DECEMBER 2019 | 15
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
“THERE’S NOT MUCH THAT CAN
RENDER ME SPEECHLESS – BUT THIS
WINDOW COMPANY BLEW ME AWAY”
Andy Jones, new Group Managing Director
at Victorian Sliders, tells the story of how
he joined Europe’s biggest sash window
manufacturer – and why he’s confident it can
help thousands of UK installers make more
margin and break into lucrative new markets.
When Scot Starkey,
CEO of Victorian Sliders,
first asked me to come and
work for him, I admit, I
wasn’t sure if I wanted to
work for a window manu-
facturer.
But I know and like Scot,
so decided to at least do
him the courtesy of going
to discuss it in person. I
drove down to see him –
and I drove back as Group
Managing Director of Eu-
rope’s biggest sash window
company.
I obviously knew about
Victorian Sliders. I knew it
was a major player in the
UK sash window market,
filling a lucrative niche by
providing high volumes
and consistent quality,
and helping thousands of
installers enter a growth
market.
What I didn’t appreci-
ate was the sheer scale of
what Scot and the Victorian
Sliders team have achieved
over the last decade. In
an unassuming ex-mining
village in Carmarthenshire,
they’ve built a world-class
fenestration business - and
now, the industry is sitting
up and taking notice.
At a purpose-built
240,000 square-foot facility,
they don’t just make in
excess of 2,000 windows
a week – after investing
nearly ten million pounds
in state-of-the-art technolo-
gy, they can do much more
than that.
Victorian Sliders extrude
their own profile. They
make their own sealed
units. They toughen their
own glass. They do all
their own profile bending.
They’ve got seven depots
all around the country.
They’ve got their own
spray booth, allowing
them to produce windows
in whatever RAL colour a
customer requests. And
they even have their own
recycling plant. No other
UK sash window company
can do all that.
It quickly became clear
to me that Victorian Sliders
was a fantastic business
that was on the cusp of
something incredible – and
I knew I wanted to be a
part of the next phase in its
history.
Helping installers capi-
talise on the sash window
boom
Now, I’m in an immense-
ly privileged position for
the second time in my
career.
Previously at Edgetech, I
was able to play a part in
taking warm-edge technol-
ogy from niche to main-
stream – when I joined,
less than 1% of the market
used warm-edge spacers.
Today, that’s risen to more
than 80%.
At Victorian Sliders, I
now have the opportunity
to do the same with verti-
cal sliding windows.
What many people don’t
realise is that approximate-
ly 50% of the country’s ex-
isting housing stock started
out with box sash win-
dows. With half of Britain’s
homes being designed to
have sash windows, some
would argue they don’t
look right without them.
In the ‘80s and ‘90s,
many of those houses
had their beautiful sash
windows ripped out and
replaced with cheap looka-
like casements. At Victorian
Sliders, our challenge is to
bring those properties back
to their former glory.
Already, we’re seeing more
and more homeowners take
out those white uPVC win-
dows and replace them with
higher value, more aestheti-
cally pleasing products.
They’re treating win-
dows more like furniture,
and looking for something
characterful and different –
something that reflects the
feel of their property, or
their own sense of style.
And that’s why they love
sash windows. They’ve got
a vintage elegance that
casements just can’t match.
We’re also seeing increas-
ing demand in new-build,
where builders of all sizes
are looking to increase that
all-important curb appeal.
While Mr and Mrs Smith
want something with visual
appeal, installers want
something that’s great val-
ue, offers high margins and
is simple to install.
At Victorian Sliders, we
offer the best of both – the
price difference between
one of our products and
the same sized casement
window is less than £100
- and in the years ahead,
we want to help thousands
more installers break into
one of the most lucrative
markets that modern glass
and glazing has to offer.
Our industry is chang-
ing, fast. We’ve seen this
with the drastic increase in
bifolds, foiled windows and
other value-added products
in recent years – and at Vic-
torian Sliders, we believe
we can help make vertical
sliders mainstream again.
www.victoriansliders.co.uk