Clearview National December 2018 - Issue 205 | Page 48

PROUD SPONSOR OF
GLASS & SEALED UNITS EXTRA
Glass & Sealed Units Extra
Still a cut above in uncertain times
Edgetech MD Chris Alderson
reflects on a sometimes tough but
ultimately very gratifying 2018.
» » A SENSATIONAL 2017 HAS
been followed by a more
challenging year for Edgetech –
and for the industry as a whole
– but, as 2018 draws to a close,
we can look back and still be
thoroughly satisfied by what we’ve
achieved.
By far the biggest obstacle
we and many other fenestration
businesses have faced this year
has been ongoing raw material
shortages.
With demand for silicone
rocketing all around the world,
producers have struggled to keep
pace, and responded with (often
significant) price rises.
It’s something that’s been
complicated by continuing
industrial decline in the West,
and the consequent rise of China
as a major manufacturing hub;
with sixty per cent of the world’s
silicone now coming from China,
if Chinese facilities lag behind,
there’s nowhere else to pick up
the slack.
But at Edgetech, we’re
fortunate enough to have the
resources and the expertise to
weather the ongoing shortage.
We’re not only backed with
the world-class expertise of our
parent company Quanex, whose
testing laboratory in Akron, Ohio
is one of the most advanced of its
kind, but this year, we’ve invested
in Edgetech’s very own testing
facility on this side of the Atlantic
too.
Our talented technical
development manager Gary
Shoesmith is currently using it
to develop alternative product
variations that offer the same
exceptional performance the
market has come to expect
from us, without being so
heavily dependent on a specific
technology. We hope to be able
to reveal more about these and
other products in the pipeline
throughout the next twelve
months.
But despite some challenging
circumstances, we’ve still been
able to achieve real successes in
2018. One of the biggest has
arguably been a wide-ranging
research project, aimed at gauging
perceptions of Edgetech from
staff, customers, and the wider
market.
‘businesses right across UK
fenestration trust us to provide
them with exceptional service’
It yielded some surprising
insights – perhaps most notably,
that while perceptions of Super
Spacer were extremely positive,
products weren’t the main reason
customers continue dealing with
us. Previously, we’d assumed they
were.
Instead, they cited the service
we provide as the key driver
for working with Edgetech; the
consistent product quality, the
reliability, the technical support,
and so on. A comment that
came up more than once was the
idea that we were ‘a safe pair of
hands’.
For us, that was extremely
gratifying. Despite ongoing
uncertainties, not just around
materials shortages, but Brexit
and the global economic situation
more generally; businesses right
across UK fenestration trust us
to provide them with exceptional
service.
48 » DEC 2018 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M
The exercise has provided us
with a fantastic opportunity to
stop, reflect, and decide how we
want to position ourselves in the
months and years ahead, and even
given us a clearer focus on who
we are, what we do, and what
makes us special.
We create value by putting
the customer first, delivering
unrivalled performance and
doing the right thing. We want
to set ourselves apart through
innovation and expertise.
And in everything we do,
we’re committed to providing
reliability, evolution and
expertise.
We’ve received more great
feedback elsewhere, too. We
were absolutely delighted to be
named winner in the Spacer
Bar Company category of the
National Fenestration Awards;
the glazing industry’s only
democratic awards scheme. It’s
hugely humbling to be recognised
with any award, but the fact this
one was the result of votes cast
by hundreds of our customers
and peers makes this one extra
special.
With decades of expertise,
world-leading innovation,
and the support of so many in
our industry behind us, we’re
confident that we will continue
to thrive no matter what 2019
brings.
For more information please
visit www.edgetechig.co.uk