Fragile Market

The double glazing industry I think is still in a state of flux. 

On one hand you have companies like Everest coming out with 30% increases in profits and sales. But then on the other we still see other companies around us going to the wall. It has to be said that the probable main reason for this is that those who are going bust are doing so because they failed to adapt to a changing market. Those whose results are improving are the ones who positioned themselves well to keep making profits and maintain growth.

However, I feel the market still remains fragile. Customers are much more tentative than they were this time last year. No doubt affected by the threat of job losses and the huge spending cuts now kicking in. People are still placing orders, but are taking more time to do so, meaning a slow start to the year for many. I can say with confidence though that the end of January has seen things speed up and gain a bit of momentum. 

The industry is still susceptible to shocks and nervousness. The economic contractions figures out last week will only serve to knock consumer confidence, which is the last thing we all need. To keep people buying it's going to come down to what the sales staff can do. They need to give the customer complete and utter confidence that spending potentially huge sums of money with them is one of the best purchases they can make right now. If they can do that, without pressure and hard-sell, then we'll be OK.

Chat With Rob Foy

It was a nice change on Wednesday to have a chat with someone who is a regular on Glasstalk and a reader of this blog. 


The reason for the call was a technical hitch that needed solving. But once sorted we got to chatting about the industry and how it's plagued by unscrupulous individuals who shouldn't be allowed to ever run a company. It was good to hear someone really wanting to try to change the industry we work in for the better and mean it. He struck me as a do-er, not a say-er.


The industry needs people like Rob Foy if we are going to ever make changes to an industry that is under-priced, over-populated with regulatory bodies and cowboys and which needs dragging into the 21st century. 

PVCu Recycling Market

The residual effect of an expanding 2nd and 3rd generation replacement window market is the creation of a potentially huge PVCu recycling sector.


Companies like Veka and Ecoplas have put some real effort into getting set up to cope with the influx of this increasing market. And it's good for the industry too. Us installers get to drone on about our green credentials to customers. Manufacturing costs should in theory become lower as profilers don't have to buy in brand new materials. Companies like Veka and Ecoplas can also stand to make money out of it as chopped up PVCu can be used for many other purposes.


The problem is the amount companies pay for old PVCu windows. I know that Ecoplas only pay £60 per tonne for people to bring in their old windows and doors. If there is 3 tonnes that's £180. But by the time you've taken petrol/diesel money off and labour for loading the frames onto transport and getting it to the plant, it hardly seems worth it. For people to send in their old PVCu they need to be paying about £100 per tonne for it to seem worth it.


Barring the cost issue, there is plenty of scope in this new industry for companies to make decent money out of recycling.

How Much Should The Average Door Be Sold For?

The issue of pricing has become a hot topic in recent weeks, with many saying that we sell our goods and services too cheaply. I've said in a previous post that a good quality 3x3 Victorian conservatory should be selling for around the £10K mark. But this is a big ticket item which isn't selling in the bucket loads. So I thought I'd gauge opinion on what people think a door should be sold for this year. So I've added a poll!


My personal opinion is that a standard white composite door should be coming in the £800-£1000 mark. If the door is sold with fancy glass and additional features then we should all be able to sell doors for over £1000. After all, companies have worked tirelessly to improve security and quality on doors, why can't we command a better selling price?


Comments and thoughts appreciated.

UK Economy Contracts

The UK economy has suffered a contraction of 0.5% in the last quarter or 2010. The Treasury has said that the winter weather may have contributed to the majority of that figure.


I'm afraid that this is only going to spook the public into reduced spending. And spending this month hasn't been great from the public. This is all starting to have an impact as I've found out this morning that one of our competitors has had to lay off some fitters. 


The beginning of 2011 hasn't had the rip-roaring start many were hoping for. This year could well be a much tougher one, just as the experts and Government has said it would be.

