Systems Companies And Price Increases

If there is a job I would like to have the least in this industry at the moment is the boss of a systems company. Nearly every installations company up and down the country will have had a price increase notification from one or more of their suppliers. It's something I wouldn't like to authorise or pass on. We have, but for now it's been restricted to hardware and not frames, but that could still come!

The problem installations companies have with this is that it's just not the odd one. I've had reports of roof manufacturers raising their prices 3 times already this year. The frequent and steep price increases seem unjustified, and doing it 3 times in the first 6 months is crazy. The excuse of poor exchange rates and other economical factors starts to wear thin come the second and third increase, as you would assume the first one would cover all those factors.

The price increases come from every area of our industry. Glass, hardware, polymers, extruders and so on. Now I don't know the percentage increases from other companies other than my own, but from what many of you have said, they are quite significant. If these increases were made during more profitable times, I'm sure many of us would accept them, absorb them and just get on with the job at hand. However, trading conditions are the toughest they have ever been. Installations companies need as much help from their suppliers they can get at the minute, and these price increases are exactly the opposite of what they need.

The important thing here is to look at this from the point of view from a manufacturer. They are having to battle flucuating exchange rates, rising raw materials costs, lower margins and less demand. So, you can start to understand why these increases are necessary. But, from what I've heard, the price increases passed on to installations companies do not reflect the increases suffered by manufacturers.

So where do we go from here? Well, my thoughts are that yes prices increases are probably necessary, but at nowhere near the amounts they are now, and nowhere near as frequent. Installers cannot absorb increases anymore and are having to pass these on to the customer, which is something everyone hates doing. Manufacturers it's time to listen up. The increases have to stop. Service to your customers has to improve. Absorb some of the cost increases yourself. These rises are starting to cripple some companies, and if they disappear, so will some of your revenue. So lets have a bit more help please!

P.S. Sponsoring Andrew Glover for his bike ride wouldn't have harmed! He buys well from you, a token gesture might have been nice!

Companies House

What a good website companies house is. If you have any suspicions of local competitors going bust, you can always go on to their website, search for the company name and (providing they are a limited company, which most are), you will be able to find what situation the company is actually in. Plus other juicy details like when their next accounts are due, if they are late with them, when they changed their name etc.

Just yesterday I found that one of ours has entered a VA, another has split their company up twice, once into a supply only company, the other into an installations company.

So, instead of listening to gossip and rumour, head over to Companies House and check properly. But we're not on there, we're not a Ltd company!

Suddenly A Lot Busier

Yesterday was the day after England was dumped out of the World Cup, and it was like turning back on a tap. Phones much busier, plenty of people through the door and good quality appointments being made again. Weird!

Before the World Cup I was skeptical about how much of an impact it would have on the British public, I didn't think it would have any effect at all. But I was wrong! Yesterday was such a contrast to the last couple of weeks. I assume that others in our industry have found the same effect.

Someone Doesn't Like Me!

I've just noticed something on this blog. Underneath every post from 1st June, someone has clicked on the 'disagree' box on the reactions section. I fully expect this post to be 'disagreed' with also! There's nothing wrong with it all I suppose, but either someone has been a bit daft and thought it would be funny, or someone doesn't like me! Some of the posts are pretty pointless, how can you disagree with me saying I'll be "going away for a bit". Ah well, can't please everyone!

Brand New Website!

As some of you may know, we have been working on a new company website. My attempt was, to put it simply, rubbish. It's a site way too big, not very efficient, and filled with guff you don't need to read.

So, we brought in the company who hosts our site to give it a go properly and professionally. And it's a good job we did. I've seen the layout designs for the pages and they look miles better than what's there at the minute. Much clearer, concise and simple. It's geared up much better to allow potential customers to make appointments, something which the last site failed to do completely.

We are also hoping to do a focused Google Adwords campaign. We did a trial run a few weeks ago and the amount of traffic and click-thru's to the site were phenomenal. So, with the new site, we will run this very soon afterwards. On top of that, our Google Places business listing has improved 8-fold over the last month or so, and were hoping this will only add to the momentum we hope to gain from the website.

