July can be a funny month in the world of windows. Despite the very hot and sunny weather we have had for most of the month of July, it sometimes doesn’t have that much of an effect on business as this is also the month when schools break up and a lot of families go away on holiday. So you can often find that July can be quite quiet. On a quiet month news wise, lets see how the industry performed in July.

Up And Down

Because of the disruptive pattern of school holidays and fine weather, I think areas of the industry such as lead levels and sales were a bit up and down. Speaking privately to some other companies, they report the very same. Some weeks will be busy, followed by a quiet spell then a busier spell once again. The summer school holidays and families going abroad are to blame for this.

One thing that is worth saying though is that August won’t be like that, especially the back end of August. Families are coming back home from their breaks. They have finally had enough of days out and will be looking to get back to house related tasks. They will also be preparing their kids to go back to school, which will mean they have more time to organise things like new windows and doors. So this unsteady blip is just that, a blip.

Sales Steady

Because of the disruption, we found out our place that sales were actually slightly down on the month before. In fact July has been the only month we fell short of our monthly target. It’s pretty irrelevant to be honest however because we have beaten every other monthly target so far this year by such a wide margin that the amount we had targeted to sell for July was actually achieved ages ago.

We do however have contracts in the pipeline ready to come good in August so we expect a strong month to come as holidays wind down and people start to focus back on home improvements before the weather heads south.

Closure Of GDHIF

As we neared the end of July, the Government announced that it’s newly established Green Deal Home Improvement Fund, the extra initiative to try and kick start the Green Deal scheme, was closed from immediate effect. They claimed that the fund was so popular that all monies were drained in such a short space of time and that there was no more budget left.

The GDHIF was a fund which gave homeowners a fairly decent amount of cash back to put towards the cost of having Green Deal home improvements done. Not that many had windows and doors done anyway. Assessment companies would then go to a home owner, carry out the assessment and explain to that person that for having the work done the Government would give them cash. Sounds good, and in principle was good. However, it seems the GDHIF was poorly managed, and news of the closure of the fund happened so quick and without little warning. It has left countless assessment companies out of pocket, with assessments done on the promise to the homeowner that they will be getting cash back for the work. This is now not the case. There was outrage over this from the Green Deall community as you can well image. You can read the full article I wrote about that by following this link: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/2014/07/outrage-as-green-deal-home-improvement-fund-closes/

National Average Prices Survey

In the July, I also launched my second National Average Prices Survey. I did my first one last year, and after getting a good response from the results I published, I have decided to launch a second one. The link to the survey can be found here: https://www.doubleglazingblogger.com/2014/07/national-average-prices-survey-2014/

This survey is for installers only, although fabricators and systems companies are encouraged to get their own installation customers to take part too. It is going to run right through up until the end of September.