Progress In New Zealand Over Rogue Window Company

There has been progress in New Zealand as regards to double glazing firm Double Glaze It and their lack of work despite taking thousands of dollars worth of deposits. The following report if from www.newstalkzb.co.nz: 

Police have received 40 official complaints over a Christchurch window glazing firm, but one man is claiming it's just the tip of the iceberg.

Claims that the 40 official complaints to police over a window glazing firm are just the tip of the iceberg.

Police have confirmed 40 people have complained about the firm Double Glaze It, after publicity over the company allegedly taking deposits for work that was never done.

Ron van der Lem is one complainant who has been gathering details of disgruntled customers after being told by police they wouldn't look at his case unless he could find other people in the same position.

"That's still just the tip of the iceberg," he says. "Just yesterday I received 40 extra complaints on top of the 100 I've already got."

The Fraud Squad is now investigating.

You don't often see this sort of thing here, perhaps we should be copying the New Zealanders and help flush out some of the crap we have!

Selling At The Right Price

In a time where it's imperative for double glazing companies to be selling their products at the right price, the industry is still plagued with companies who are too price focused and hence go bust a phoenix time and time again. 

How do we educate both the public and financially un-sound businesses out there that for a great product, you have to make the right margins and the customer has to pay the right price for it too. Robert Foy has made the point that the smallest installation companies and one man bands should also be charging the same as bigger companies do. Just because they may not have the overheads they do, doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to charge the same. People and in business to make money, that's what they should be doing.

Changing a pricing culture that seems to have been in the industry since it was born is going to be difficult. It may be one of those things where if people keep the issue on the table and as a point of discussion, attitudes may change as the idea of charging a bit more for products starts to bed in. What we could also do with is the bigger companies in this game, like the manufacturers, talking in the same manner. After all, they are the ones raising the prices to start with!

A 3x3 Victorian conservatory for example, should be selling at around the £9-10K mark. For that manufacturers can get a fair price for their glass, roof and frames. The builder and fitters get a decent wage, the company should be making the right amount of profit (bearing in mind they will have to guarantee it for ten years) and the customer is paying the going rate for a conservatory sold in 2011.

I really would like to know if I'm on the right tracks with that, or if some of you think that is too much, or not enough. Either way, our wares are being sold too cheap at the minute and something has to change.

Public Meeting Of New Zealand Double Glazing Firm

I've been following the story of a rogue double glazing firm in New Zealand who has been taking deposits from customers without completing any work. On Thursday a public meeting was held for people who had been affected by this company. There were over 100 angry customers in attendance as well as ex-employees. This is the report:

A meeting was held yesterday by angry customers of a double-glazing firm who have allegedly been paid for work which has not been done

Over a hundred angry customers of a struggling Christchurch double-glazing firm have met to discuss joint action.

Newstalk ZB has been inundated with complaints from people who claim they have paid thousands in deposit for work that was never done.

It is believed hundreds of thousands of dollars cannot be accounted for by Double Glaze It.

Organiser Ron van der Lem says the mood of the meeting was quite angry, and there was a good turn out of former employees and suppliers who also say they are out of pocket.

He says the group now needs legal help from a firm willing to come on board.

Perhaps we should be doing a similar thing here to try and cleanly flush out these rogue companies. Customers will find legal action easier to start if they can create a group to combat these cowboy companies. 

Dedication

I'm two thirds of the way through adding tags/labels to my posts on this blog, all 480 of them! When I look at other blogs and websites, the majority have either a tag list or cloud, and it helps to organise everything a little bit. People then don't have to trawl all the way through my blog to try and find one post they might want to read!


However tagging 480 posts is difficult, and does require you to be dedicated to your site if it means your going to get it all done. Currently, as I've said I'm past the halfway mark, and I would have carried on tonight, but the internet connection at the moment at home is terrible. So I'll finish my marathon tomorrow. 