Fingers crossed!

Powerless Industry

Now when I mean 'powerless', I'm not talking about the inability of the industry to govern itself, we all know that anyway. What I mean by 'powerless', is that I don't think the industry can do anymore to boost business. Companies have diversified, streamlined their operations, increased advertising, improved product spec etc. Yet the market is still flat, if not declining.

The industry is, unfortunately, under the effects of the overall economy, so much so that what ever we try to do to help improve the situation, it's likely to have very little positive impact.

It may be negative, but we just have to hold on tight and wait for the national economy to pick up. But, those companies who actively go looking for the business, and do it without spending much money, will do best in situations like these.

Dismal England

What an absolute disgrace. England yet again failed to turn up to the same match, and deservedly got their arses kicked back home. The thing that really bugs me about it all, is that players like Rooney score 34 goals for Manchester United last season, but was completely absent in mind on the pitch for all the games. And the same goes for other players. And what's worse, all the players in the England team would be millionaires over the course of ten weeks. Their wages are absolutely disgusting, in fact it's about as bad as bankers and their unnecessary bonuses, if not worse. How is it they think that getting paid of £100,000 a week for their club then playing like they did today and against Algeria is acceptable. It's about time football came back to the real world and started paying out more reasonable wages. Everyone else in the real world is working their backsides off to keep their jobs with crap pay, why should they get treated like royalty for playing such crap football.

My other problem with the team is that most of them don't seem to have the hunger to play for their country. Look back at the team who won it in 1966, the were true players, who played for honour not money. They had pride in who they played for, and got paid a hell of a lot less. We have no players of that calibre anymore. And to prove it, if we were to ask everyone in the Premier League to prove that they became a footballer for the football and not the money, and ask them to play for £400 per week, how many would say 'no, bugger off!' All of them I'd say.

I'm completely disillusioned with the England football team. However, there are many silver linings. The England cricket team seem to be winning everything at the minute, especially if it's against Australia, which makes it all the better! We won a ODI series today, which if your and England cricket fan you will know that's a rare occurrence!

Plus, Andy Murray is still in Wimbledon and looks in better shape than any other top seed players at the minute. England beat Australia in the Rugby Union, and English player won the US Open. Hmm, so basically, it's just the football team letting us down. Just a shame it's our national bloody sport!

So, people of England, focus your minds back on the drafty old windows and doors and think about getting them replaced!

PVCu Facts Column

The report on the ban of illegal timber imports got me in the mood for some more timber bashing and plugging of the PVCu industry. So, I've taken 15 facts from the http://www.fightingbackwithfacts.co.uk/ website and put them in a column down the right hand side at the bottom.

I feel it's important to make this information as visible and accessible as possible. The more people see it, hopefully the more it will get spread around.

How To Solve A Problem Like Timber

The PVCu may have just received a bit of a boost today. A story broken on the BBC News website explains that the EU plans to ban illegally imported timber. Apparently it has taken a number of years to get round legal loop holes etc, which to me, taking into account the rapid deforestation, is absolutely disgusting.

So, how does this help the PVCu industry? Well, firstly I have reason to believe that up to 60% of timber windows in this country are made from illegally imported timber. So, take that timber away, and the timber industry suddenly has a shortage of material. Either that, or timber traders abide by EU laws and prove that their wood has been sourced legally, but that probably isn't likely. So, the wood window industry will have to start sourcing their materials 100% legally, which will probably push prices of timer windows and doors up further.

A second reason why this helps the PVCu industry, is that it helps prove that the PVCu industry is one which is more sustainable than the timber one. For a long time the PVCu industry has been under fire from timber lobbyists, spreading unfounded, completely biased and inaccurate 'facts'. So for the last few years, sites like http://www.fightingbackwithfacts.co.uk/ have been putting these lies right. So reports like this help to bolster the PVCu industry, and help prove that the timber industry has been peddling rotten information about our vital sector.

This is all due to become law in 2012, which isn't that long away. So, with the timber industry on the back foot, what are they going to do to make sure their industry stays alive, especially during these tough economic conditions.

