HARDWARE
A ‘ branded house ’ and not a ‘ house of brands ’
By Richard Gyde , Managing Director , Mila
» DESPITE THE FACT THAT MILA supplies hardware from some of the biggest names in the industry including Yale , Siegenia , Axor and Spilka , we would certainly describe ourselves as a ‘ branded house ’ and not as a ‘ house of brands ’. It ’ s an important distinction for customers and stems from the fact that , on average , we only add a new brand to our product portfolio once every couple of years . Even then , we only choose brands which align closely with our own business in terms of innovation and quality and which fill what we see as being gaps in our product line up .
We choose our partners very carefully because we know that our reputation rests so heavily on theirs .
It ’ s big news then that this month Mila is joining forces with Ingenious Locks for the first time to begin supplying the Ingenious range of multipoint door locks for aluminium , UPVC and composite doors . Ingenious products will sit alongside the Yale locks we already supply and add a significant new dimension to our offering .
There ’ s lots of talk about synergy in the hardware market but in this case it ’ s a pretty fair description of the relationship which exists between Mila and Ingenious , given that Stuart Carpenter , Ingenious ’ Technical Director , was once the Technical Director here at Mila .
Both our businesses are focused on developing products with real USPs , where the emphasis is on quality , durability and ease of installation . The Ingenious range which will be stocked by Mila includes single hook Professional door locks , Autofire latches , and clever Duplex locks , which are the only ones in the UK to feature this type of hook locking mechanism . All are already well proven in the UK market and all are Secured by Design accredited .
Together , I think these enhanced security products bring a new dimension to our lock range and sit comfortably alongside the Yale locks we already offer to fabricators – broadening the choice and ensuring that we can justifiably claim to have the right product for every application .
‘ we only choose brands which align closely with our own business in terms of innovation and quality ’
Our Yale range , for example , already includes Lockmaster products for UPVC doors with matching strikers , Lockmaster secondary locks for French doors and Auto Engage products for composite doors with either two or three security latches . There are also dedicated Lockmaster locks for aluminium and bi-fold doors .
More than 70 % of Mila sales are now of our own branded products , designed and developed in house , but that still leaves a substantial part of our business which comes from distributing products from other manufacturers – in fact ,
we are amongst the largest distributors of Yale products in the UK .
There are lots of reasons why customers choose to buy third-party products from Mila of course , but the main one is obviously service . That ’ s everything from having product in stock ready for next day delivery to being able to provide in-house testing services and onsite technical support .
It ’ s also about the kind of helpful , specialist advice available from our knowledgeable sales teams – both on the phone and out in the field , and the extensive package of sales and marketing support we provide .
Even before the pandemic , Mila had adopted a digital first strategy in our marketing but that ’ s obviously proved particularly valuable to customers over the past year . Our team has already created a dedicated page on the Mila website for door locks with all of the Yale and Ingenious products available to view and compare and lots of useful , downloadable resources . They ’ ve also produced digital animations of some of the new products so that customers can see the USPs up close in sales presentations conducted either remotely or face to face .
We never forget though that the biggest test of hardware is how the products actually look and feel to our customers so we ’ re also promoting the new Ingenious range via new ‘ Lock Block ’ display boards which show them in operation .
www . mila . co . uk / new-door-locks /
58 » SEP 2021 » CLEARVIEW-UK . COM