Over the past 24, there seems to have been a problem with the comments section. Conservatory Girl and Rob Foy have both told me they have been leaving comments, but for what ever reason, I'm not getting them through at my end. I sent a test comment to myself, and that one made it through. So, to help me out, could everyone please bombard me with comments just so I can see what is getting through and what isn't! If you'd prefer to email me with comments then that is fine, I'll post them for you on your behalf. If you don't see your comment on the blog within an hour or so, then send me a tweet at @glazingblogger and I'll look into it further.


There were also a couple of problems with my subscriptions service with FeedBurner, but this seems to have sorted itself out. Though there is one email address on my list which isn't verified, think it's from some one called Phil (don't want to put the email address on here for everyone to see!).

New Zealand Suffering From Rogue Double Glazing Firm

It looks like the double glazing industry's problem of rogue companies isn't just a UK based one. This is an article from New Zealand which made TV headlines:

A Christchurch double glazer has come to the rescue of a woman left out of pocket by a rival company.

As reported on ONE News last night, Alie Van Der Lem from Sydenham was left hanging by the company Double Glaze It.

After saving for two years, Van Der Lem paid Double Glaze It a $1500 deposit in July last year. But her son Ron told ONE News that since then his mother has had nothing but excuses.

ONE News also talked to seven other people who say they paid money and haven't had their jobs finished.

After last night's news, Ron Van Der Lem was inundated with calls from others who said they had been stung by Double Glaze It. Some companies said they had lost more than $100,000.

A call was also received from another company, Energy Saving Centre, who have offered to do Alie Van Der Lem's double glazing for free. They say it will be completed within a month.

Blame game

The two men involved in Double Glaze It - Paul Harrow and Craig Young - are blaming each other for the company's problems.

Double Glaze It salesman Harrow said he came home to find eight tonnes of broken glass dumped in his driveway in what he claims is an act of intimidation.

"I've been accused of embezzling money; I haven't had any charges laid against me, so I presume he's [Young] trying to intimidate me," Harrow said.

Harrow no longer works for the company and says the money from the customers went into Young's account. Young claims Harrow has siphoned off the money.

The police are aware of the case but said they would only investigate if a significant number of people come forward.

The report is courtesy of www.tvnz.co.nz

Did You Try Hard Enough?

January and February are the months where most businesses in the world of windows tend to struggle, and where you often find the majority of bankruptcies. When a business goes pop, it's usually sad to see isn't it? Well, no, put simply. I'll explain why.


The recent recession forced businesses to do what ever they could to make sure they rode out the rough stuff. Or at least that's what they should have done. In my mind, it's sad to see a business go if there are family reasons involved, something happens catastrophically bad to the building or property, or if the businesses really has done everything they can to stave of bankruptcy.


But for those who just sit idly by hoping and waiting for orders to walk through the door, they don't deserve any sympathy. Did they do everything they possibly could before the banks pulled the plug? Did they reduce wages, and not just staff wages but their own? Did they lay staff off? Did they switch energy providers to find cheaper prices? Did they try and expand their product options to give themselves other revenue streams? Did they try advertising? Did they update their existing websites? Did they create a website to drum up more interest? Did they pound the streets dropping leaflets? Did they visit previous customers and enquire to see of they wanted more work? Did they ask other companies for their dud leads? Did they adjust their sales approach? Did they mailshot previous customers? Did they ask the banks for extended lines of credit? Did they go to their families and ask for help? If they did all of the above and more but still went under, then yes they can say they tried everything and truly did succumb to the economic mire. And that deserves sympathy. For those who didn't stretch every sinew trying to keep their business afloat, then you probably deserve it.


It may seem harsh what I've just said, but for me that's as clear cut as it can get. Running your own business should be a passion, not just a job to pay the bills. If you own your own business then you have an obligation to provide a chance to earn a living to yourself, family and your employees, your responsible. If you neglect your business and not give it your full attention and effort when required, it will fail. There is no other simpler answer than that. 

Economic Tug Of War

There is a tug of war going on right now in the economy. The struggle is between families and businesses looking to cut their costs, maximise efficiency and get the most out of their money and the steeply rising cost of goods, services and living. Unfortunately the winner at the moment seems to be the costs of goods, services and living.


