Clearview National July 2015 - Issue 164 | Page 10

INDUSTRYNEWS

Creating a
Successful Future
With a success story spanning two decades,
Hallmark Panels celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

Gary Maddock-Greene

»»A member of Hallmark Group
Products, whose diverse range of
manufactured products include PVCu and
aluminium doors and panels, GRP composite
doors, architectural mouldings, bespoke
fascia and Trespa panels and more recently
a toughened glass service, Clearview joins
the company’s Group Marketing and Digital
Manager, Gary Maddock-Greene, who tells
how the business owes the success of the last
20 years to its determination to grow and
develop its products.
A by-product of sister company Laminated
Supplies, its owners decided to form Hallmark
Panels in 1995 after successfully developing a
range of PVCu and aluminium panels. Its new
range of aluminium panels had a major impact
for aluminium fabricators offering them a
wider range of residential doors. Laminated
Supplies already had an established market
providing a comprehensive range of bonded
sandwich panels in a variety of materials
to Local Authorities and other commercial
sectors.

With the continuing growth of its entrance
door panel range, the off-spring company
quickly outgrew its manufacturing facilities
and in 1995, invested in new manufacturing
facilities in Hull.
Gary picks up the story and explains:
“Hallmark Panels quickly developed in the
early stages, growing its range of entrance
door products further to incorporate a range
of GRP composite doors products. Fortrace
Limited, The Hallmark Group Products’
GRP division, was already manufacturing
architectural mouldings and contributed to
enable Hallmark Panels to manufacture its
own range of GRP doors. The GRP launch
took the business to a new dimension and we
started to lead the way.
“Up until this point, our sale channel was
very much focused on providing customers
our door panels fabricated in to a frame
structure which was outsourced. This
inevitably increased our customer’s lead-time
and as demand grew we took the decision
to make further investment to produce a
complete doorset of our own.
“We partnered with The Veka UK Group,
utilising its Halo Rustique and Eclipse
70mm profile sections to produce our very
own exclusive range of GRP composite
doorsets for the market place. This move
enabled us to reduce the lead-time for our
customer drastically, and put us back into
the marketplace as a serious entrance door
contender.
“Development of our ranges intensified
as we grew, and our door designs and styles
changed to accommodate the ever changing
demands of the consumer. Partnering with
The Veka UK Group gave us confidence in
our supply chain enabling us to competently
provide our customers with further advancing
ranges.” Gary adds.

Further investment was made in the years
to follow to support the company’s growth
including; a major investment in Toughened
Glass Solutions Limited, a manufacturer
of glass toughening and sealed unit, the
introduction of a fleet of new delivery
vehicles to ensure safe and on-time delivery
and the introduction of a new telesales
department, enabling Hallmark Panels
to keep in close contact to its customers,
sharing with them the introduction of new
products, product and services changes.
Gary explains: “With the growin