Ask anyone what they think is the fastest growing area of our industry and I bet at least eight out of ten people will say it was the composite door market. And it would be a safe bet. I’ve not seen any other new product rise and become so well known with the general public than I have with composite doors.
From a personal point of view, I can vouch that right now, composite doors are the type of door homeowners are asking most for. When they visit our showroom, I’d say at least eight out of ten people ask to see a composite door. It is that level of recognition with a product from our industry that has impressed me.
So, doing a dash of research, I went to Google Trends and typed in a few well used search terms by homeowners relating to our industry. The results were rather spectacular.
Composites vs bi-folds vs windows vs conservatories
Green = “conservatories” | Blue = “composite doors” | Red = “bi-fold doors” | Yellow = “A rated windows”
I guess the first thing to notice is the very dramatic decline in conservatory searches. The green line points to a peak roughly in line with the installation peak of conservatories. But since then, as we have all experienced, new conservatory installations fell off a cliff.
But just look at how the blue composite door line and green conservatory line start to meet further down the graph. A telling sign. Lets look at another…
Composites vs bi-folds vs windows
The conservatory market is an established one, so for my next comparison I took it out of the equation. These were the results:
Blue = “composite doors” | Red = “bi-fold doors” | Yellow = “A rated windows”
Talk about a take off! While search levels for bi-folds and windows have bobbled along at a paltry pace, composite door searches have left them in it’s dust.
What you are looking at there is proof of what can happen when our industry gets it’s marketing to homeowners right. As an industry we managed to get the formula right and educate the public that a new product had arrived and that they all needed to take an interest in it. Set aside your own personal preferences and whether you actually like the product or not, you cannot argue with the results. The public know about our product, and are searching and buying it in droves.
When you look at the sheer level of interest in the composite door market, it does indicate a certain level of power it has. By having the monopoly on search, it is pushing out other potential door products when people research online. Good news for those who make and sell composite doors, not so good news for those who don’t. However, with power comes great responsibility. There are some huge composite door companies out there, supplying hundreds and hundreds of customers. Should one of these big ones go under for any reason, that could place a large proportin of the industry’s fabricators and installers in a very tricky situation. Sales of composite doors have to be strong long term. What we’re looking at here is still a relatively short space of time in the door market. Do we really know if the composite door market has what it takes to be 40 to 50 years old?
Absolutely agree about the success of the composite door, and the reasons behind it. The consumer marketing has been pitched perfectly, with generated leads quickly converted into sales of this premium product, and homeowners actively requesting it as an aspirational item. I’m not sure, however, that I’d agree with your thoughts on the relatively small numbers of key suppliers and the impact of one of them failing upon the industry. I firmly believe the composite door market has what it takes to sustain itself long term with financially stable and well managed companies throughout the supply chain – the market… Read more »