We've seen today that inflation has risen to 3.7%. But the problem is that most people's wages have risen by less than 1% or had their wages frozen altogether. Then add in the factors of rising fuel prices, higher food and clothing costs and the situation starts to look a little but bleak.


This does mean that this struggle is going to have some form of effect on the economy. Consumers are going to be spending less to cover for the increases in living. Growth will slow and trading conditions will become tougher once again. For big ticket items like double glazing, installers really are going to have to hit the consumers hard with the benefits and features of their products to keep interest going. My thought is that we are going to have to put our recession heads back on and prepare to rise out some tough times.

Double Glazing In Twitter Land

I thought I'd be a bit of a nerd and typed in the search box on Twitter 'double glazing' just to see what came up, below are a list of the tweets I found:


@damoomen: had double glazing salesmen round tonight, all ok until the end when he phoned his boss re me not wanting to sign tonight...kicked him out!!


@derbyskywatcher: just had a double glazing salesman round - you can never get rid of them!! :(


@WeeChrissieB: Just been told a load of lies by a double glazing saleswoman. She must think we're stupid. Obviously didn't realise one of us is an engineer.


@Mark_Thomas: Our little dog Lady has just barked at a double glazing salesman until he gave up in mid pitch and left us in peace. I'm proud of her.


The above is just a selection of what came up, and obviously all of the tweets weren't bad ones. But, there are enough to make it noticeable. The search results mainly consisted of tweets used as advertising, jokes, or derogatory comments about sales people. 


What is evident is that the window industry is still the butt of many people's jokes. We really have to be bucking our ideas up if we are to shake off our grubby image. Especially now in a world of real-time media. Sites like Twitter only make it easier to make your opinions well known.  

The First Test For DGCOS

One of the main principles of which the DGCOS was set up on, was to protect customers against rogue companies who go bust and phoenix time and time again. After all, this is the sort of practise that the industry wants to get rid of. So, when we heard of Croston Conservatories (one of the founding members of DGCOS) phoenixing again, most of us expected to see some form of action from DGCOS to show that they would be true to their word and not associate themselves with companies such as this one. However up to press there hasn't been a peep!

Maybe the fact that owner Steve Butler has shares in DGCOS Admin Ltd and the holding company. A little fact I know, but one that could put DGCOS in a bit of a compromising position if they don't take some sort of action soon.

This is the first test of the integrity of the DGCOS. Make the right decision by disassociating themselves with Croston Conservatories within the next week or so then their integrity stands. If they leave it any longer than a week, or choose not to do anything at all, then things will probably start to unravel for them. Since the DGCOS arrived in the window industry, many people were sceptical about their motives and credibility. The doubters of this scheme will have been looking and waiting for them to make their first mistake, and this could well be it.

One thing is certain, a hairy fairy press release from DGCOS won't cut it, they have cut the company loose.  

The Disappearing Head!

I forgot about this video on my phone, I think it's pretty funny, but then again I am easily pleased!

Don't lose your head!

The Impact Of High Fuel Costs

Fuel costs are rising to record highs every week, and it's the very high cost of fuel which is going to threaten companies and the economic recovery as a whole. 


One scary piece of information the BBC News website featured the other day was that it now takes up to £75,000 a year in diesel to fill a HGV. If your a manufacturer or transport company of medium size, say with 10 HGV's, three quarters of a million pounds is way too much to be spending on fuel. This is the reason why your bread, meat and cereal is costing you more!

• Food costs are now at all time highs worldwide
• Energy price rises are set to add £560 million to household costs this year
• Wholesale goods and raw material prices are rising fast

Because fuel plays such a massive part in every size of economy, the recovery of these economies depends hugely on the price of oil. But every step every business and household takes to get out of the mire, it's offset every time oil and fuel goes up.

