Negative Stories At End Of 2017 Point To Uncertain Start For 2018

Hello and a very happy New Year to you all! As you may have seen on my Twitter feed I have been in the states over New Years week, so my daily postings have been quiet, but they shall return to normal from now! Also, I can confirm that it was bloody freezing! I have never been so cold in all my life. Luckily we managed to get home before the major snowstorm hit New England, which did shut many airports. So we’re back home now, currently thawing out and trying to get back to normal.

One thing I did notice at the end of 2017 was a couple of negative news stories which could set the tone for 2018. One was the administration of Float Glass Industries, a multi-million pound glass manufacturing company. The second was a report by This Is Money and how Anglian are now starting to feel the pinch.

Float Glass Industries falls into administration

Just as we were all packing up work and heading home for Christmas, sad news broke from Manchester as Float Glass Industries, a glass manufacturing company for the construction industry, made a number of redundancies as it headed towards administration. Terrible news for those people just before the holiday season. It was confirmed today in a story on Insider Media that the company has now appointed administrators.

The company employed 200 people and turned over £25m per year. This is no small company. It made products for all sorts of sectors within construction, and had some pretty high-end clients, including Mulberry and Manchester United. The company is to continue trading as a buyer is sought for the business, and naturally we all hope that a positive outcome can be found for the company.

My gut feeling is however is that through the course of 2018 this won’t be the only high profile administration. As was notably mentioned last year, smaller, more artisan-style companies have tended to do better during these tougher times than the bigger businesses. I believe this will be the case again this year. We could start to see the number of bankruptcies increase as bigger companies struggle to maintain a profit margin and battle increasing costs at the same time.

Anglian starting to “feel the pinch”

On Christmas Eve, This Is Money published a report and interview with Anglian Home Improvements, who stated that the company is looking at tough conditions in trading for 2018.

They say that Brexit and the 2017 General Election are causing people to put a hold on spending on big ticket items like windows and doors. The company said that turnover in the year to April was up from £214m to £237m, but that they had made a pre-tax loss of £3.3m. I agree to some extent that Brexit and the General Election did create some levels of uncertainty for home owners, but you only have to look at smaller, more dynamic companies who were able to post good growth numbers in 2017.

It’s a tough time to be a big company right now in our industry. Safestyle issued a number of profit warnings last year which sent their share price tumbling. And in the same This Is Money report, private equity investor Jon Moulton has admitted that his investment in Everest has “not done well”.

In future posts I shall be exploring what may be in store for the industry’s biggest installers. It’s not looking rosy lets put it that way.

As far as 2018 is concerned, there are going to be some bumps in the road this year. We could see some big names fall by the wayside as the industry evolves once again according to the environment around it.

There are however going to be opportunities, and 2018 will in no way be an all-negative year. In posts coming in the next few days I will be exploring the opportunities and products that our industry should be looking to take advantage of. There is plenty out there so long as were willing to work at it and mine those revenue streams as best we can.

Looking forward into January, I will be looking at the top ten companies to keep an eye out on during 2018. I’ll be talking about some of the risks our industry faces this year too and how we can navigate them safely. I’ll be taking a look back at how DGB did in 2017, charting it’s progress and comparing it to previous years. I’ll be expanding further on the three new DGB services that will be coming online shortly, more of which you can read up on here. I’ll also be posting my December review. On the product front I’ll be writing about some of the specific products and niches to look out for this year and the new stuff we should be looking at as an industry.

There’s lots to do so here’s to a prosperous New Year to us all and lets crack on!