INDUSTRYNEWS FROMTHEEDITOR
Welcome to the first issue of Clearview in 2017. I hope you had an enjoyable break over Christmas and are feeling well-rested and rejuvenated, ready for the New Year ahead. We kick it off with our 6-page Annual Predictions feature from page 26, where companies from around the industry give their forecast of market conditions and hint at what they have planned for the year ahead.
»»
2016 PROVED TO BE FULL OF SURPRISES, some of which the impact is yet to be fully understood. But overall, the industry was buoyant and proactive and reporting growth. Companies were also celebrating their successes at the recent Construction Marketing Awards on page 25.
According to articles from Purplex Marketing and Insight data there is a marketing shift afoot, with mobile usage finally overtaking desktop computers. Not only is it essential for companies to ensure they are part of the digital revolution but, on the flip-side, it is also important to stand out, and perhaps this may herald a return to more traditional forms of marketing. Read more on page 10.
Made For Trade is gearing up for a big roll out of its Korniche lantern roof this year, as Clearview found out when we visited them last year, led by very convincing and impactful time lapse footage of the of the construction of a 1.5 x 3 meter lantern, fully glazed with no on-site cutting required and fewer tools, in just 27 minutes 46 seconds. See for yourself on pages 56 / 57.
For most exhibitors, their preparations for Fit Show 2017 began even before last year’ s exhibition had ended. But over the coming months we will be featuring news about who and what you can expect to see at this year’ s show. On page 22, the Fit Show’ s Master Fitter Challenge, now in its fourth year, announces that it will once again be overseen by the industry’ s specialist qualifications body, GQA Qualifications Limited. The Master Fitter Challenge invites individuals and teams of installers to pit their skills against each other to become the winner of this prestigious award, introduced to highlight the skills and knowledge within the industry. This year, it could be you.
Wishing you a prosperous 2017.
Becky
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Last year, Residence Collection’ s growth was explosive. We hit the industry’ s sweet spot when we added new window and door systems at the FIT Show to the already fast growing R9 system. Sales grew far faster than we forecasted. Installers certainly get it!
»»
OUR INVESTMENT IN new warehouse and factory space, people and production capacity at Residence Collection was timely, but we underestimated the suddenness and scale of the demand for our products.
Solidor went through similar growing pains 18 months ago, but the world-class DW3 team has transformed capacity, operations, and service to the point that Solidor is consistently achieving 99 % and above of orders delivered on spec, on time and in full. And that’ s with 35 % annual growth and repeated record-breaking sales this year. With Solidor growing and performing well, the world-class DW3 team is now working at Residence Collection, doing what it did for Solidor. We’ re not there yet, but Residence customers will get consistently improving service with a worldclass product range in 2017 no matter how fast customers want to grow.
To implement this, from January I’ m now heading the team as Residence Collection CEO, managing growth, overall strategy and sales, while looking to further supplement the team in Gloucester.
Mike Price, DW3 Group Operations Director, and Chris Chapman, DW3 Group Commercial Director, who have been instrumental in Solidor’ s exceptional results are already working on transforming systems, stock management, operations and logistics at Residence HQ in Gloucester. Sarah Hitchings has been promoted to General Manager of Residence Collection and Window Widgets, and will continue to work with the team to run the business day to day.
Dan Gill, the innovative creator of Residence Collection is expanding his remit to become DW3 Group Product Development & Innovations Director, dedicating his creativity and deep technical knowledge to develop and innovate across all companies in DW3 Products Group.
With this team and our exceptional products, 2017 is set to be an even bigger year for Residence Collection and its customers.
Sincerely Gareth Mobley CEO, Residence Collection
Do you have something to say? Email becky @ cvgroup. co. uk
4 » JAN 2017 » CLEARVIEW-UK. COM