My second monthly review of the year and I’m glad to report all things are looking as good as they did last month!
Healthy sales
Confidence seemed to remain high with homeowners this month, which carried on the positive start from January. At my place of work we have a very healthy number of leads and a good foot fall into the showroom. But we all know that the downside to having plenty of people in the showroom is that very little paperwork gets done. So we have been struggling to keep up to date with our quotes of late, and to be honest we’re still not fully up to date yet.
I am happy to say that we actually reached our February target on the 5th day of the month. This was down a very strong January which put us well ahead of where we needed it to be. However I am fully away that the positivity I am seeing at work is not being replicated everywhere in the UK. I am seeing a few comments online saying that they simply are not seeing that same energy in business round their neck of the woods. This could be especially true in the south as early February still saw some very vicious weather wreaking havoc on coastal areas and areas that were already under water.
What I can see though is a very strong comeback in the areas that have suffered this winter. Whilst money may be slow to flow at first, the money that will need to be spent to put right all that is damaged will provide a big boost in the months to come.
Big Buyout
If there was to be a main story for the month it almost certainly has to be the purchase of Door-Stop International by American door company Masonite. For a cool $50m, Door-Stop became another star British company that caught they eye of the Americans. But whilst some doubted the “newsworthiness” of this purchase, it had far bigger ramifications that most first realise. Yes it was a big deal in terms of money exchanged for a door company. However what it indicated for me was that the rest of the world was seeing the British fenestration industry in much better health and that they felt they could invest in British companies once again. This for me, made this a big deal.
Triple glazing doubts
The Ricoh Arena is playing host to the Triple Glazing Question in April as most will know. But throughout February there was an increasing number of replies to the @TripleGlazingQ Twitter account questioning the benefits stated about triple glazing.
I myself will be attending this event as I would like to see how the industry plans to try and integrate triple glazing into the UK fenestration market. It has clearly struggled up to now so it will be interesting to see the feedback and ideas bounced around. I’m afraid that unless the manufacturers and other interested parties can provide solid evidence of it’s benefits and a niche that triple glazing fits into, then the product is going to fail.
Consumer right eroding business rights
Right at the end of the month the new consumer rights bill due to be enacted in June came up in conversation, and at first glance it could spell terrible news for most of our industry. I won’t go into too much detail about this now as I am dedicating my Monday post to the subject. But it doesn’t look good for us as an industry.
All in all February was a positive month. The weather started to behave itself and even the sun made a few appearances! Business remains brisk in most areas and I think most of us are looking forward to a sunny and early spring! However there are a couple of potential stumbling blocks in the road ahead in the form of triple glazing and a new consumer rights bill.
Thanks for reading!
Thanks again for the great blogs and keeping me and my team up to date on double glazing.
Double glazing has been slow sales and quote wise for us this month, we have seen a large increase in conservatory roof quotes and solar energy installs, due to becoming partners with the utilty warehouse, offering Better feed in tarrifs for homeowners.
We have expanded into London, Hampshire and Sussex with our SEO marketing and seen great results for a small outlay.
Please note that the Consumer Rights Directive will be implemented in June 2014 however the Consumer Rights Bill will be later in the year – the latest date given by BIS is “Autumn”2014 which means any time from August up until Christmas.