36
NEW YEAR MESSAGES
Sarah Hitchings,
sales & marketing
director, Residence
Collection
Howard Trotter,
general
manager,
Shelforce
With the FIT Show
now firmly on
the horizon, it’s
now time for the
industry to showcase everything that
we represent in terms of outstanding products, innovation and
powerful marketing.
For The Residence Collection, it will be an opportunity for
us to show off a range of unrivalled windows including R9, the
ultimate and arguably the only true timber casement alternative
window. We will also be showing off R7 which is flush inside
and out and is a window that’s suitable for a wide range of
applications with its own distinctive appearance.
In 2019, we’ll also be focussing our efforts on R2 which
visually is unlike any other PVC-U window in the market thanks
to a distinctive contemporary square appearance and shares the
same sash and glazing beads as R9. Throughout The Residence
Collection we share beads and sashes so that stockholding is kept
to a minimum, with single length ordering and small bead packs.
The FIT Show will also form the perfect platform for our latest
development which will be a range of residential doors which
harness our dedicated door sash with the same profiles used
for both inward and outward opening French doors. We will of
course be promoting Window Widgets at the show too.
With trade installers now looking for more help than ever
before, we are continuing to invest in the brand at the consumer
level with advertising and social media campaigns. Indeed, our
Facebook reach exceeds that of Wren Kitchens with 55k likes, just
behind AGA who boast 59k, fully reflecting our strong consumer
facing brand.
2019 could be a challenging year for some companies with
little product differentiation and the potential economic fallout
with Brexit. Yet our customers have well outperformed the market
with sales growth and a return to double digit margins.
With R7 for the masses and R2 and R9 relatively niche, our
customers have the ability to offer consumers a more individual
window offering. After all, why replace a white 70mm with one
of a similar appearance, something we feel is a strong marketing
message for the year.
2018 was a fantastic year
for us for many reasons,
and we’re optimistic that the
new year will provide us with
the opportunity to grow Shelforce even
further.
We worked on a number of Local Authority projects, including
Adelaide Tower in Birmingham, a retirement housing high rise
managed by Birmingham City Council that is currently being
transformed.
We also won a contract to supply and install composite doors
for Tamworth Council going forward which is also very exciting.
“we’re optimistic that the new year
will provide us with the opportunity
to grow Shelforce even further”
It was great to be able to speak at The Glazing Summit to
increase awareness of the benefits of a fully-inclusive workforce,
and 75% of our workforce is disabled so we are still leading the
way in the glazing industry when it comes to inclusivity.
2019 is going to prove momentous for us as we will be
opening our new dedicated training facility which will allow us
to provide regular work experience placements for students from
nearby schools, including special needs schools, and invest in
the future.
“Our view is that we need to keep
doing what we do, but make sure we
We also have several social housing and new build projects we
will be working on, including a scheme to convert a tower block
into temporary accommodation for homeless families.
In 2019 we aim to win even more contracts with Local
Authorities and in the new build sector and to encourage more
businesses to adopt our inclusive approach.
There will be challenges to face, not least because it’s such a
competitive market out there, but we are confident that we can
compete and cement our reputation as one of the leading PVC-U
window and door manufacturers thanks to the quality of our
products and our service.
It would be remiss of me not to mention Brexit too, of course,
as it’s proving an uncertain time for businesses in all industries.
But we feel that battening down the hatches is not the answer,
no matter what deal is reached with the EU. Our view is that
we need to keep doing what we do, but make sure we do it even
better.
www.ggpmag.com January 2019
do it even better”
/www.ggpmag.com
