Most accept that the industry as we know it today was begun by George Williams in the mid-sixties who , frustrated at being unable to source secondary glazing for his Norwich home , decided to make his own . Out of this beginning grew Anglian Windows and an industry selling an estimated £ 450 million-worth of windows and doors a year .

So successful was George and other early pioneers who quickly realised the potential for replacement windows , plus residential doors , conservatories , and similar improvements , that just forty years later the industry was facing a crisis : the market had become saturated . The phrase ‘ replacing the replacements ’ was

coined and banded about but without any conviction . After all , why would people replace like-for-like , with no great advances ? A window is a window , right ?

Adrian Barraclough , Chairman of Yorkshire-based fabricator Quickslide has a theory for why early in the 20th Century , the growing worry that the double glazing industry was a spent force began to change : “ I have looked back at that period of time ,” says Adrian , “ and the windows and doors that were being sold were pretty much the same as 35 five years earlier : standard side hung casements with a fanlight and the vast majority of which were PVC-U … although

white PVC-U had replaced the original anodised aluminium frames , the industry simply had not evolved .”

What we now broadly call ‘ Heritage ’ windows and doors did not exist in the home improvement sector . Homeowners whose properties were fitted with original timber box sashes were served predominantly by specialists that only manufactured like-for-like timber replacements in craft workshops . Prices were out of the reach of the vast majority of the owners of an estimated six million homes historically fitted with this style . It was a huge potential market that previously had been under the radar of the replacement window industry , recalls Adrian : “ There were just a handful of companies selling replacement PVC-U vertical sliders at that time , but they were small firms that were reactive to relatively small numbers of homeowners that decided to go out and search for replacements for their leaky old original box sash frames . Quickslide saw the potential for this market , looked at the numbers and realised that there were lots of homeowners out there that were sitting in modest period homes with leaky windows , who couldn ’ t afford the enormous

cost of like-for-like timber replacements . The only alternative for so many was to ruin the style of their homes with inappropriate PVC-U casements , which usually looked terrible ,” he mused .

Quickslide focused on producing a credible replacement for these homeowners , in PVC-U and at an affordable price . And with the Internet gaining momentum both in terms of speed and access in the early ‘ noughties , the word quickly spread : “ Quickslide was very good at marketing even in those early days ,” says Adrian . “ And whilst VS windows had been overlooked by an industry that had been installing 10 windows for a thousand pounds , they now looked mightily attractive as people feared the mass market was drying up . It ’ s worth reflecting that as dynamic as the replacement VS market is now , it is still less than 15 years old .”

Crucial lessons were learned : “ Although based on one of the oldest window styles , the modern VS was innovative and opened up new markets ,” says Adrian . “ Coupled with the significant improvement in window performance demanded by the revised Building Regulations in 2004 , which also brought the replacement industry under control for the first time ,

our industry began to think about product development in a way that it had never done previously . The pile ‘ em high , sell ‘ em cheap mentality wasn ’ t going to cut it anymore . The industry had to embrace change and put effort into design and performance .”

The Heritage window sector was further advanced with the popularisation of flush sash , which of course have been another major success story for the industry in the past decade : “ Although Quickslide offers a widerange of all window and door types , we remain best known for our development of VS and flush sash frames ,” says Adrian . “ The popularisation of these styles and the subsequent development of these in terms of detailing and options has changed the way homeowners buy windows and doors . Options such as foiled and sprayed colour , huge choices of hardware and improved IGU performance , have inspired homeowners who are now more likely to change their windows and doors and add conservatories and orangeries to change the way their homes look , rather than because they have failed . Heritage has led that ,” concludes Adrian .

www . quickslide . co . uk