You can view the report from the BBC at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/science_and_environment/10341925.stm

How To Save On Skips

We've (finally) gone all eco here. For a while we've been having our post-consumer PVCu frames taken away by Ecoplas. That was fine, but I wasn't happy at that being the only form of planet saving act. So every office now has a paper recycling bin, which I emptied all 6 today, and it's almost disgraceful the amount of paper we used. Also, we managed to dispose of the HUGE amount of trade magazines that had piled up over the years, thoughtfully. It would have been criminal to just throw away all that paper.

The other step we have just implemented is to put the old timber we remove to good use. So, we've found a local guy who takes old timber windows and doors (and timber of all nature really) and turns it into fire wood for wood burning stoves.

The net result of all this is we are emptying our bins less, and we are using a lot less skip space, meaning we have saved hundreds on skip exchanges. And it's also satisfying to know that you've been responsible and made sure that a load of waste isn't just going to go to landfill.

Who Wins In The Budget?

Right, now we've all been told what we're not getting in the future, we can start to make some assessments. Here's my rough, quick analysis, then I'll explain it a bit further. If your in the public sector you've not got much to cheer about, if your a pensioner that was pretty good listening, if your in business then that statement was also easy listening. But if your a family then depending on your income it was a painful listening.

So then, public sector. Well first off all those that earn over £21,000 are getting a two year pay freeze, and that will probably be extended further if the economy fails to pick up. However, those earning less than that will receive a £250 increase. Councils are also being urged to trim their budgets in return for the government helping them to freeze council tax rates. But this only means one thing, job cuts. Councils are already doing as little as possible in order to conserve money, so the only obvious way to trim further would be to cut jobs. The public sector pensions schemes are also getting re-vamped, but the government is still looking into ways they can be trimmed without creating too much damage.

For all the pensioners out there, all your allowances are staying, plus the link between average earnings and the state pension is being re-established. Pensions will now also go up either by a minimum of 2.5%, or in line with the retail price index (RPI). So not bad at all really.

What does the budget mean for businesses? Well Capital Gains Tax goes up to 28%, not the previously stated 50% which is nice. However VAT, as expected, will rise to 20% as of 4th January 2011 (queue cheesy VAT offers from double glazing companies!). No fuel increases, good news if your a haulage company or van driver. No cigarette increases, good news if your a smoker (RCG!). No increases on alcohol, good news for anyone over the age of 18! So not bad businesses really.

However, the family and the welfare system is the area that is hardest hit. And is also the area where the government is going to recoup most of it's money. Housing benefit has been slashed, tax credits for kids have been frozen and the threshold to apply for it lowered. There are many others I could mention, but would fill this post with more guff than necessary. The point is that this is the area which has taken the hardest hit.

So, what does this all mean if you work in the window industry? Well, if you find you get some of your custom from young families and people who work in the public sector, that area might decline. However, the cancelled rise in NI contributions means the cost of employing staff stays down, and the rise in the income tax threshold means there is more cash in everyone's pocket. If you find you get a large chunk of your business from pensioners, then that should stay the same or maybe even improve. Pensioners stand to benefit from today's budget, other than the rise in VAT, but that I don't think will make much of an impact. We could see a small rise in the older generation replacing their old windows and doors.

One other thing we are going to see is a sharp rise in 'beat the VAT' or 'we pay the VAT increase' offers from companies. It's almost expected these days. It's going to be cheesy, but it's going to happen.

All in all I think this budget has been a decent one. It's risky, but if it works, it will right a very large wrong.

Who's Being Honest And Who's Not?

Time's for the window industry have got very tough over recent months, for everybody. In fact, time's have got tough for every sector and every industry over the last couple of months, no one can deny that. But it still baffles me that in a industry in the doldrums, how some can still be coming out saying they are busier than they have ever been.

Now I can understand that a company's natural instinct when asked if they are busy is to beef their answer up a little. But it's when businesses are saying they are booming, when it's quite clear that market conditions and other major companies say they are not. Yes some businesses may be busier than others, and well done to those for managing a steady flow of business in what are very tough trading conditions, but to come out with grand statements show a lack of credibility.

