FENEX is happy to announce the return of the popular Friday night live stream podcasts! The original fenestration sector podcast, created back at the start of the pandemic as a way to connect with the industry during lockdown, will be coming back on a regular basis via the FENEX YouTube and Facebook channels. A [...]
In the continuation of earnings season in the fenestration sector, Safestyle UK is the latest to present its H1 2022 results. On the face of it, things looks fairly positive, but a bit of digging into the results shows that headwinds are beginning to be felt, as they are across the entire sector. This [...]
Last week I published the first in a two-part special interview with Smart Ready® Director Giovanni Laporta. It gave us an insight into the man himself, his background, how he found his way into the fenestration sector and his own personal motivations. In part 2, we take a wider view of the industry in [...]
A few weeks ago I posed a series of questions to Smart Ready® founder Giovanni Laporta to get his take on himself, the industry, the past and the future. This is the first part of a two-part interview which I think gives an insight into his thought process, his opinions on the industry, as [...]
We’re about to go through a hell of a hangover from the last two years. With unbridled success in 2020 and 2021, juiced thanks to Government-funded stimuli such as furlough and grants for businesses, we will not be able to escape the after-effects. The war in Ukraine has certainly not helped global economics, putting [...]
In the latest move within the PVC recycling space to indicate that there is a serious race on now for dominance in the UK in this market, Epwin Group has announced that they have acquired Poly-Pure Ltd in a £15m deal. Here is the statement that they have provided to the markets this morning: [...]
Just as other parts of the fenestration supply chain begin to bed in some stability, we are still seeing volatile conditions in the glass part of our market, with multiple warnings that the cost of glass is going to rise further in the coming months. Inflation looks like it’s here to stay for a [...]
OPEN LETTER: On Friday [26/8/22] we learnt that we were all going to be a little less well off. Ofgem confirmed that the raising of the energy price cap will push average household energy bills to £3,549. To put that into context that’s around an 80% increase on what we were paying in April [...]
In more grim news for the UK economy, data out of the ONS today showed that inflation in July reached 10.1%, once again exceeding forecasts. A couple of weeks ago the Bank of England published some dire forecasts for the UK economy, but even those may now look underdone on the back of the [...]
Gone now are the days when we all fell over work and it didn’t matter how we came about it. 2020 and 2021 were unique years that we’re unlikely to see again for a very long time. Demand was so high that nothing else really mattered. Installers were tripping over sales, they were firing [...]
A dip, a downturn, a recession or a slump, call it what you will, but where we are now is very much not where we were 12 months ago. At the end of last year, it was clear circumstances were changing. So, at our own installations business, we made the decision to commit to [...]
Press release: Sentry Doors Limited (Sentry) is pleased to announce its acquisition of E. & S. W. Knowles & Company Limited (Knowles), accelerating its growth and creating the UK’s leader in timber fire safety and security doorsets. Established in 1923, E. & S. W. Knowles manufactures specialist timber internal doorsets with fire-rated, acoustic and [...]
As the saying goes, the bigger the boom, the bigger the bust. 2020 and 2021 were major boom years for the fenestration sector, as the public invested their spare cash into their homes. Now, as rampant inflation spirals out of control, and a cost of living crisis hobbles consumer spending, our industry faces perhaps [...]
As the industry approaches this downturn and recession, you’re going to hear a lot about 2019 and “pre-pandemic” figures. We knew 2020 and 2021 were simply bizarre years in the business world. Demand was sent artificially high as a result of lockdowns and Government stimulus. The Black Swan event forced people to rethink how [...]
Although not as constant as last year, the raw material prices continue to edge up. The latest being glass prices. PVC resin prices appear to have become more stable of late and the cost of aluminium has fallen from record highs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Raw material prices plateauing is one thing, the [...]
That’s a bold statement I know. PVCu still makes up around the majority of the residential market. For example, there is around double the number of PVCu fabricators compared to aluminium fabricators. I believe that the status quo is beginning to change. The pace of change within the sector is happening at a rapid [...]
Social Media