So what are we to do? The public needs to put as much pressure on the government to do something about the costs. The situation I feel is coming to a head, and I think David Cameron sees this, hence his recent comments about a fuel stabiliser. But we have to keep this issue on the minds of the people in government to make sure it doesn't fade away. On a personal level, we all need to be looking at ways to streamline our spending to lessen the impact of the high fuel costs, and the same goes with businesses. 

The end result by the end of the year could be plenty of small to medium size businesses closing their doors due to unsustainable costs.

Darby Glass Goes Out Of Business

The administrators in charge of trying to keep Darby Glass in business have failed to find a new investor to keep the 38 year old insulating glass company going. In turn, the company goes bankrupt with total debts of £820,000 and leaves 60 people now looking for new employment.


During their peak, Darby Glass employed 500 staff across 12 sites around the UK and had an annual turnover of £22 million.


However, the recession and subsequent difficult trading conditions has meant falling revenues, job losses and now bankruptcy. Lets hope not too many others fall to the same fate. 

Is It Time To Drop The 'Double'?

Over the near two years that this blog has been live, more and more people refer to me/this site as Glazing Blogger, dropping the 'Double'. So is it time for me to shorten the name for good?


When I think about it, just about everything else to do the site is referred to as Glazing Blogger; it's in my email address, it's my user name on Glasstalk as well as other sites, people use GB on both the Glasstalk site and here instead of DGB. So on one hand it wouldn't be a big change. Or do I keep the full name on the site as a shrine to the original name I picked? Or am I looking too far into this!? But a name is everything right?!


Feedback welcome and wanted!

My Own Youtube Channel

I am in the process of creating my on channel on Youtube channel! The whole idea is to help drive traffic to my site, and to help expand the Double Glazing Blogger presence on the web. 


The channel will probably comprise of anything to do with double glazing. But I'm not going to add any old rubbish. I'll only put videos on if I think people will actually want to watch them. You never know, I might even do a video blog of my own! Then again I might not!


UPDATE: the channel is now pretty much constructed, just the odd bit of tweaking left to do but other than that it functions. You can find it at: http://www.youtube.com/user/glazingblogger and there will be more videos and playlists added all the time!

Synseal Come Out On Top

Over the Christmas break my poll on who is the best profiler came to an end, and Synseal was picked as who you think was best. WHS Halo came in second and Spectus came third. It would be interesting to know who people voted for and why. Comments are welcome!

Month In Review: December

The last month of the year carried on in the same vein as November, reasonably busy for the time of year.


Leads levels were slightly above what we normally see, I had a 100% conversion rate for the month, and sales overall were very good. December and the back end of November stood us in good stead for the beginning of the New Year, giving us plenty of fitting to go on. 


Because of the positive start of the month and a good November, the very snowy weather we had in the second half of the month didn't cause us too many problems. Getting to work was much harder and the phones and leads were quieter, but this failed to have any significant impact. It just made for some great picture taking opportunities!

2011 Predictions

My general prediction is that 2011 may be a little tougher than last year. VAT has risen, government cuts and their effects are going to be felt soon and wages for most aren't rising enough to keep up with the rising cost of living. So continuing the recovery from recession will be made harder.

More specifically, I see further polycarbonate and glass price increases as well as rises in the cost of PVC. One factor which is really going to put a strain on all businesses this year is the spiralling cost of fuel. Petrol and diesel are at all time highs, and the last time I looked on the BBC website, it now takes about £75,000 a year to fill ONE lorry. Now imagine the bills for haulage companies. Now imagine the knock-on effects of that massive yearly fuel bill. That has to impact on all products, never mind just the ones involved in double glazing.

However, if you take a look at the wider economy, there are signs that normality is starting to return. The FTSE managed to climb above 6000 points which is both financially and psychologically important for investors. The pound vs dollar has stabilised, though it could do with being a little higher. But it's going to take more than this to make sure the public keep spending.

