Clearview Midlands June 2014 - Issue 151 | Page 22

INDUSTRYNEWS

Things can only get better
Clearview met with Jerry Webb, MD of CDW Systems, a
company which has been manufacturing aluminium for 22
years, to discuss a recent report the company has carried
out to assess the future of the aluminium market.
material is to fabricate to PVC-u;
and therefore sometimes letting
their customers down on product
quality and lead times.
An overwhelming 88.24 %
said that they would prefer a
specialist supplier fabricating only
aluminium. From our vantage
point this isn’t surprising as
fabricating aluminium requires a
completely different mind-set to
PVC-u.
It is no secret the economy
is picking up – according to
government statistics we have
successive quarters of growth;
private sector hiring intentions
are improving; unemployment
is falling and there has even
been incremental progress
made to reduce the UK’s trade
deficit.
Things are improving in our
industry as well. Here at CDW
Systems we are on course for a
record start to the year and with
the order book continuing to fill
up, positive trading shows no sign
of abating.
Aluminium renaissance

With this in mind we wanted
to assess the future of the
industry and take its current
temperature. To do this we
commissioned Insight Data to
poll 5657 aluminium installers in
the UK; asking them a series of
questions.
The results were interesting.
In the report we asked installers
whether they would rather buy
from a specialist supplier or a
multiple material fabricator.
We had come across many
stories of recent entrants into
the aluminium market not
fully grasping how different the

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JUN 2014

Assembly process

For example, assembling a
larger sized commercial window
is incredibly labour intensive
compared to the automated
production of a PVCu casement
window, and as such PVCu
fabricators recently turned
aluminium fabricators ma y offer
a slower turn around and offer
reduced quality products to their
installer customers.
Then there is the issue of
training staff to consider. Unless
you’re looking to bus in a team of
seasoned aluminium fabricators,
you may not be giving your
customers the very best they
deserve.
Products

The strong performance of
the aluminium sector has been
helped by the bi-fold boom; with
aluminium a more natural choice
of material for this product. So it
was unsurprising that the majority
of those polled said that one of
the products they install most is
bi-folding doors.
This suggests to me that
consumer appetite for bi-folding
doors shows no signs of abating;
and any installers not offering this
product would be wise to do so.

Sentiment

Personally, I was most
interested to gauge the sentiment
of installers going forward. It’s
been a tough and long recession
and confidence has often been in
short supply.
Looking forward, the report
suggests that the ‘aluminium
renaissance’ will continue; with
83.33 % expecting domestic
demand for aluminium to
increase in the coming five
years.
An overwhelming majority
also expected the commercial
sector to hold up – which is
unsurprising given aluminium’s
stronghold in this sector. But
the numbers could have been
affected by the curtailing of
government backed projects such
as the Schools for the Future
programme.
With such optimism going
forward the report suggests to
me that in the aluminium sector
things can only get better.
Does experience count?

With such opportunities in the
sector I was also keen to see what
installers expect from a supplier.
Only 29.41 % said that they
had confidence buying from a
supplier that has less than three
years’ experience manufacturing
aluminium, compared to
70.59% who said they didn’t
have confidence buying from
a supplier with less than three
years’ experience.

72.22 % of those polled said
they would like to see faster lead
times improve from their supplier;
with 44 % citing communication
and service as what they’d like to
see improve.
This certainly gives aluminium
fabricators some food for thought,
with lead times having long been
the elephant in the room for us.

‘With such
optimism going
forward the report
suggests to me that
in the aluminium
sector things can
only get better’
Overall the results show
that optimism is strong in the
aluminium sector and there are
lots of opportunities for installers,
both in the short and long term.
It’s also encouraging to see that
many believe that domestic
demand for aluminium will also
increase.
With confidence returning to the
economy and consumer spending
rising; the domestic sector could
well become a long-term natural
home for aluminium installers and
not just for higher end projects.
For more information,
call 01452 414853 or visit
www.cdwsystems.co.uk

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