Big Firm Hit

According to reliable sources, the Bradford base of Safestyle UK has been shut down, one of their main offices for the North of England. The staff have been moved to the Doncaster branch, but those who are living in Bradford are having to travel to Doncaster to load up, then travel back to Bradford or further afield to fit their jobs. Fitters are finding it hard enough to earn money and raise a family, so all that extra travelling time and diesel will only make things worse, with some fitters only reportedly making £30 a day, and with no help reported from Safestyle, we may unfortunately see more voluntary redundancies very soon.

Consolidation

It's times like these I'm glad to be working for one of the smaller firms in West Yorkshire. Unlike a lot of the bigger double glazing firms, especially the larger regional and national companies, we don't have the large overheads. We don't have to rely big TV advertising campaigns or big newspaper ads to get customers through the doors. If the economy doesn't pick up soon, we could see a drastic consolidation of the market, starting with biggest companies being the first on the chopping board.

Budget

Yet again our industry has been ignored. £435 million pounds has been earmarked to improve the insulation of Britain's homes, loft insulation, cavity wall insulation and new energy efficient boilers were mentioned, but nothing about energy efficient windows! I've said it before, it's in the government's interest to help the energy efficient window market, it will aid them to achieve their targets to lower homes' carbon emissions. So with this news, i think we can kiss our %5 VAT rates on energy efficient windows goodbye!

Our Excellent Marketing Campaign

We're over half way through contacting all our previous customers advertising some of the new products, innovations and services we have on offer (putting lots of emphasis on our energy A rated windows). We've had some great feedback already and were only half way through. The key, as most have said, is to make sure you diversify and expand your products and services range to attract new business, which is what we have done, to great effect :).

What Are You Doing To Help!

It's all gone a bit quiet in the window industry in the last couple of weeks, most notably in the efforts to get PVCu back at the forefront of the replacement window market. I still don't think the bigger PVCu installers and fabricators are doing enough. The Fighting Back With Facts campaign doesn't seem to have brought the major players together, it is they who will have the most influence to make changes in this industry i.e. preventing unjustified price increases and getting a 5% VAT rate for WER products campaign going. Instead of holding pally networking events for those who just know each other in the industry, we need a single industry event that will focus on one common goal, to try and galvanise the efforts of everyone who cares about their industry.

Replacement Sealed Units

Replacement glass units are a great source of revenue for us as a company. Many companies don't want the work because they don't see the job as being worth it. Whether it be one sealed unit, eleven or twenty five, we take on all sizes of replacement jobs, and we make a great profit margin too. They're easy to fit, quick job to complete, short lead times and great for cash flow. Plus it shows to the customer a company's willing to take on any job big or small, which will only help build a good reputation. I can see lots more of this type of work being undertaken, especially with the current mindset of 'don't move, improve'.

Energy Efficient Searches

Had a look on Google Trends to see how the double glazing industry is faring in Google's searches. The terms 'double glazing' and 'conservatories' showed the obvious trends of being busy in the summer, and dead by December. But searching the term 'energy efficient windows' showed something much different:

It shows a huge spike in search activity at the beginning of 2007, and a bigger increase again at the beginning of this year. This is obvious proof of how quickly the double glazing industry is evolving into its new shape. Those who adapted about 12-18 months ago to sell and install WER's will do well as they have already established themselves in the market. Those who didn't will struggle as they will be trying to get a foothold into a market that is already filling up. Those who are able to sell a good energy 'A' rated window will do best in my opinion.

Previous Customers

We're starting a process today of contacting all of our previous customers via a mail-shot, to show them the benefits of our Energy A Rated windows. A lot of companies out there are doing a lot to find new customers, which is all well and good, but the task of signing up new clients in this climate is extremely difficult. Lots of companies sit on a huge previous customer database, it is they, who are already familiar with the company they have already bought from, that provide an excellent source of quick revenue. If you have a good rapport with your customers, like we have, they are more likely to give you repeat business in the future. So give your customers an excuse to upgrade, like we are doing with our A Rated windows. We did something like this 3-4 years ago with another product and we had a great response.

Synseal Bought

Well that didn't take long to clear up...Synseal has been bought by the former directors of PFL. The reasons for selling Synseal still aren't clear, but at least some form of financial security seems to be organised.

Global Roofs And Synseal

Some news fed in to us today. We've heard that Global Roof and Synseal seem to be up for sale. A figure of £2.5 million has been banded around, referring to how much the company is losing per month. Whether there is a cash flow or credit problem at the company, or whether the owners are wanting to just cut their losses is yet to be seen. No doubt more precise details will emerge very soon. But yet another worrying sign that the double glazing industry is still suffering hugely.