6
APRIL 2014 PRO INSTALLER
PRO NEWS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
Innovation –
the difference
between
leaders and
followers
In this article for Pro-Installer, Stewart Lamb, National
Sales & Marketing Manager at HOPPE (UK) Ltd reveals
the hardware company’s 2014 product innovations.
Few in our supply chain need
reminding that recent years
have been pretty turbulent.
The hardware sector has taken
a double hit, both in volume and
value owing to the continued influx of cheaper, imported ‘me-too’
products. But recent reports indicate the market is finally showing
signs of recovery and on reaching
the other side, we’ll probably discover that the current successful
hardware companies – those who
have made serious investment and
commitment to the market even
during recession – are those that
come out ahead. Having celebrated our 60th Anniversary in Europe
in 2012 and 25th year of trading
in the UK in 2013, I am pleased to
say that HOPPE is determined to
lead this march and cement our
place as UK market leader in door
handle manufacture.
‘signs of recovery
and on reaching
the other side’
GIVING SOMETHING BACK
HOPPE‘s current 50,000ft2 UK
facility provides an ideal national distribution hub, which offers
ultra-modern facilities including
a fully equipped showroom,
meeting rooms, in house training
facility and new cylinder centre.
This facility has served us well,
and so last year we invested in
order to give something back, and
to ensure that we are offering the
very best products and service to
our customers. The last six months
alone have seen an investment of
three quarters of a million pounds.
We executed this in such a way
as to allow controlled expansion
again in the next three, five and 10
years. The extra capacity allows
us to be both proactive and reactive - essential when you consider
our customer service and order
processing departments take in
the region of 8,000 incoming calls
every month.
‘our customer service
and order processing
departments take
in the region of
8,000 incoming
calls every month’
We have also invested in our
material flow in order to become
leaner, and so offer better customer service. The addition of the
Kardex Remstar Shuttle automated
stock control and picking system for example, has had a huge
impact. This really has to be seen
to be believed. Computer-driven, it
holds 700 individual SKUs and can
be operated by just one man, providing us with a 25-30% increase
in capacity.
It is all very well to say we have
invested internally to stay ahead of
customer demand and future-proof
our business, but what our
customers want to see are new
products that will support their
sales and help differentiate against
the competition. So the start of
2014 has seen HOPPE announce
not one, but two new innovative
hardware collections.
Bringing Commercial
Stainless Steel
Expertise to Retail
Composite Doors
The first, building on our market
leadership in the supply of stainless steel hardware to the commercial sector across the globe, sees
us apply this unrivalled expertise
to retail and composite doors. We
can now announce the unveiling
of our range of stainless steel,
high performance door furniture
and accessories designed specifically with composite doors in
mind. The range includes stainless
steel pull handles incorporating V-shaped and Semi-Circular,
lever on rose and lever on plate
handles, and PAS24 performance
escutcheons.
HOPPE‘s dedicated 150,000ft2
German stainless steel manufacturing facility has long been
renowned for producing high
volume, top quality stainless steel
hardware that stands the test of
time in global commercial projects
such as HOCHTIEF’s Essen HQ
with Sir Norman Foster, Mercedes
Benz in Milan, the Mandarin
Oriental hotel Hong Kong and the
Commerz Bank HQ in Shanghai.
‘ensure our
customers have
everything they need’
Also now available is our new
complementary range of products to ensure our customers
have everything they need to
maximise on the forecast market growth for composite and
fire doors including letter plates,
knockers, numerals and spyholes.
Designed to colour-match exactly
door handles, finishes include the
polished chrome and gold and
powder- coated white and black,
with further colour matches to our
anodised finishes due shortly.
“HOPPE (UK) has always been
driven by two mantras: get the
product right first time; innovation
in design leads to market leadership. These principles drive our
day to day activities, and while we
will never be the most cost-effective in the market and we don’t
want to be, we have the desire and
the resources to invest continually,
to innovate and expand to support
our customers. We believe this is
our true competitive advantage.”
www.hoppe.co.uk or
call 01902 484 400.