Now I'll be honest for a second. We are not breaking any records. Yes it's gone quiet over the last month or so, but we are doing better than last year. Simple as that.

And another thing that's bugged me. When people say they've had a record month, that could mean anything! What if a company only sold 50 windows last month, and sold 51 this month. Technically, yes that is a record, but on the other hand, the windows sold every month might not be enough to keep a business afloat. So when statements like that are made, I do take them with a huge handful of salt.

Tuesday Is Budget Day

What will tomorrow's budget statement going to hold for the country? Well, we know a few details already.

Council tax is set to be frozen next year, softening the blow for plenty of expected tax rises and spending cuts. VAT is expected to go up, probably to about 20%, so petrol could go back up by about 2p per litre. Child tax credits could be removed from most families, though this is an area I don't know that much about so I could be wrong on that one!

A big talking point has been the proposed rise on Capital Gains Tax. The current rate is 18%, but the Government want to raise to either 40-50%. So if you were to sell a property or business and make £1million profit, the tax rate you pay will go up from £180,00 to possibly £500,000. Now if your a guy with a big property or business portfolio, this is going to sting quite a bit. The worry here is that sales of bigger houses and businesses is going to slow, stagnating the market and stifling growth.

The country, and especially the public sector, is holding it's breath for what is going to be announced on Tuesday. Expect pay freezes, pay cuts, job reductions disguised as 'streamlining', previous government projects scrapped, pensions freezes and pension reductions. Tomorrow is going to be a painful watch.

Obama Backs Me!

Looks like my message of coming away from the reliance of oil as quick as possible has spread over the Atlantic, even the President is agreeing with me! Oh wait, it's taken one of the worst environmental disasters in history for him to say what I have been saying. Thought it was too good to be true. But, for whatever reason, he is right. The world is so completely reliant on oil. So much so, that if oil were to run out right now, the world would actually come to a standstill.

And because Obama's said we have to move away from oil, it's become fashionable, so David Cameron's now said pretty much the same thing. So lets hope in the budget there's going to be plans for plenty of green jobs and investment in renewable energies.

The reliance of oil is also going to affect our industry. The polymers used to make PVCu are currently produced from oil, so what's going to happen when oil isn't available? Well, recycling of old frames is going to have to be one of the major contributors, and polymer production from sustainable sources such as crops specially planted for natural oil is going to be the other big change.

The Panic Button Is Pressed Down Hard

I get the distinct feeling that over the last few days and weeks the panic (or at least the 'worry quite severely') button has been firmly pressed. The reason? Well I've come to this conclusion from what people in different industries have said to me.

The GlassTalk forum has been deep in discussion about manufacturing price increases and the struggle to absorb them. The main example of this has been given by RCG. After whats seems to be many price increases, his company is now under great pressure to pass on these increases as absorption is an option which is increasingly difficult to choose. This sentiment has been backed up by many on the site, with the majority explaining that most manufacturers have upped their prices a few times already this year and are unable to take any more on the chin, so will have to raise their prices or risk their profit margins altogether. It's got that bad that, in RCG's words, "he's gone to the market place". Decisions like those aren't easy ones to make due to their size and implications.

A local DIY company today said that they are also incredibly quiet. They explained that the beginning of the year was good, solid, much better than the year before, but recently, and especially after the election, there has been a marked drop in trade.

And this is not restricted to certain industries. My girlfriend has been explaining to me today that things at the kitchen/bathroom parts manufacturing company she works for have suddenly tightened up in a big way. And that service and stock levels from their suppliers have dipped largely, as well as being given substantial and numerous price increases from all their suppliers.

Months and months ago, when the country was still in the tightest grips of recession, we were told that there would be adjustments, and that there will come a time where business in this country would go through change. Well I think that we are at that crunch time right now. The prices of everything from fuel to food, clothes, polycarbonate roofs, door panels etc have gone up, and in some cases dramatically. We are living in times where general costs will have to go up for a while. We have businesses now buckling under the pressure to pass on increases to the consumer, something they will have to do in order to stay in business. Plus, we have the emergency budget coming up next week. I foresee that being quite a painful listen, and will provide a tough back drop for the country over the next four to five years.

