Well, it seems I was that busy I actually forgot to do a review for August! So as we enter October, here is my review of what has been a very busy two months.
Busy sales
The annual school summer holidays can sometimes be a bit of a baron period of time for window and door installers. Quite often families leave the UK to go on holidays, leaving the replacement windows and doors down at the bottom of the list of things to do.
This August this did not happen. I kept a quiet eye on what the industry was saying and had conversations with various manufacturers. All reported a far busier period than normal. I can report the same too. August was easily our busiest school holiday period in quite some time.
Things didn’t really change as we headed into September. I have been looking at what companies have been reporting, and some are now saying that they have fitting booked well into January. That roughly a 14-16 week lead time. That is fantastic levels of business for an industry than only the other week Palmer Market Research was warning that the recovery was losing traction.
We have had a busy September too. Fitting not quite into January, but healthy levels of business approaching the end of the year. Looks like we’ll beat last year’s sales figures, and we’ll be close to a very ambitious target we set ourselves for 2015.
New products
No massive new product announcements were made during these two months. However, just as September came to a close, Window Ware announced something called a Libra Smart Cylinder.
Made in collaboration with Iseo, this smart door cylinder made for the UK market can be retro-fitted to existing doors, as well as new, and works using NFC and BlueTooth technology. It’s an exciting product and one that I hope to be reviewing in full shortly. Click here to find out more and watch a video demonstration of the product.
Outlook for October
For me, the outlook for the coming month as we head into Autumn proper is positive. I see no signs of any significant slowdown throughout the duration of October.
I think lead levels around the country will remain healthy. I think sales levels with remain healthy around the country too. Although I suspect that the nature of the sales will change. Sales of glazed extensions and roof conversions may now start to fall as the cold weather makes itself known. Door and window sales will remain strong.
Looking further ahead, I suspect that industry activity will remain busy until mid-November. Then you can expect the seasonal drop as people look towards Christmas and the thought of new windows and doors is put on the back burner until the new year.
As for content on DGB coming up this month, I’ll be covering Origin’s new double product announcement. I’ll be (hopefully) reviewing Window Ware’s exciting new Libra Smart Cylinder, as well as diving into a bit more detail of the new Raum product range. The new consumer rights laws will get the DGB treatment too.
