The vast and airy foyer seemed just as spacious full of delegates as it did when we first visited as a party of two . The sheer size of the space perhaps even more evident when it was packed with press , MFT customers and team members . The visitors – from all over the UK – were split into two groups , again testament to the attendance levels ; and travelling to the North East for an overnight event , with severe weather warnings in place ( Storm Dennis was about to go full throttle ) is not an easy sell at the best of times .
Pro Installer was in the group that began with a presentation . As we had already been around the site ( covered in our December issue if you wish to revisit virtually , yourself ), this meant the day started off completely differently ; with a Powerpoint presentation from Chris Wann – Operations Director – on the ups and well , ups that has seen Made For Trade – nee Aanco – make significant growth .
2016 marked the year that business really started to accelerate . Domestic sales and installations were closed down to concentrate on B2B . Three product streams - Global Roof , Smarts Visofold and in Q4 Korniche Lantern – were launched and a third manufacturing site opened . Turnover was £ 8.3M and there were 73 staff on the books . This was followed by the ‘ Year of the Lantern ’, with Korniche gaining significant market share , due to its innovation-packed specification and engineering excellence , explained Chris . Turnover was £ 12.4M and employment had grown to 93 .
By the end of 2018 , recruitment of specialist staff in customer service and engineering ( you can ’ t
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be the ‘ Engineers of Fenestration ’ without them ) and the beginnings of a bi-fold , meant that the current site was becoming too small . With the team now bulging to 122 , and turnover more than £ 19M , it was time to start looking for new digs .
And so , at the end of 2019 , the lease on Wellington House had been secured . Designs for a completely bespoke factory and office space were underway . To complement these grand designs , they
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