So, as you can see, you can tell why I think there is an air of panic and desperation setting in at the moment.

All Change

Blogger has now provided a proper template designer, so I thought I'd take advantage and see what was new. And as you can see, it's a fair bit different from the last design. Hopefully the pages are a bit clearer. I know the links section down on the right hand side is clearer.

I've not shelved the plan to turn this into a proper website, but I have to make sure the company one gets done first. At the moment we're a week early, so should have it up and ready in the next 10 days according to our IT guys!

Let me know if you prefer this layout or the old one please!

Will Companies Really Go Bust?

There is a lot of speculation that come 1st October, those who haven't conformed to the new rule changes to Part L will go out of business. But is that a scenario that is likely to occur? I don't think so.

Let's think about this realistically. Will manufacturers really not conform to the new rules and risk going out of business? No, they won't. No matter how much manufacturers don't like the WER scheme, they are going to have to conform to stay in business. It's as simple as that.

I honestly can't see manufacturers objecting to the changes that much that it will put the business in danger. So, lets stop the scaremongering and think a bit more positively!

I'm Back Again!

I'm tired. I'm drained. My voice is broken! My face is burnt. My lips are dry. And now I have to get back to selling windows and doors again!

Hopefully I've not missed anything too important while I've been away. I've looked in the trade magazines and they are all still dissecting the WER scheme. I don't know about you but I'm losing the will to read any more articles on the issue now.

We've also received some of our new showroom samples with the new locking mechanisms and new wood grain colours, we're still waiting on some more but we just have to be patient!

I'm not going to do any sort of report on Download Festival because I don't think anyone other than me will be interested! So I'll just keep to writing about windows for now!

Visitor Numbers Fall

Over the past couple of weeks I've noticed that my visitor numbers haven't been doing as well as I'd like. In fact up to now I'm down by 23%.

The first thing you do when this occurs is to question why. My immediate thought was GlassTalk. And I can see why. It's a live forum where people are able to have much more real-time conversations, depending who is logged in at that time. This makes it much easier to communicate with other, something not so fluid with blogs. But blogs still have the advantage of being to talk about anything YOU want to, at any time. But I suspect some of my traffic has been going there, more than here.

But I plan to do something about it. Once I get back from Download Festival, both this site, and the company one is getting much more of my attention, and hopefully when this gets it's own domain, more traffic will come this way. Eventually, I don't think it inconceivable to expand the site as much as RCG's.

I Hate Lintels

One area of this work that had always annoyed me has been the need for lintels.

As we understand it (and based on what FENSA said in it's last handbook), the ruling is if a window or door doesn't have a lintel when it comes to replacing it, then the company doing the replacing has to install a lintel. This cost then obviously has to be passed on to the customer. This is all fine is it's just a single window or door. But say you come across an installation of 10 windows and 2 doors, non of which have lintels, but because you are a company who wants to fit the job right and leave the customer happy, you have to quote for them. The frustrating element here is the other local companies and cowboys won't be quoting for them, because they know they the likely hood of a FENSA inspection catching them out in minimal.

What makes this situation even stickier, is that it's not clear if this is a set in stone requirement. The wording from FENSA says it's their 'reccomendation', but does that mean this is something you HAVE to do, or not. Because it also says that they are required if the brickwork becomes loose and unstable. So does that mean if when the window or door is removed and the brick work is solid and doesn't move, it doesn't need one?

You can see what I'm getting at, just like many other things in this industry, it's not completely clear. It's also very frustrating. Lintels on mass can add a lot to the cost of a quote, while remaining competitive, we also want to make sure that we comply with the rules.

It's A Small World

I met a very interesting customer today, in fact he turned out to be a very distant relative! He shares the same name as I do, and anyone who knows what that name is will know that's it quite a rare one, so when you come across a person with the same name you know they are going to be related to you.

