Clearview National July 2019 - Issue 212 | Page 18

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What’s in a Widget?
Window Widgets has a long history in supplying the
trade with ancillaries and accessories since 2000. Sarah
Hitchings, sales and marketing director, outlines the
company profile and portfolio and explains why they’ve
become the dominant force in a relatively niche sector.
» » WINDOW WIDGETS HAS EVOLVED
from a business concept in a back bedroom,
to a well-respected £multi-million business
that supplies some of the most trusted and
respected fabricators in the UK. Everyone
needs a widget and we’re now able to support
manufacturers of PVCu and aluminium
window and door systems, as well as
components and couplers for the composite
door and vertical sliding sash sectors.
For the most part we’ve built a relatively
niche business in supplying the smaller
components that the large systems houses
can’t and that’s due to our size, adaptability
to the market and the considerable in-house
capabilities of extrusion, foiling, injection
moulding and CNC manufacturing. We also
use 3D computer modelling and a 3D printer
for rapid product prototyping.
As an independent business we’re also able
to develop solutions that can be harnessed
across multiple PVCu systems and that
includes our range of baypoles and couplers.
For fabricators dual sourcing, they only need
to carry our range which is available on a
3-day lead-time. There’s also the added benefit
of the fact that we offer a diverse range of
colours and foiled finishes to support all the
major systems and that includes our sister
brand The Residence Collection.
From a product specification point of
view the load bearing products in our range
are CE Marked and to the latest EN1090-2
standard, while our baypole jacks and brackets
are also BBA approved. There has been much
discussion in the industry about baypole jacks
and we manufacture all of the componentry
for this product in house and also assemble it
here too, with full CE Marking. We supply
some of the industry’s biggest names in
quantity, with the reassurance of full product
conformity and full traceability.
Elsewhere we offer a structural pilaster,
mighty mullion, multi-beam, Werbar, drip
bars, along with protection products, bridge
packers, drainage caps, run-up blocks,
locking wedges and other accessories. It’s a
product range that’s been carefully developed
and expanded over the last 19 years as we
look to keep pace of all industry product
developments and trends.
We’re also a very visible brand as those
people who carry our big pink book as
a product directory and that visited our
vivid display at the FIT Show will testify.
But beyond this bold colourway and logo
we are very much a people-based business,
particularly through Tom Edwards, trade sales
executive and Adrian Clare, internal sales
executive who provides additional technical
backup and know-how.
While the 158-page product directory has
become the ultimate reference tool for many,
we’ve also backed this up with a relatively new
website at www.windowwidgets.co.uk and
we’ve already activated a new online ordering
portal for our customers, to further improve
the levels of customer care and service. It’s
already helped streamline processes for our
customers and reduced the amount of internal
paperwork.
Given the increasing importance and
assessment of environmental issues, we’ve
a strong green culture that permeates
throughout the business as we minimise
our waste and run an extensive recycling
programme. We recycle paper, cardboard,
aluminium, polypropylene, ABS, PVC and
even ink cartridges. All scrap wherever possible
is put into products such as Werbar and corner
protectors, while across the manufacturing
facility we employ a low energy approach.
Over the course of the last 19 years we’ve
been carefully and diligently testing, certifying
and manufacturing widgets that are destined
for the biggest names in the window and door
sector. But as we’ve grown, we’ve also built
the brand so that not only does it represent
the best product solutions, but is backed with
exemplary customer care and a strong green
promise.
www.windowwidgets.co.uk
18 » JUL 2019 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M