Hardware Extra
Reasons to be cheerful , part 2021
Dan Powell , Head of Sales for England & Wales at VBH , looks back on a successful end to 2020 and has good reasons for optimism in 2021
RING IN THE NEW ( HARDWARE )
It ’ s safe to say that 2020 was a year to forget , although at VBH there were a few positives towards the end of the year .
In October we recorded our best ever sales month in the 38 year history of VBH ( GB ) Ltd . Our result eclipsed the previous best from 2003 . The value of our greenteQ own brand sales also hit a high point , thanks largely to the UK ’ s seemingly insatiable appetite for Clearspan aluminium bi-fold door gear and the popularity of our suited range of window and door furniture .
December saw us named as Hardware Company of the Year for the second successive year in the prestigious National Fenestration Awards . We also won both the Young Person and Social Networker categories through our North of England Area Sales Manager , Tyler Shutts , and Marketing Manager , Gary Gleeson , respectively .
We upgraded our Q-secure homeowner security guarantee towards the end of the year with a brand new website , new products and a higher level of compensation payments should a Q-secure window , residential or patio door get broken into as a result of hardware failure . The new Q-secure PREMIUM protection level will pay out up to £ 8000 . This is a market-leading guarantee and has been met with much excitement .
So there were some highlights to what was otherwise a grim year .
Now that 2021 is finally here we can all , as an industry , look forward to a new start .
The life blood of any company and any industry is to keep developing and evolving the products on offer . Every month we read in the pages of Clearview about new products and trends that give us all something new
to sell , and improve the quality , features and performance of the products that we provide the end user . PVCu profile companies are introducing new colourways and flush systems , and some are adding aluminium systems to their ranges .
There ’ s a whole host of other developments across the industry . This is great news for companies like VBH , who can quickly develop hardware systems for these new products , and the UK based greenteQ design team here at VBH has been very busy .
Our brand new greenteQ Invicta shootbolt means that PVCu manufacturers can now gear up their casement windows using exclusively greenteQ hardware . Invicta has been tested on a number of PVCu systems to PAS24 , and is a Q-secure PREMIUM product .
Door manufacturers can also benefit from the introduction of our own TS007 3 star profile cylinder . greenteQ Orion offers full protection against picking , drilling , bumping and snap & extract without the need for a security handle or other support .
As well as being a Q-secure PREMIUM product , Orion also provides the home owner with 2 additional layers of protection under the proteQ10 guarantee . If a break in is achieved as a result of an Orion cylinder being snapped , VBH will pay the victim £ 2000 in compensation , without quibble .
The second element of proteQ10 is the Key Security scheme . When the user registers their cylinder for its 10 year guarantee , they can set a unique password . From then on , additional keys can only be supplied when this password is given .
Orion is the 3rd member of our greenteQ profile cylinder family , joining the original Gamma anti pick / anti-drill and Q-Star TS007 1 star products .
Invicta and Orion are just two examples of how VBH is helping our customers ring out the old and ring in the new in a hardware sense , and Q-secure demonstrates how VBH is investing to give our customers additional tools to make their products better than the competition ’ s . Business may be booming at the moment but when it slackens , you need to be one step ahead .
There are many more new services and products on the horizon including new developments for aluminium bi-fold doors and electronic door access among others .
At the time of writing we do not know how the Brexit situation will pan out , but as an industry we clearly showed in 2020 that we can , and will , overcome any obstacles that are put in our way .
Have a great year .
www . vbhgb . com
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