They originally came in for a back doors, but conversation inevitably turned to the family tree. Peter (the customer) told me he managed to trace my grandad's family line up to 1826 where it starts to become difficult. And as the more we talked, the more strains of the same name, all linked back to the original name at least 500 years ago, turned up. In fact we have a very, very distant and enormous family spread all over America, and a few in Australia.

I was under the impression that there weren't many of us about, but after an in-depth conversation/family history session, it's plainly not true. In fact if I was to plot out our family tree, it would probably end up more than covering the side of a house! It's an incredibly small world!

And needless to say they bought the back door too!

The Ideals Of An Outdoor Showsite

I'm a great believer that if you are going to display conservatories, they need to be outside. Having them outside means the customers gets the true feel as to what to expect from their new conservatory as they are going to be exposed to the weather.

Companies can boast dozens of conservatories on display, but if they are inside, surrounded by artificial light and air conditioning, I believe customers aren't getting the true showsite experience. They are in their own climate, protected, when the real thing is going to be subjected to all sorts of extremes of weather.

For example, how do you demonstrate the benefits of the heatguard roof inside?! We have a conservatory with a heatguard roof, next to one without, and that allows us to show properly the difference between roofs, and the obvious benefits. We don't have the biggest showroom, but because it's outdoors, customers often tell us that they can get the true picture by coming to our outdoor showsite as opposed to other indoor ones.

2nd Attempt At Website

We've now got the ball rolling on creating a new company website. One which is able to take advantage of the hugely increased traffic to our site. Once it is coded and fully recognisable to Google, coupled with a Google AdWords campaign, we should be able to make good headway in making inroads in the competition in our area.

For a while many have told us we should have a bigger presence on the web than we have at the minute. Well, we're in a position to start doing something about that now.

What we've also done is looked at the stats the Google AdWords campaign provided, and what we have seen is very encouraging. We received a huge amount of impressions, plus plenty of click-throughs to our website. So it is obvious that people are still searching for double glazing. We just have to harness this interest in the right way.

Once the new site is up and running, we will look to expand in relation to how well the site is doing and the results it brings in.

After that, this blog is changing for good. Own domain. Own site. More traffic, and hopefully one which will become much bigger than what it is now. But, until then, I have to be patient. Good things come to those who wait and all that!

Colours Are The Way Forward

Coloured wood grained PVCu seems to be the innovation that has taken off most in recent years. We've had the introduction of orangeries and PVCu decking as new products to try to expand companies' product portfolios, but it's coloured wood grains that have made a firmer impact than the others.

Our brand new coloured door range includes, red, white, cream, black, blue, green and Irish Oak wood grains.

The push for colours started with the introduction of composite doors. Composite doors were the first choice in choosing a door which doesn't just come in the standard white or Rosewood/Light Oak wood grains. They came in all sorts of colours from then.

From there, the colours have been applied to engineered doors and windows as well. And since then, the market for coloured doors and windows has expanded. It's not been a boom, but it's become a steady rise which has become a market in which window companies could actually make decent money out of it.

Not only coloured doors, but with the introduction of white wood grain, customers are now able to have the standard white colour, but with the added touch of wood grain.

Coloured doors are here to stay I think, and hopefully the market will continue to expand at a steady rate, so everyone is able to take advantage of this new sales opportunity.

Month In Review: May

May turned out to be one of our better months of the year so far. An increasing number of sales, though lead levels were slightly down on previous months, but our conversion rates were better in May.

But one of the biggest things to happen last month is the brand new range of windows and doors made available by our manufacturers. This includes a brand new range of coloured wood grained doors. There are other fantastic new developments, but I don't want to give too much away, competitors might be reading!

All in all May was a good month, positive changes, good sales figures, but still hardwork!

I'm Going Away For A Bit

Well, not just yet. I'm actually disappearing from 9th June to 14th. I'm going down to Donnington Park for my third Download Festival. I'm off to live the metal lifestyle; drinking, headbanging, superb music, all with a wide mix of brilliant people from all around the world.

So, while I'm off, leave me a few good comments to read so I've something to do when I get back on Monday.

Rock on!