4 | NOVEMBER 2019
News
Read online at www.proinstaller.co.uk
‘THE RISE OF ALUPROF IN THE UK’
An interview with Wojciech Brozyna Managing Director of Aluprof UK Limited.
Established in the UK in
2006, Aluprof has grown in the
UK to become one of the major
players in the UK facade indus-
try. With so many active facade
systems companies operating in
the UK, how did Aluprof succeed
in taking a sizeable portion of the
UK market? Wojciech Brozyna,
MD of Aluprof UK, answers some
of these questions:
Why break into the UK
market when it was
so well-established
back in 2006?
“In Poland we have always
viewed the UK as a challenge for
us. We had the benefit of logistics
behind us, as we were already
exporting from Poland to sever-
al other European countries and
believed we had a good grasp of
product delivery, offering an on
time and complete order fulfil-
ment. Added to the logistics, we
had won several awards for our
systems in Poland and believed
that our product range could take
on any other system currently
available in the European market
at that time.
“The market crash in 2008 pos-
sibly helped us grow as fast as we
did. At this time we were ready
with stocked product in Poland
and planning two deliveries per
week to the UK. As a result speci-
fications were switched to Aluprof,
we delivered on our promises and
these ‘early adopters’ of Aluprof
systems continue to be valued
customers today.”
How did you penetrate
the UK market in
the early days being
virtually unknown?
“We decided to send a small
team over from Poland, which
included myself and several other
employees who knew our systems
very well. We then interviewed
and took on a small team of en-
thusiastic people who could also
see the benefits in our systems
and services. It is these early
members of staff who promoted
our systems and helped us gain
our first projects. The majority
of the original staff are still vital
members of our team today.
“To create awareness, we joined
several associations in the UK
and supported their meetings and
events. Our approach was quite
simple, we believed that our sys-
tems could stand up alongside any
other system and perform as well,
if not better than our competitors.
We revealed the credibility of our
offer which was enthusiastically
accepted in the UK by specifiers
and facade companies. The UK
has always had a passion for Euro-
pean style systems and we did not
disappoint.”
How have you persuaded
specifiers to use your
range of systems?
How have you kept
up with the growth of
Aluprof in the UK?
“When we were looking at the
UK back in 2005, we decided
that a central base for our office
and warehouse facility would
be preferential, so we decided
to settle in the Manchester area
which gave us close access to all
the major conurbations across
the British Isles. From our initial
offices and warehouse in Norman
Road, Altrincham, we moved seven
years ago to a new, larger unit at
Altrincham Business Park.
“In order to keep up with the
growth and support our custom-
ers, four years ago we started to
offer fabricated product as well
as systems. This has gone down
very well with our customers, as it
has allowed them to take on larger
projects.
“We have done little advertising
and have relied on word of mouth
and regular presence in the press.
With their extensive knowledge of
the UK industry we communicated
our strengths and most important-
ly, met our promises of support
and delivery times. We also have
an experienced back office team
and R&D facility in Poland who
offer a package of technical sup-
port. Honouring site deliveries
with our fabricators has put us
in place for future work on many
projects and something we have
capitalised on.
“One of the growth systems in
our portfolio has been our fire
rated windows, doors and curtain
wall systems. When we brought
these systems to the UK, the
market for fire rated aluminium
systems was in its early growth cy-
cle. I believe we still lead the field
in this technology as currently we
are the only systems company in
the UK that can offer a cap-less
fire rated curtain wall system,
our MB SR50NEI EFEKT which
is tested to EI60 and certified by
Certifire Warrington.”
What are your future
plans for the UK?
“We have plans to double the
offices and warehouse space this
year in Altrincham to provide a
showroom and media centre for
specifiers. Together with this
facility we also have an active
office and ‘drop-in’ showroom
at the Business Design Centre at
Islington to support our growing
number of specifiers using our
systems in the South East. We
also regularly interview for new
staff as we continue to expand our
team.”
www.aluprof.co.uk