81 COLOUR Getting the colour balance right Gareth Jones, Rehau’s marketing and technical director, talks to GGP about how the demand for colour has changed in recent years and argues that there could be such a thing When I joined Rehau in 1998, 95% of the window and door profile Rehau sold in the UK was white. Mahogany foil accounted for 5% and it was the only colour option we offered. Now, 16 years later, only 65% of the window and door profile Rehau sells is white and there are 22 different colour options. The colour revolution is having a profound effect on the whole industry and it shows no sign of coming to an end. In both the domestic and commercial sectors, it seems that customers can’t get enough of coloured PVC-U and systems companies, fabricators and installers are constantly being challenged to offer an ever wider range with ever shorter lead times. I worked out recently that, if you take into account all of the different sash and frame combinations, Rehau is now set up to offer more than 120 different colour variants. We’ve responded to the needs of our customers to differentiate themselves in the market and at the same time, we’ve sought to differentiate ourselves as the systems house with the broadest and best colour range. Whilst traditional choices such as rosewood, golden oak and black/brown still together account for around 80% of our foiled sales, rosewood and golden oak are actually declining quite sharply as black/brown continues to increase, followed closely now by our newer grey, cream and foiled white options. Looking ahead in 2015 though, I expect the whole market to have to take a more balanced approach to the issue of colour as we focus on how to help customers retain a competitive advantage without sacrificing their or our margins. The danger is, of course, that colour becomes a battleground between the systems companies as we seek to outdo each other by continually increasing the range of colours we offer. Whilst this might seem appealing to installers in particular who ideally would like to be able to get any frame, in any colour, and at any time from their preferred fabricator, the reality is that if we go down that road, the industry will simply make “Rehau is now set up to offer more than 120 different colour variants.” coloured PVC-U uneconomic for everyone. Ironically, if we offer too much choice, it might actually end up being a bad thing. Our experience so far shows that what the majority of fabricators want from their systems company is a clearly defined range of colours offered from stock, with a clear, competitive pricing strategy and with consistent and reliable lead times. Rehau, for example, offers 16 colours on our fastest moving Rehau Total70C profiles from stock and we also offer a typical four week lead time on a broader range of additional colours and finishes. For us, and I believe for our customers, this strikes the right balance between offering the optimum level of choice without compromising on either prices or logistics. Our customers are successfully using coloured PVC-U to compete with aluminium in the commercial sector and, using our smooth grey foils in particular, they are winning large scale contracts from many of the big name housebuilders. At the same time, they are also using colour to increase margins in the highly competitive domestic sector. If we are to help them to continue doing that, then we have a responsibility to focus not just on how many colours we offer but also on how efficiently and cost effectively we deliver them. This is a complex balancing act which all systems companies and fabricators need to address. I am not for one minute suggesting that Rehau is planning to limit or even reduce its colour range – far from it. We are actually looking at possible new colours and finishes for this year and next. But, what we will not do is just continually introduce new colours to match our competitors if it means we will simply increase costs without actually increasing either our business or the business for our customers. as too much choice. www.ggp.com January 2015
GGP January 2015
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