The high street suffered generally a very poor Christmas period, bar the odd company like John Lewis. Sales were down over the period by over 10% compared to 2009. The Christmas period provides a springboard into the New Year when people generally tighten their belts. This didn't happen and for stores like HMV who were hit hard, they are having to close stores (60 in total) to try to recoup losses.

For us as a business, we fully expect to increases sales again this year. Leads at the start of the year have been flowing steadily through, with sales copying that trend. So, lets build on what was a great 2010 for many, ignore, like we always try to do, the negative press, and push on to success.

Happy New Year!

Hope you all had a great break and are ready for what could be a tough slog this year. This post is mainly just to get off my chest how great a time I had in New York. Once I've done this, I promise to keep it to double glazing stuff, and I'll try and keep it brief!


Well, we nearly didn't get there! The original pilot was taken ill in hospital, so Virgin had to call in a spare pilot who was on his day off! About an hour later we managed to take off and landed smoothly at JFK in the middle of the afternoon. However, things were about to get much more stressful as it took four hours to make a 45 minute journey to our hotel. The reason? 51cm of snow. That all fell 48 hours before we were due to set off. The whole of New York just caved in. Three lane roads were ploughed only down the middle, only clearing one lane, causing huge snow piles either side. Not only that, trains and the underground weren't running in the city or in the outer counties, so everyone was driving in, clogging things up further.


We managed to get to the hotel, which was a very nice 4 star place in the Chelsea district of Manhattan. But we had to change rooms as we were right next to some generators and the noise was way too loud to sleep through. We actually ended up with a better room! After we moved it was room service burgers then bed.


Throughout the week we managed to pack in as much as possible, doing the usual tourist places: Empire State Building, so much shopping, Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Maddam Tussauds, Time Square etc. One thing I'd like to stress is how polite and courteous the American people were...and how rude and arrogant the Europeans were! Every American bar one moody NYPD officer and all the British tourists were extremely kind and helpful. You could go up to either and ask questions and would give your more information than you needed. The mainland Europeans however were some of the rudest I've ever come across. A great example is where we were on a bus tour around the city and while we were trying to listen to the tour guide on the microphone, this Spanish couple were trying their best to talk over the guide, much to the annoyance of us as we were right in front of them. We did tell to be quiet as people were trying to listen, but they chose not to listen so we moved further down the bus. We had Russians and Italians pushing through queues while everyone else was patiently waiting. The French were just as rude. The Germans were OK, but I'm afraid the European tourists didn't give their continent the best impression.


The only poor part of the trip was a couple of passes we bought prior to getting there. We hoped to get into Times Square to watch the ball drop live. We found a website last September which claimed to sell tickets which not only allowed you to get into certain venues around the edge of the square (which is actually a triangle!) but also access to Times Square and get past the NYPD blockades. All I can say about them is that it was all utter bullshit! We had to spend two and a half hours trying to find a way to get past all the security barricades to pick up these passes, and once we had them and read the info pack we got, it became clear that these passes were worthless and we didn't have a chance of getting into Times Square! We were duped by a flashy website which looked absolutely legit. The simple message is if your going to Times Square in the future to see the ball drop and you find somewhere which claims to sell access tickets avoid it! It's too good to be true and don't waste your money. Just occupy a space from about 11am in the morning and be patient!


This didn't ruin any of the holiday as there was too much to do to spoil it. Another observation is that food is quite expensive over there. Menu prices look reasonable to begin with, but when you add tax on then 20% tip, it becomes a bit expensive. But, if you find a great steakhouse like we did then it's worth every penny!


Although bitterly cold for most of the week, we did OK weather wise. Sunny most days and no rain meant we could do everything we wanted to. It was a great week away and neither of us wanted to go home, hence we are already looking at booking again soon! It's a fantastic city full of welcoming people and great sights, just go with patience, it's a very busy place and you don't tend to get anywhere fast. Walking is probably your best option.


So, now that's over I need to sell a few more doors and windows to help pay for the next trip!