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GGP Magazine talks to Chris Wann, business development manager at Made For Trade, on why the
company is enjoying strong demand for orders post lockdown, his predictions for the industry going forward
and what lessons can be learned from the Covid- crisis.
GGP: How surprised have you been by the
levels of demand post lockdown?
Chris Wann (CW): We went into this with
an open mind and with a certain amount of
trepidation seeing as we have made such a large
investment in our facilities during the back end
of . We knew that the lockdown meant
our revenue target was going to take a big hit.
Regular discussion with our customers kept us
aware that, despite the shutdown, there was still
high demand for the products, although with
many companies closed this could easily have
been falsely inflated by the smaller number of
people still operating. Regardless we knew there
would be work to come back to, but for how
long? We approached with a soft start and I
guess the surprise was how relentless it has been,
and still is, some weeks later.
GGP: How much has been new business, and
how much has been fulfilling the back log of
existing orders?
CW: There is a significant number of new
customers coming onboard, far more than
we have seen since the launch and growth of
the Korniche Lantern roof. I feel this is partly
because, thanks to having more space than we
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currently need, we were able to get back up and
running sooner than many others, and a lot of
people were getting really quite desperate for
supply – even buying from Europe. A second
factor was that other companies which had been
struggling post lockdown could not react as
quickly, delivery and service wise, to meet market
conditions.
There was a month of getting through the
backlog, but we are way past that now and it is
the sheer volume of new orders coming in that’s
keeping us busy.
GGP: The industry seems to have got off to a
good start in this recovery period, but do you
think it is sustainable?
CW: I certainly hope for us and other similar
businesses it will be. The good start seems
to be off the back of the now commonplace
reasons you will hear of people sat at home in
the sun, with holiday money to burn, starting to
think about home improvement, plus of course
the lim-ited supply of our products creating a
bottleneck for all the trades. But there is the
very real looming recession and the possibility
of a second wave of infections. Considering that
again we see some of the more stretched investor
owned bigger players in trouble, your traditional
owner operated businesses with safer models
should be the ones reaping the rewards even if
there is a drop off in work overall.
GGP: There is evidence to suggest that
high value products will represent a good
opportunity for installers looking to build
cash reserves, as this end of the market is
likely to be still buoyant despite Covid-.
Good news for MFT?
CW: I think that the Korniche product lines will
always be popular, regardless of the perception
of the ‘high value’ end of the market. Our
Lantern product and the ones which will very
shortly be brought to market are designed to
be ‘high end’ at a price point which means
customers struggle to find reasons not to buy
them. We will not stray from our recipe of the
best products at the best prices. As long as
people continue to want to improve their home
with leading aluminium systems it will be good
news for MFT.
GGP: We have already seen how some large
organisations have been effected during
Covid-, but what are your predictions for
the industry for the next ‚-ƒ months? Is there
enough demand to sustain the industry as it is,
or has the lockdown damaged some companies
beyond repair?
CW: I think, well I certainly hope, that it is time
for a new wave of large industry players. It will
take a while but smaller businesses which have
grown more slowly and in a more controlled
manner should be the ones that prevail. Getting
the basic model right then carefully investing in
the next thing, and then when that is working
looking at the next and so on. Recent events
must be discouraging others from the acquisition
growth model – crashing a load of different
businesses together and then struggling to
remain in control whilst sacrificing liquidity/
assets to appease investors.
So, I do think more will go, the venture capital
owned ‘larger players’ as we are seeing now
being sold off strategically into smaller, less
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