Clearview National November 2014 - Issue 156 | Page 92
BUSINESSNEWS
Why is the
Fenestration
industry on
the decline?
In recent months, a number of fenestration
industry media forums have seen the
comments of an industry critic repeatedly call for
a complete overhaul of the Fenestration industry.
»»When posing questions to the
individual to substantiate their view and
comments, they were unable to validate or give
factual evidence to back up their opinion.
In fairness to the individual and the
comments made, generally the industry has
seen a reduction in the number of businesses
and may no longer have the volume of
manufactures and providers of the late
noughties.
However, what the industry has seen is
the growth of leaner and stronger businesses,
more able to face the tough market conditions
today’s market throws at them.
When the austerity period bit, the industry
saw larger house building companies go into
administration because of the downturn in
houses being provided to local authorities and
housing associations.
This, in turn, left a number of window
suppliers, fascia and soffit installers with
surplus labour and not enough work. Some
larger fabricators were also affected resulting in
re-organisation of workforces and large scale
redundancies.
Some of the industry’s more organised
companies took stock and realigned their
businesses, diversifying into other sectors,
away from the social housing market.
Primarily aiming at the trade and domestic
markets, the industry started to see the
emergence of smaller installation companies.
This suited the larger fabricators as they could
use the sub-contracted labour without having
to invest financially in additional resource and
transport.
Another positive to come out of the
down-turn in social housing requirements
was the emergence of repair and maintenance
companies. The government started to issue
contracts out for public sector repairs to
these type of companies, which in-turn saw
a opening for many of the industry displaced
window fabricators.
With a strong grounding of working for
larger fabricators, the recently set up smaller
window companies began to compete with
the larger fabricators and price-matched
their product offering and became more
competitive on lead times, deliveries and
installation.
Companies started to challenge their
employees and the need to multi-task in
their roles and many gained additional skills
through training businesses, specifically set-up
to support the requirements of the industry.
The Fenestration industry
has been amongst the last to
see improvements in the journey to return
the market back to normal and during the
quiet times companies have been able to take
advantage and invest in the development of
new products across all sectors.
Bi-folding and composite doors, orangeries,
solar energy and the advancements in PVCu
and aluminium profile systems have all
contributed to the growth of the market.
Companies have also become much more
customer focused during the recession period
and have again invested in processes and
resources to help support the up-rising of the
more savvy consumer.
The introduction of new glass legislations has
recently seen a growing number of companies
produce their own sealed glass units to
accompany their fabricated frames.
Yes, the industry is smaller than it once was
and in some people’s opinion, this is for the
better. With the housing market seeing year
on year improvements this can only lead to
the conclusion that we are now in full flow
of recovery and a more professional and well
groomed group of fenestration organisations
are rising.
www.clearview-uk.com
92 » N OV 2014 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M