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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.

The construction of ERA’s new premises has begun at Wolverhampton’s i54 business park. L to R: Stuart Jones, ERA technical services engineer, Wendy Eccleston, ERA marketing co-ordinator and Darren Waters, ERA CEO

ERA, the UK hardware and home security electronics business, will be relocating its offices in Willenhall, Wolverhampton and Coventry, to one, purpose-built 25,000ft2 manufacturing and distribution facility at the i54 business park in Wolverhampton.

The move to i54, which is set to happen by the end of 2017, will make ERA a neighbour to businesses including Jaguar Land Rover, Moog and Eurofins.

Commenting on the move, ERA CEO Darren Waters, said: “i54 is an outstanding business location with excellent transport links. It’s a great fit with our long term strategy and will help to differentiate our brand, both as a supplier and leading employer.”

www.eraeverywhere.com

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The closer we get to this year’s FIT Show, the more we might hear about triple glazing. Although consumer interest in the product as a wide spread may not be what we perhaps hoped it would be a few years ago, the industry in some quarters will always remain determined to make a go of it.

And why not. Plenty of infrastructure has been put in place to make it happen. Money has been poured into the development of the product and fabricators and glass makers want some return on that investment.

Triple glazing however faces three major barriers before it becomes a true hit with home owners. Until it gets around these, it will always face an uphill task.

Lack of suitable climate

Put aside the questionable science around triple glazing for just a second, and perhaps the most obvious reason for a subdued triple glazing market up to press is the simple fact that we’re just not cold enough!

Barring the northern reaches of Scotland, the rest of the UK is just not cold enough to warrant the use of triple glazing. Other places in the world, like Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Finland and other far northern countries in that part of the hemisphere do use a fair bit of triple glazing because temperatures such as -20 degrees can be quite frequent. Highly energy efficient windows and doors, triple and sometimes quad-glazed are absolutely necessary to help reinforce the fabric of the buildings against the cold.

In comparison, the UK very rarely gets anything like the extremes mentioned in the above countries. We already have pretty good double glazed windows and doors, far better than even just a decade ago. They are more than capable of doing the job of keeping valuable heat on the right side of the windows.

Why would home owners pay more when good double glazed windows would tick the box with ease? They wouldn’t.

Questionable sound reduction

One of the biggest selling points of triple glazing has been it’s ability to reduce noise and outdoor sound. I imagine that sales of triple glazing so far might well be centred around busy main roads, rail tracks and next to airports. The typical noisy parts of our country.

Yet, I do still have to scratch my head and wonder how much triple glazing really is reducing noise. For noise to be reduced, noise waves have to be stopped from travelling through materials by making those materials different thicknesses. In the case of triple glazed windows, this would be where the two cavities are different to each other, and perhaps even the glazing itself. However, from what I have seen so far, most fabricators offer triple glazed units with standardised cavities and glass thickness. You can’t blame them. It makes it much easier from an ordering perspective.

However, given what we know, some doubt has to be cast as to how effective triple glazing actually is when it comes to noise reduction.

Instead, how about using a product specifically design for noise reduction? Optiphon noise reduction glass from Pilkington would be a good choice. With a 6.8mm / 4mm glass combo, this is a product designed solely to reduce noise by varying the glass thicknesses. This might be a more tried and trusted method for installers if they are asked by a home owner which is the better of the two routes.

Cost

I know that the cost of triple glazing has come down somewhat in the past few years. As with all new technologies, the older they get, the cheaper they eventually become.

That being said, with the above being taken into account, any uplift in cost, no matter how small it might be, will be a hard sell for a home owner. Right now, there isn’t a single good enough reason to start forking out extra cash for minimal benefits, if there are really any at all.

I have sold one or two contracts triple glazed in the past couple of years, but it has really only been that. We have seen very weak demand from home owners for triple glazing. And those who have bought it have done so as part of a belt and braces approach to their home improvements, not really specifically on noise or our local climate.

Right now we’re entering a period of price increases in our industry, across all products. The cost of double glazed windows are going up, which means triple glazing will go up as well. All this will mean is that triple glazing will be pushed further down the luxuries list and home owners may just spec up on double glazing and get the job done that way.

There are too many reasons not to buy triple glazing than there are reasons to buy it. Until our industry can either communicate the product better to the home owner, or the general public begins a more widespread attitude change, then triple glazing I’m afraid will remain in the shadows for quite a while.

As the UK economy continues to gain confidence, there seems to be some more encouraging news for the UK’s largest construction companies.

A new study from UK business analyst, Plimsoll, which has analysed the financial health of the largest 1,500 construction businesses operating in the UK, indicates that, on average, construction firms have increased in value by 9% in the last 12 months.

The 2017 study states while average company value within the industry has increased by 9%, 121 businesses have seen their value fall by a third.

Plimsoll’s lead author, David Pattison, said: “As a director, taking stock of your company value is a great barometer to measure your success and to analyse the overall state of the market. In all, we have identified 339 businesses that have increased in value by 10% or more and their financial performance adds to the belief that the overall market is continually improving.

“Having said that, we have seen 121 businesses that have seen their value fall by over a third and it is clear that, although the market is improving, it is still a challenging landscape.”

www.plimsoll.co.uk

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The construction industry has started 2017 strongly, with an increase in activity levels as the value of new building contracts awarded in January reached £6 billion, spearheaded by ‘strong figures’ from the housebuilding sector.

According to the latest edition of the Economic & Construction Market Review from industry analyst, Barbour ABI, housing figures increased sharply across January (see diagram), with construction contract value reaching £2.7 billion, a massive 83% increase compared with January 2016.

Of all the type of projects across housebuilding, it was private housing that dominated in January, with 91% of the total construction contract value, compared to just 66% a year ago. Market conditions for private housing were also favourable for housebuilders in 2016, with Crest Nicholson recently reporting a 27% increase in full year profits.

There are also currently £5.8 billion worth of housebuilding contracts that are nearing award status, suggesting this month’s growth is likely to continue over the next few months and beyond.
London unsurprisingly led all regions based on total construction contract value in January, accounting for 26%. This was helped greatly by the £900 million One Nine Elms Twin Towers development, the largest project recorded on the month.

Commenting on the figures, Michael Dall, lead economist at Barbour ABI, said: “Whilst the housebuilding sector is performing admirably, we expect to see its growth continue to flourish across 2017. However, other sectors now need to start producing more auspicious figures, such as the commercial & retail sector, which saw a year-on-year decrease of 40% last month. Infrastructure, another traditionally big performing sector, is also in a slump with January figures being the lowest for 12 months.

“On the positive side, the number of projects awarded in January jumped by 50% compared with December and 25% when looking at January last year. These figures are encouraging and would suggest that work is most certainly on the way.”

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