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Blind Date : 20 years of Morley Glass & Glazing
In 1998 , Morley Glass & Glazing ‘ set up shop ’ in West Yorkshire in a 500 sq ft premises with four members of staff . Today , the business is housed in a 53,000 sq ft unit just off the M62 with a team of over 70 ( including three of the original four ).
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TO CELEBRATE ITS 20-YEAR anniversary , MD Ian Short invited Clearview to look back on the last two decades and the ‘ ups and downs ’ on how a small business in Leeds has become the UK ’ s leading manufacturer of integral blinds within specialist glazing ( at over 80 % of the market share )…
Morley Glass & Glazing is best known within the industry for its core product ; Uniblinds . For a homeowner , the integral blind is a high end residential product that provides a chic , sleek solution to keeping the light ( and heat ) out of their homes ; especially with the bi-fold door and curtain wall extension trend going off the charts in recent years . From Ian ’ s own anecdotes of fittings going into homes that see the Henley Royal Regatta race past the bottom of their garden and have photographs of princes and princesses on their mantelpiece , you could be forgiven for thinking the integral blind market is somewhat ‘ niche ’. Yet , on the other end of the scale , in the commercial sector , integral blinds are well , integral , to mental health facilities ’ design and decor , with a recent project in Belfast requiring £ 850,000 worth .
While the evidence is clear that integral blinds offer a straightforward – and stylish – solution to markets that are at polar opposite ends of the spectrum , it would seem that the product sells itself , this however was not always the case as Ian was keen to point out .
In fact , when Morley Glass & Glazing began selling Pellini Industries ’ Screenline integral blinds in 2004 ( branded as Uniblinds in the UK ), there were already around 20 other customers of the Italian brand up and down the country , but nobody seemed to know . According to Ian , a combination of long lead times and fear of fitting the product , offered a dual aspect to integral blinds that just put installers off . These were the jobs
that , in his own words , “ if they go well , you make a quite a lot of money ; if it goes badly , you can lose a ¬ lot of money .” In short , it wasn ’ t worth the hassle of offering a product that would take ages to arrive , only to potentially go wrong during installation , no matter how much value it could add to the sale for all involved .
Ian saw this hurdle and immediately set out to overcome it . When it came to lead times , he put forward a plan to Pellini Industries to gradually decrease the six-week (“ if you were lucky ”) delivery . Through this initiative , every week that was shaved off the lead time triggered more growth on sales . Better sales translated into better marketing campaigns . A factory move to the Czech Republic further slashed lead times for some models to four days ; meaning for fitters , they could be measuring a house on day one , ordering on day two , then installing on day seven . Italian integral blinds , in your house , in a week .
For the logistics of adding the blinds to a window , and installing them into a property – residential or commercial – Ian and the team invested in staff training at all levels . From designing transparent instruction stickers that are added to every pane of glass , to making sure admin staff are all experts in
product specification , installation instructions that are available written or in video format ; this streamlined approach ensures that a fitter will never turn up to a job unable to wire a blind , and salespeople will never shy away from adding one to an order .
“ Our staff are our biggest asset ”, adds Ian , “ but we ’ re not training them up for the competition . At Morley Glass & Glazing , we are selling a premium product , one that is aspirational for many . We pride ourselves on that quality , and the after sales , service , and support that goes with it .”
When a 24-hour haulage strike hit Italy the week before Christmas not so long ago , Ian sent his own drivers to collect the year ’ s last delivery from just outside of Milan , to make sure all orders that had been made before Christmas were fulfilled . It is this passion for his product , and his team , that has kept Ian pushing forward for the past 20 years , and will no doubt , keep Morley Glass & Glazing going for many more .
Happy birthday from all at Clearview .
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