Business News
The market is changing: Are you using the right data to see where the opportunities are?
Andrew Scott, founder and CEO of Insight Data, explores what the headline figures fail to reveal about the changing fenestration market and why better intelligence matters.
As we know, markets rarely change in the way a headline suggests. In fenestration, that could be a costly assumption.
The latest Insight Data figures show 13,402 fabricator and installer businesses operating in the UK in 2026, compared with 13,551 in 2023. On the face of it, a 1.1 % reduction over three years hardly looks dramatic. Yet that overall figure tells only part of the story, because the businesses within it are changing in number, size, location and capability.
That distinction matters when you are trying to grow a business. Which businesses are active, where they operate, what they manufacture or install and how much they produce gives you a far more valuable basis for commercial decisions.
For example, look at uPVC fabrication. The number of fabricators has fallen from 1,169 in 2023 to 1,083 in 2026, with reductions across every production band. Aluminium fabrication has also contracted, falling from 903 fabricators to 867 over the same period. Meanwhile, the installation market remains highly fragmented, with 9,674 installers handling between one and 50 frames each week. Those figures tell us something important about the opportunity. The question for a supplier or service provider is‘ Which businesses are most relevant to my proposition and where are they?’
That is where market intelligence becomes commercially useful. Decisions based on broad assumptions, old contact lists or a general impression of what the industry is doing can easily lead sales and marketing teams towards the wrong prospects. If the market has changed but your data has not, your strategy is already working from yesterday’ s picture.
There is a similar issue when we think about growth within an existing customer base. I have always believed that sustainable growth comes back to three fundamentals: Attract, Convert and Retain. The principle remains straightforward.
Attract is about generating the right opportunities rather than simply generating more enquiries. Convert is about turning those opportunities into customers through an effective sales process. Retain is about understanding the customers you already have and finding ways to help them grow, while increasing the value of the relationship for your own business.
We are often more comfortable talking about acquisition than retention, but your existing customer base can contain some of your most valuable opportunities. Which customers are growing? What are they buying from you now? What else could they need? Where could you increase frequency or average order value?
You can’ t answer those questions properly if you do not understand your customers. Profiling the businesses you already work with can reveal opportunities that are invisible when customer data is treated simply as a list of names and contact details. The same principle applies when looking for new customers: accurate targeting helps you focus resources.
This is why the quality and currency of market intelligence matter. At Insight Data, more than 20,000 verification calls are made every month from our UK offices as part of an ongoing process of
researching and updating the database. This helps maintain a current view of the UK fenestration market, so decisions can be based on what is happening now.
The 2026 figures show why that matters. The overall market may appear broadly stable, but the detail reveals consolidation, changing business profiles and differences in the scale at which companies operate. Those changes can influence where you focus sales activity and look for growth.
Good market intelligence does not make the commercial decision for you. Instead, it gives you a better view from which to make it. When opportunities are increasingly found in the detail rather than the headline, that view can make all the difference.
If you want to understand where the opportunities are in today’ s fenestration market, Insight Data can help you find them.
Visit insightdata. co. uk to discover how continually updated market intelligence can give your sales and marketing teams the insight they need to target the right businesses, make better decisions and build sustainable growth.
92 NOVEMBER 2026 CLEARVIEW-UK. COM