended initiative, which has been a huge success with new point-of-sale materials coming on the back of it. It’s also been a useful process to assess what colours and finishes our customers would like to see next. We’ve just launched duck egg blue on the back of this important feedback, with a unique and dedicated CoolSkin foil from 3D Laminates, which are now specified on 95% of our doors and for good reason; they perform far better than other foiled sheets and certainly ABS sheets. During the course of 2017 we have also added new hardware options including an impressive bull ring knocker and new heritage and architectural hardware ranges, as our thirst for product innovation continues. These new suited hardware ranges have again come from our close business partnerships, this time with ERA and will facilitate the design of period-inspired doors and the more contemporary options, which are becoming increasingly popular. Our sales analysis now shows that our Mayon door from our Urban Collection is our most popular design, with anthracite grey and schwarzbraun accounting for nearly 40% of sales.

The demand for greys is industry wide across the home improvement sector in both PVC-U and aluminium, but in the composite door market we are yet to see the real adoption in flat colours. We’re on the cusp of the adoption curve for such finishes, which will also be supported by the introduction of metallic finishes, which look as close to aluminium as you’ll ever get. 2018 in my view, will be a game changer for the composite door sector as it seeks to compete head on with aluminium in the entrance door market. But what of our direct challenges as a business? We are owner managed, which means we can adapt to the needs of the marketplace quickly with a short product development cycle. We can also harness group resources in terms of extrusion, foil lamination and finance to support our sustained growth, but staff development and customer care will remain core to our values. Collectively, this will fuel the continued growth of Endurance® Doors today and long into the future.

The post Stephen Nadin, Managing Director of the Rocal Group appeared first on Windows Active Magazine.

Leading specialist fabricator Mercury Glazing Supplies Ltd has just invested a six figure sum in new machinery to help it achieve ambitious growth plans over the next three years. Chris Reeks, Mercury’s Sales and Marketing Director, commented: “This investment will help us continue to deliver exceptional quality and exceptional lead times as our order volumes increase.”

Mercury has invested in two machines from leading supplier Haffner Murat: a new FA526 Automatic 2 Head End Milling Machine and a new SC220/VS Machining Centre.

Mercury is one of the UK’s largest manufacturers of the market-leading Spectus Vertical Slider and it recently cemented its status as the go-to supplier by becoming the first fabricator to start manufacturing the new Spectus mechanically jointed Vertical Slider, which opened up a new level of opportunities for its customers. The new machines will support Mercury’s fabrication of the new Spectus mechanically jointed vertical slider as well as general window production.

An established manufacturer, Mercury has a reputation for leading the way in fabricating the specialist products the market demands. Alongside the addition of the mechanically jointed Vertical Slider to its range, the company has also added the Designer Door range from Smarts Aluminium and the TD68 commercial door from Jack Aluminium.

Chris commented: “Our success has been built on delivering high quality specialist products backed up with proactive, customer-focused service. Our intention is to build on this success and grow our business by 35% in the next three years. We have been working hard to put the foundations in place without compromising any of the quality for which we are known. We are expanding our product range, offering new products, installing new systems and investing in new machinery from Haffner Murat.”

Mercury Glazing has an exceptional reputation in the industry and – as its expansion plans demonstrate – is set to bring its high quality offering to an even greater numbers of customers.

www.mercuryglazing.co.uk

The Residence Collection are experiencing an increase in trade enquiries, thanks in no small part to the integrated nature of the profiles and glazing beads, along with product availability in single lengths. It’s also a system that’s supported by one of the strongest marketing programmes in the sector.

With 15 different bead and system combinations, customers are able to make each job bespoke to the needs of their discerning homeowners, whilst minimising their respective stockholding. The single length ordering for main profiles across R², R7 and R9 is supported by a 4 length per pack quantity of glazing bead in the form of 28mm square, decorative and a unique heritage staff bead, along with the triple glazing variants of 44mm square and decorative.

With relatively low start-up costs along with the clever profile and glazing bead integration, it’s proving to be the perfect supplementary system for fabricators looking to make a higher margin. Customers such as Window Tech Trade have not only begun on their Residence journey, but have actively changed their business model to solely focus on The Residence Collection.

Sarah Hitchings, sales and marketing director of The Residence Collection commented: ‘With shared profiles, glazing beads and single length ordering for main profiles, customers don’t have the worry of tying up cash on their racks and furthermore they are able to harness a business model that can generate strong double-digit margins. With an unrivalled marketing support programme, we’re also actively supporting our manufacturing partners and installers with the tools to sell, so there’s never been a better time to become one of our partners.’

For further information for both retail and trade partner enquiries please visit www.residencecollection.co.uk, e-mail journey@residencecollection.co.uk or call 01452 348650. You can also add to the considerable following on Twitter @residence9 and engage with them on other social media platforms including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest and Houzz.