Overall the glazing sector of the home improvement market is enjoying an upsurge though it remains fragile; replacing windows in a saturated market continues to present a challenge although homeowners are waking up to the significant improvements in the performance of new windows compared to those installed even just 10 years ago. Conservatory sales are growing and bi-folding doors continue to bring much needed profits for installers throughout the UK. However, residential doors, especially those manufactured using modern composite materials, continue to excite homeowners. Although hardly new – Safedoors’ sister company Permadoor introduced composite residential doors almost 30 years ago – many homeowners are only now realising the improvements that can be made to their homes simply by replacing their main external doors. It is always worth reviewing just why composite doors continue to excite homeowners: they look good and offer the customers almost countless customising options to make them truly their own and suited to their property; weather performance and durability is way ahead of original timber doors and even the moulded PVCu units that were often installed as part of an incentive for a customer to sign on the night for a house-full of windows- and of course security is a highly significant issue. The market is awash with companies offering composite doors which, whilst presenting installers and in turn their homeowner customers with great choice, also brings with it some issues in respect of quality and long-term support.

So how can the smart installer sift through the dozens of composite door brands that jostle for their business? Which is the best door, the least likely to require callbacks and in turn therefore, which are likely to yield the best profits and greatest customer satisfaction? The answer given invariably is‘ choose a firm that has traded successfully for a number of

years and which enjoys a good reputation’. And so the story goes for choosing a great composite door supplier … reputation is everything. And beginning from that standpoint of course Safedoors has no peers. Safedoors Sales Director Lorna Rose says that being the first in the market with a product brings certain pressures:“ I understand that ultimately we will rise or fall

on the strength of our products, our customer service and the way that we support our customers to develop their businesses. If we are not up to scratch there are plenty of others out there to pick up any business that we leave behind and they won’ t be sentimental about it.“ But Safedoors has a heritage and reputation for producing great products and backing

‘ maintain control of the buying process at all times’

them with excellent service – we invented the product – and we are all very proud that we were in first,” adds Lorna. Safedoors offers both a foam cored GRP skinned door in its Diamond range and at a premium price point, an engineered timber core product with a thermoplastic skin offered as its Platinum range. All Safedoors products are backed by a range of accreditations, something that Lorna says is crucial for homeowners as well as professional specifiers:“ Using the Internet most homeowners are incredibly well informed these days. Not only do they look for the appropriate accreditations, they understand their significance. Not having Secured By Design, for example, will lose sales.” Both ranges are available with a huge range of options, with some superb marketing materials and an online Door Selector available to help customers make the choice. Lorna explains:“ The Safedoors Door Selector allows the installer to maintain control of the buying process at all times. It is controlled via a log in that offers the choice of revealing or hiding prices. Recently we have added the facility to use a‘ Digital Photo Visualiser’ which allows the customer to see how their choice looks against their own home – and change it if they don’ t like what they see.” Much has changed since Safedoors made its first composite door 30 years ago. But something that hasn’ t is the company’ s commitment to supporting its customers and in turn their customers.

www. safedoors. co. uk