S POT L IGHT
www.ggpmag.com July
diverse, and more controllable entities. It will
be these more focused businesses along with
companies like ours – the genuine innovators,
which will mature and grow up into the next
larger industry players.
GGP: As a manufacturer, what lessons do you
think the industry can learn from the Covid-
lockdown crisis?
CW: I think the question you are really asking
here is what have people been reminded of by
the Covid- lockdown crisis, and I think it is
a reminder of the same basic advice provided
by our parents when we were children, and it
could be given after any crisis which affects any
business sector.
Remember to keep something back for a rainy
day.
Be it cash, stock, space, capacity, or the
other myriad of things we often let get close to
the bone. Do not overstretch your businesses
because no matter how good things are going
now, most of us are in this for the long haul
and there will always be a rainy day around the
corner.
A GLOBAL CRISIS ON A
SMALLER SCALE...
This month has marked a sad milestone in the
Made for Trade story, and we have regrettably
had to inform our customers that we will no
longer be able to quote and fabricate the Global
conservatory roof system.
Despite its age and unfashionableness within
today’s fenestration products, Global is
somewhat of an institution here at MFT and
back when everybody knew us as Aanco, the
system formed the building blocks to the
growth of the B†B business now known
nationally as Made For Trade.
Aanco, a family business, started out in the
late ‡ˆ’s as a domestic retail company where we
sold in-house fabricated PVC frames, IGUs and
conservatories from our Stockton-on-Tees based
factory and show village. As the years past, we
started to fabricate the Synseal Global system,
and somewhere around †ˆˆ‡ we opened a
Made for Trade counter on the side of the
factory. This was set up to sell our products
locally, and soon after, nationally to third party
companies as well as direct to the consumer
through the retail arm of the company.
Five years of conservatory roof sales growth
helped us to build up the capital to start
investing in modern manufacturing equipment
and get set up just in time for the boom in
bi-fold doors. The rest, as they say, is history
and even though conservatory roofs are now a
pretty mature product in a declining market, it’s
been a part of the business that just ran itself,
even seeing year on year growth as a result of
many smaller fabricators dropping out of the
market in favour of more lucrative products.
So why stop now?
Well, as many will be aware the product has
been bought by another industry player
following the demise of Aperture trading. The
new owners of the Global roof have made the
decision to mothball the system, winding down
the supply chain and unfortunately making it
impossible for Made for Trade to continue with
this product.
Quoting of new Global product has now
ceased and any current confirmed orders will be
fulfilled subject to parts availability as the
supply chain closes for good. This situation is
entirely outside of Made for Trade’s control and
we genuinely regret any inconvenience that has
been caused to our longstanding Global clients,
many of which have been supporting us ever
since we started dealing with the trade all those
years ago.
So what’s next?
We have now found ourselves with a quantity of
factory space, staff and machinery looking for
something new to do, and we most definitely
have potential products more in keeping with
current market demands in the pipeline for the
end of †ˆ†ˆ, both third party and our own in
house Korniche brand.
We hope that all of our global customers will
continue to use MFT for the supply of our
market leading bi-folding doors and roof
lanterns in the short term, and if these are not
products you currently purchase then we also
encourage you to keep in touch with us via
social media or on our website as a we have
some innovative new offerings coming very
soon.
All the MFT team thank you all so much for
the Global custom over the years and hope you
will all be part of the next chapter in MFT’s
future.
/www.ggpmag.com
