09 Rewriting history

Aluminium is making itself at home in heritage houses .

18 Adapt , don ’ t react

R & D department stays one step ahead of building regs .

25 What downtime ?

‘ One-drop ’ cuts costs and increases convenience .

34 Bring it in

Trade counter brings new meaning to ‘ door to door ’.

47 Fresh perspective

International initiative trades skills with overseas .

Central Window Systems , Conservatory Outlet , Listers , Roseview , Prefix Systems and SolarFrame have joined forces to urge firms in the sector to work together to find new efficiencies and to combat the unending barrage of price increases being introduced - especially at a time when consumer demand is down .

Recent publicly available data shows that household spending has reduced by up to 50 % compared to the same period last year and bosses believe the last thing consumers and retailers need to contend with now is a further rise in the cost of products .

“ We ’ ve seen prices increase at exponential rates over the last two years and this has continued through

into 2022 ,” explained Greg Kane , CEO of Wakefieldbased Conservatory Outlet .

“ The determination has always been there to shield our customers from these price hikes , absorbing what

we can through improved efficiencies , working creatively with our supply partners and passing on what we must . We ’ ve held the line and absorbed all incoming increases throughout 2022 but there

obviously reaches a point when this becomes unsustainable .”

Gary Morton , Managing Director of Central Window Systems , continued : “ This isn ’ t just affecting us , but our industry as a

whole and we must be as transparent as possible to act in the best interest of the entire sector . If these price rises continue , and are again forced down the supply chain , consumers will simply not engage .

“ Enforcing more price increases during a market slowdown is entirely counterproductive and will do more harm than good in both the short and longterm .”

The recent proposal of price increases from the very top of the chain are due to take place in September and would happen just as the energy cap is set to rise again , with manufacturers and retailers set to be stuck in the middle with pressure from both sides .

Continues on page 02