DOORS&WINDOWS
Mythbusters: tackling
three big misconceptions
about Europe’s biggest
sash window manufacturer
Over the past 15 years, Victorian Sliders has
gone from being a tiny start-up in a sleepy Welsh
mining village to Europe’s biggest sash window
manufacturer. But in that time, more than a
few misconceptions have arisen about the
Ammanford firm. Group Managing Director
Andy Jones sets the record straight.
» WHEN I JOINED
Victorian Sliders, I quickly
discovered that most of the things
I thought I knew about it were
totally wrong.
I think it’s something that
happens to every long-running,
successful business to a certain
extent. But I also think there
are more myths about Victorian
Sliders than most.
For me, fast approaching
my one-year anniversary at the
company, and having spent the
last ten months repeatedly bowled
over by the skill, passion and
dedication of our team, that can
be frustrating.
So, I’ve decided to take this
opportunity to explain a bit
more about the commitment
to excellence that’s seen us
become the biggest sash window
manufacturer in Europe.
MYTH 1: ALL YOUR
EXTRUSION COMES
FROM CHINA
One of Victorian Sliders’
greatest strengths is that we
have invested heavily to become
vertically integrated. We have
our own recycling plant, we have
our own mixing plant, we foil
our own products, we arch our
own frames, we paint our own
windows (we actually spray all the
inner rails of our foiled products
as standard unlike many of our
competitors), we make our own
sealed units, and we extrude our
own profile.
That gives us an unparalleled
level of control over the quality of
the products we produce. It’s an
extremely important USP.
But it’s something a lot of
people don’t realise. In fact,
we sometimes find people are
convinced we buy in all our
extrusions as cheaply as possible
from China.
That’s not the case. Not only
is every piece of core profile
we use extruded on-site at our
240,000 square foot Ammanford
headquarters using the same raw
materials as some of Europe’s
leading uPVC systems companies,
from the world’s largest suppliers.
MYTH 2: YOU USE CHEAP
FOREIGN GLASS
The one thing a lot of people
know about Victorian Sliders
– other than the fact we make
sash windows – is that we’ll offer
windows in any size for just
£199.
That’s led to a lot of speculation
about how we can produce
quality windows and sell them at
such an affordable price-point –
and seen some people conclude
that we must be cutting corners
somewhere along the line.
For example, I’ve seen it
suggested we use the cheapest
glass possible to make our IGUs.
That couldn’t be further from the
truth. We buy quality glass made
in the UK – Goole, East Yorkshire,
to be precise – from Guardian
Glass, a widely respected supplier
employing 300 people in the UK,
and over 10,000 worldwide.
We buy our spacer bar,
desiccant and sealant from
Thermaseal, the UK’s largest
supplier of Warm Edge Spacer,
again manufactured here in the
UK. What’s more, all of our
sealed units conform to EN1279
part two and three.
MYTH 3: YOU USE POOR
QUALITY HARDWARE
Hardware is about the only
thing we use that we don’t either
make in Wales, or buy in from a
British supplier.
Like virtually every window
business in Europe, if not the
world, our hardware is made in
the far east.
The difference, however, is that
we own our own Chinese factory,
employing 30 full-time staff who
solely make window hardware for
Victorian Sliders.
Again, that gives us a level of
quality control that companies
buying from third-party suppliers
can’t match and ensures that
our supply chain is never
compromised by external decision
makers.
THE TRUTH ABOUT
VICTORIAN SLIDERS
Those are just three of the
common misconceptions I’ve
encountered over the last year.
But the truth is, Victorian
Sliders is one of the most qualityfocused
businesses I’ve ever
worked at, and this is one of the
many reasons that our customers
voted us the number one supplier
of vertical sliding windows in the
UK.
The whole reason we’ve gone to
unprecedented lengths and made
a huge investment to produce as
much of what we need ourselves,
is so we’ve got almost total control
over the quality of the finished
product.
It means Victorian Sliders
windows are extremely consistent
– and one of the best uPVC VS
products currently available.
www.victoriansliders.co.uk
22 » AUG 2020 » CLEARVIEW-UK.COM