Last week Window News reported that Phoenix Door Panels had announced that it was to pull out completely of the door panel sector to focus solely on the composite door market. You can read that full article here.
“Losing panel manufacture will free up the space, time and manpower in our bigger Huntingdon factory to concentrate on rising demand for our composite doors, which we introduced in 2008. Since then, composite door sales have continued to go up and they are our future.”
As it states in the piece, panel door sales at the company have dropped from 1500 per week to just 800. Nearly half of what they were doing. That makes them expensive to make, as well as being an inefficient use of space in a part of the market that only continues to shrink as composite door sales continue to grow.
A strong decision from the company. But a correct one at the right time.
State of the door industry
As far as I know Phoenix is the largest door company to completely pull out of the panel door market to date. We are all aware of smaller, but still well known names, that have exited the door panel market in recent years. This is the biggest that I know of.
The rise of the composite door in the past ten years has led to the decimation of the panel market. At our place we don’t even sell them any more. There is no demand for them, and as the demand fell, our panel manufacturer went bust also. We haven’t regretted the decision, and if anything we have sold more and more doors than every before in the last few years.
On the price front, composite doors have got most corners covered. There are cheap ones for the new-build housing estates and budget market. There are expensive ones for the more discerning home owner. So it really doesn’t matter who is looking, there is a composite door out there for everyone. And with better looks, colours and glass options, there remains very little reason to opt for a panel door over something sexier.
This is not to say that there aren’t any full panel doors being sold out there. Phoenix alone were making 800 per week. But that number will have continued to drop. There are a few companies out there mopping up what is left of the panel door market. Nicedoor, part of the DW3 Products group report decent sales in the panel door market. Hurst is also reportedly getting the panel business from Phoenix. As more and more players drop out of the panel door market, those that remain will see their sales and market share in this part of the market increase.
Bold move at the right time
Deciding to stop making or selling a product is always a tough call. In this case, a door panel manufacturer deciding to stop production of what was once one of it’s core products is a bold call. Given the state of the door market though, and continuing falls in weekly numbers, this was a decision made at the right time.
At this moment in time, fabricators who are continuing to make panel doors might be rubbing their hands at this news. But I would advise against being so hastily jubilant. If Phoenix have pulled out of panels, I suspect that one or two others might be encourage to look at their own sales figures of panel doors and begin to wonder whether they too should be considering how much longer they should be making panel doors and whether it makes financial sense in this modern door market.
As we continue to move forward, I can only see sales of full panel doors falling year on year. Composite doors, aluminium doors and other PVCu variations will only continue to get better and show panel doors for what they are: archaic, old fashioned, inefficient and technologically obsolete in comparison to many other products.
How many more will we see pull out completely from the panel door market in the coming years?
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