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ALTHOUGH RECENT market research has marked down the Conservatory roof market by 13 %, Made For Trade has experience a 25 % increase. Managing Director, Bradley Gaunt, says their aim now is to grow market share by growing business with existing customers and absorbing the business of those companies choosing to move away from fabrication. Key to this strategy is the roll out of Korniche. Clearview went along to the new, dedicated Korniche fabrication and training facilities to find out more …

DELIBERATE ENGINEERING

Korniche has been 2 years in the making, designed and engineered from scratch by Bradley, who has a degree in manufacturing engineering, and his brother who is an automotive engineer, specialising in chassis and suspension design for an Italian company in Turin. The duo has even gone as far as to have their own components manufactured and fabricating to tolerances of up to +/-0.1mm, something relatively unheard of in the industry. This results in a product that achieves faster fitting, superior strength, high thermal insulation values, is slimmer with more glass and less rafters than others can achieve.

Bradley explains,“ The strong and thermally efficient Korniche has been designed to be easy and quick to install. Developed

from the ground up, with its slim sections and uninterrupted sight-lines and each component meticulously designed to complement the next, we believe the perfect blend between form and function has been achieved.

“ The decision to do a gradual roll out of Korniche, since its launch at the‘ Fit Show’ last year, was so that we could control the growth to maintain standards and allow us to implement the right infrastructure to support the full introduction of the product. This has allowed us to engineer out any issues before they had chance to become a problem. We have also spent time building a team of the right people to fabricate Korniche.”

It was for this reason that only 100 installation guides were initially printed, so that the process could be adapted as the product was rolled out. In fact, Bradley has assisted on most of the early installs, to provide advice and support but also to gain feedback.“ Our aim has been to minimise room for error and mistakes,” he says.

Made For Trade is taking time to carefully test Korniche to the worst case scenario and put it through rigorous testing for BBA accreditation. This will allow the company to make quantifiable claims that can be substantiated. Bradley feels the results will prove the Korniche is far stiffer and stronger than any other lantern currently on the market.

SPEEDILY DOES IT

The beauty of the product is in its ease and speed of installation. The company recently proved this by filming the construction of a 1.5 x 3 metre lantern at the Korniche fabrication facility with a time lapse camera, taking just 27 minutes 46 seconds fully glazed. Bradley comments,“ To achieve this, Korniche has been designed to incorporate several time saving elements, which removes parts of the traditional construction and fitting processes. These include the way in which the spas bolt together using a universal 5mm Allen key, the integral glazing retainers / glass lock, the full aluminium die-cast structural lugs and end caps, the tapered washers to self-align and preload the joints and the steel Heli coils fitted to certain castings to prevent cross threading. We even pre-drill fixing holes into the eaves beams. In addition there is also a patent pending on the specially designed boss too.”

Even the way Korniche is packaged and shrink wrapped is designed to ooze quality. The box of parts is provided with all the components fitted into a custom

foam protective‘ briefcase’ with a cardboard separator. This has been designed to not only provide unparalleled protection in transit but also aids with installation and conveys the premium brand.“ Every aspect of Korniche is very deliberate and for a purpose,” explains Bradley.

He concludes,“ With all this now in place, the plan is to roll out Korniche to everyone in January. We have brought an experienced Sales Manager in Trevor Hopper on board to showcase the Korniche to the industry. There has been a lot of interest in the Korniche so I believe Trevor will be very busy.” Trevor commented,“ The Korniche Roof Lantern really is a game changer that anyone in the building, home-improvement business needs to see and get on board with it!

“ The time lapse footage we filmed recently is available to view on our website, and in May we will be at the‘ Fit show’ again with Korniche on a stand over 290 square feet bigger than last year, where we will reveal a few surprises!‘ Seeing is believing’.”

www. madefortrade. co