In a week which saw the global oil price crash, David Cameron set out his plan to curb immigration and absolutely ridiculous scenes from stores taking part in Black Friday sales events, it’s time to take a look back at the weeks posts on DGB.
Now, as you can immediately see, I am having a play around with the format of weekly reviews. Whilst I believe the old format worked, it was very text heavy and took a while to put together on a Friday evening. However, whilst I was putting in a ton of effort to put together these reviews, I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. I actually have a feature in this site which will compile a lot of the content for me in a couple of clicks! The layout of the reviews are going to be a little different, but with added images breaking up the text. I think it actually looks better! Please give me your feedback on the new look.
This week the most talked about posts were the two which discussed the six things our industry was doing wrong and the five things our industry was doing right. I wanted to highlight areas that I thought the industry was still struggling on. If we could eradicate those things we were doing wrong, I think we could go a long way to repairing a lot of the damage we have done to ourselves as an industry. But I also wanted to highlight some of the areas which I thought our industry was doing well in. I think the two posts complimented each other quite nicely. And if you’re wondering why I stopped at five things for the positive post, I simply ran out of ideas when I was writing it!
There was a couple of sponsored posts in the mix this week, a black composite doors post for Door Supermarket, which was apt given it was Black Friday when it went out, and a post from the guys at Purplex on behalf of TWR Bifolds.
I wrote about the internet on Friday and how it has changed our working lives. This was a post I had planned in the works for quite a while, and I finally got round to writing it up to post this week. Also, a post about concrete and ceramic doors I was desperate to publish on DGB. Anyway, enjoy the new weekly review. As always, all comments welcome!
The Entire Life Cycle At A Glance
The FDES (Fiche de Déclaration Environnementale et Sanitaire) for construction products provides information on their impact on the environment and the health of building users. This declaration, which is essential in France, focuses on the entire life cycle of a product. It is the decisive instrument for selecting suitable construction products for sustainable buildings. Swisspacer was one of the first on the market to publish the FDES for Swisspacer Advance and Ultimate as well as the Swisspacer Georgian bars. The Swiss company is also the only warm edge manufacturer to have extended its EPDs to EN15804+A2 (Cradle to Grave). [...]
Google Trends Data Shows Search Data At 2016 Levels
Back in COVID times (remember that?) much of the industry lauded Google Trends as an indicator as to how the market was performing. Indeed, data from Google Trends for search terms like "patio door" or "French doors" showed that there was a significant spike in interest as we were all spending a lot more time at home and people wanted to make the most of their outdoor space. That seems a long time ago now and we are all well aware our fortunes have spun just as quickly into reverse. I plugged in those same search terms the industry [...]
The Man Behind OMNIA
The designer behind OMNIA, the window system that will ‘set the standard for windows over the next 10 years’, has revealed it was customer feedback that drove him to create the revolutionary new system. Phil Gregory, Design and Development Manager for VEKA plc, began visualising the system that would later become OMNIA when a customer challenged the finished look of her new windows. “This particular customer had purchased flush-fitting windows, but as we all know, existing systems in the UK are only flush on the outside,” Phil said. “She told me she didn’t buy the windows for her neighbours, [...]
UK Out Of Recession
It has been confirmed this morning, as had been expected, that the UK had left the shallow recession it had entered in 2023. Figures released from the ONS this morning revealed that the UK grew 0.6% in Q1 of 2024, with 0.4% of the growth coming in March alone. Fastest growth in two years The figure of 0.6% was higher than was expected, although most of that growth came from the services sector as well as healthcare and transport. The areas that the public rely on on a day to day basis. These figures this morning make the UK [...]
Origin’s Solution To Standing Out From The Crowd
Customers are clearer than ever on their expectations when purchasing a property, no matter whether it’s for residential or commercial purposes. Now, more than ever, professional builders need to offer something different to stand out from the crowd, especially in a competitive market. The Soho External Door Prospective buyers are looking for three things: quality, service and aesthetics. Our latest launch, the Soho External Door, encapsulates all these elements. The new exterior door is a bi-fold, French and single door system designed for the modern era. It not only boasts steel-look glazing bars and ultra-slim sightlines, but it is [...]
Anglian Home Improvements Acquires Everest Order Book
In news that was perhaps widely expected, it has been announced that Anglian Home Improvements have reached an agreement to fulfil the orders on the books at Everest. This is a similar arrangement to that of Safestyle when that business closed. Here is the statement in full from Anglian: ReSolve agrees contract with Anglian Home Improvements to fulfil Everest 2020 Ltd customer orders Cameron Gunn, Chris Farrington and Lee Manning, Partners at ReSolve, the leading independent business advisory practice, were appointed as joint administrators of Everest 2020 Limited (“Everest” or the “Company”) on 24 April 2024. Following a previous [...]
Revamped Production With Fully Automated Line
John Fredericks Plastics (JFP) has revamped its production facility with a state-of-the-art, fully automated frame welding and corner cleaning line, enabling them to service customer demand with even greater efficiency. The award-winning Huddersfield-based window and door manufacturer has invested significantly to further improve quality. The new line has also sped up fabrication, increased capacity, and optimised workforce structure. Trading continuously for more than 53 years, JFP has a long history of continuous investment to stay ahead of the curve of product development, providing customers with the very best choice and outstanding service. “We’ve always prided ourselves here on looking [...]
