Clearview Midlands January 2014 - Issue 146 | Page 11

INDUSTRYNEWS TAKING HEART WITH HEALTH KICK Staff at Hurst Plastics have been brimming with health thanks to a major programme, which aims to improve wellbeing in the workplace and reduce the risk of heart disease in Hull. Set up by the British Heart Foundation in partnership with NHS Hull and Hull City Council, the £1.5 million Hearty Lives Hull campaign, is tasked with improving the health and life expectancy of workers in Hull - an area with higher than average rates of heart disease and other serious illnesses. Hurst Plastics was one of 135 companies in the region to join the programme, which was delivered by Hull-based healthcare specialist ABL Health. The enthusiastic staff were provided with free health checks, exercise classes and Dis Na tribu tion ted ally nutritional clinics as well as sessions to help them quit smoking. They even took part in the Hull Corporate Badminton Tournament, which inspired a number of staff to take up the sport. Julie Rhodes, customer liaison and administration manager at Hurst Plastics, was one of six people who successfully gave up smoking. She said: “The sessions were fantastic and I am delighted to now be a non-smoker!” Steve Daniels, Hurst Plastics Ltd, Tel: [phone], Email: [email protected], Website: www.hurst-plastics.co.uk LETTER TO THE EDITOR Is it time to stop fabricating and start buying-in? If you’ve seen a copy of the latest Insight Data Fabricator and Installer Market Report I’m sure you will agree it made fascinating reading. One of the most interesting statistics was how the number of PVC-u fabricators has reduced while the number of installers has increased. This suggests more companies are choosing to stop fabricating and starting to buy-in, a trend we have also noticed here at Dekko Window Systems. We supply a number of exfabricators who have chosen to concentrate on the more profitable installation side of their business and it’s a movement that looks set to continue. Running a factory is a major overhead and if you’re producing low-volumes, fabricating isn’t always a cost effective solution. For small to medium fabricators it’s sometimes easier to pass this side of the business over to a company like Dekko, who have the resources to produce quality products in high volumes at affordable prices. I know it can sound like a cliché, but we are a very customer focussed business, and this can make the move from fabricating to buying-in less painful. We understand that fabricators are used to having control over their workload, which is why we make sure we deliver when we say we’re going to deliver, and have strict quality control measures in place to ensure products are in perfect condition when they arrive onsite or at our customers’ premises. To succeed in today’s market window companies need to offer choice. White plastic windows will always be bread and butter for many, but niche products such as R9 and specialist items such as patio doors make the biggest margins and mean more money for less work. It is not To read more, visit www.clearview-uk.com always practical to make these bigger or specialist products, so it makes sense to buy-in from a fabricator that’s geared up to manufacture these cost effectively. The decision of whether to fabricate or buy-in is one that’s faced by all new start-ups. Fabricating may seem tempting but it requires far greater investment and you will face a much longer wait to see a return. We’ve supplied a number of new start-ups recently and I’m pleased to see them grow and succeed with our backing. It’s not an easy time to be a small fabricator, as the Insight Market Report highlights, so perhaps now is the time to start buying-in. Yours sincerely, Kurt Greatrex, Sales director Dekko Window Systems REACH THE MARKET YOU THOUGHT YOU NEVER COULD Distributed through a national network of over 300 trade counters and growing. Find out more about the Pro Installer, call Rob on 01226 321 450 @proinstaller1 www.proinstaller.co.uk JAN 2014 11