12 minute read
What Door?
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS
Looking for a composite door offer that combines premium quality, established brand awareness and a competitive price tag? Then look no further than the new, single rebate Apeer44 range.
With the home improvement boom now but a distant memory, installers are facing a tougher challenge to win sales. Despite economic pressures however, demand is still there and especially at the more affluent end of the market, territory that’s typically associated with premium products that include higher value entrance doors and composites. Apeer, now one of the UK’s biggest composite door brands, has worked tirelessly to ensure its customers are suitably well equipped to take advantage of this demand, with innovations such as the aluminium inspired Silka finish – and now the Silka aluminium window and lift ‘n slide range – proving a huge success. But the R&D department at Apeer never rests for long. A new product range, Apeer44, has just been launched, an offer that embodies the quality and attention to detail of the Apeer brand, but with a new, more competitively priced single rebate, 44mm composite range. Apeer’s Managing Director, Asa McGillian, sheds some light on the Ballymena firm’s latest product development: “We’ve enjoyed a huge amount of success with our 70mm composite range, with the Silka finish that was originally designed to challenge aluminium entrance doors and more recently with the introduction of our new suite of Silka windows and doors.
“But the feedback from our customers and from consumers is that there is still a strong market for a high quality, single rebate composite offer, one that delivers all the performance and high end aesthetic associated with Apeer, just at a more attractive price point.” Apeer44 features 13 new door designs and also includes a new range of glass options from RegaLead, including the popular New Orleans and Aurora designs. In addition to a collection of stylish new side panels, as well as on trend, premium black hardware that includes bar pull handles and lever handles, Apeer44 also boasts a smooth finish option on two of the door styles that also feature smooth glazing trims and matching smooth cassettes. Available now, Apeer’s new, high quality Apeer44 brochure is reinforced with accompanying digital literature and professionally produced videos, which have now become a hallmark of Apeer’s marketing campaigns. The company has invested significantly in marketing activity over the last five years, including a highly impactful consumer video campaign introduced at the start of the first Covid lockdown, and is now said to be reaping the benefits of such prolonged brand exposure. Such is the familiarity of the firm’s marque, that the launch of Apeer44 has been timed to coincide with a decision to position all products under the ‘Apeer’ umbrella brand. “It was really down to gut instinct to light a fire under our marketing campaign when we did,” admits Asa, “but our market research, and our sales success, have more than justified the decision. “We have created some outstanding marketing material to support the launch of Apeer44, but when combined with such positive brand awareness, it means our customers can really hit the ground running,” he concludes. “We know that the demand for an attractively priced, high-quality single rebate composite is there and with economic conditions putting pressure on even more affluent households, we’re confident that it’s a market sector that will keep on growing.”
www.apeer.co.uk.
GERDA:
0345 672 9333 sales@apeer.co.uk apeer.co.uk STEEL YOURSELF
FOR SOMETHING DIFFERENT
During the early ‘noughties a fear of market saturation was settling over the replacement window ‘double-glazing’ industry. True, the majority of UK homes that could be fitted with replacement windows, had been and the outlook looked gloomy. The expression ‘replacing the replacements’ was coined though without any real belief that people would actually upgrade in any meaningful volumes; window sales were surely about to fall off a cliff.
The evolving reality of course was that the replacement window and door industry, as it has so many times in its relatively short history, picked itself up, grasped the nettle and collectively realised that we, the Great British homeowning public, can never lavish enough cash and care on our ‘castles’ and of course, we kept buying windows after all. The market evolved over the next decade in two key ways: the market fragmented and product sectors previously regarded as ‘niche’ became viable in their own right; and the power of product innovation seemed to have dawned as window systems houses, hardware suppliers, composite door manufacturers and others suddenly realised that exciting new products stimulate spending! Vertical sliding and flush sash windows are just two examples of how innovation grabbed the attention of homeowners and, whilst replacement windows were not bought in the volumes that the industry had become used to in the previous thirty years, neither were they being sold for peanuts. And that included composite doors. Almost overnight, the humble GRP-faced slab that began life on these shores as a cheap and effective solution for social housing, took on an upmarket persona and was developed to appeal to homeowners who liked the appearance (especially compared to moulded PVC), feel and promise of security and insulation that was inherent. Brands proliferated, price point and quality differentials emerged and voila, the home improvement industry had a whole new sub-sector in its own right. No longer was a front door chucked in as part of a 10-window deal.
Now, the biggest issue for homeowners is choice. There are literally dozens of brands offered by thousands of installers and often, with very little to differentiate them except price. Enter Danny Williams of Pioneer Trading. With a previous history of bucking the trend when faced with downward spiralling prices and margins with little to differentiate one white casement window from the next, Danny persuaded his system supplier to produce his own, exclusive window. With careful branding and product differentiation, especially in its performance, Pioneer’s installer customers could, with their hands on their hearts, tell their buyers: “No madam, the price our competitor is quoting you is not like-for-like’. It worked. And now Danny is doing something similar with residential doors. The key differential this time, is steel; steel and aluminium-faced residential doors manufactured by Gerda, a firm that has its emphasis firmly on security and thermal performance and which are about as different as can be achieved against a sea of GRP composites. Danny explained his approach: “Our search for a residential door that provided genuine and tangible differentials began in 2019, for something that I could offer to the market generally and not just our installer customers. I kept being drawn back to Gerda residential doors, and then a couple of coincidences pushed me towards them; around two years later, we launched Gerda at this year’s FIT Show. And thankfully, it was a huge success!” Gerda achieves differentiation on a number of key fronts: Casual Internet searches reveal a dearth of steel-faced residential doors, and still surprisingly few aluminium that are pitched at the middle market. And the Polish-based brand is rooted in security, the company well-known for a raft of other security products, throughout mainland Europe. British homeowners seeking such reassurances will be impressed not just with the inherent strength promised by the facings, but also the hardware. The thermal performance is developed for harsh Eastern European winters and the stats are impressive. Both steel and aluminium doors offer thermal transmittance as low as 0.74 W/m2K for solid doors and 0.81 W/m2K for glazed versions. The class leading Altus door being offered by Pioneer in the UK boasts an 88mm depth, three chamber reinforced aluminium internal construction with PU cores, with FUHR multi point security lock and hardware located into reinforced aluminium outer frames. Such features are typical across the range. The first Gerda doors are now being installed in UK homes after an impressive FIT Show debut, says Danny: ‘We have been taking decent orders since July and have around 40 dealers now appointed with showrooms furnished, and finishing touches being made to the systems and communications between Gerda and ourselves and of course, the market, in preparation for ramping up sales. “We will be ready for volume sales from January and have a growing distribution network throughout the UK, including negotiations being finalised with a distributor in the Republic of Ireland, though we still have opportunities in the north of England, and Scotland. With every one of our distribution partners, the emphasis has been on their ability to offer the highest service levels, something that has become poor within the resi-door industry; composite door producers had better steel themselves!” concluded a smiling Danny.
Tel: 01245 362236 – www.gerdadoors.co.uk
The new Apeer44 range has a door for every style, taste and personality. Apeer44 is the coolest new way to express a sense of style. Choose from our collection of designer doors, crafted glass and uber-fashionable furniture to set any house apart from the rest.
0345 672 93330345 672 93330345 672 9333 sales@apeer.co.uksales@apeer.co.uksales@apeer.co.uk apeer.co.ukapeer.co.ukapeer.co.uk
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DOOR DESIGNER LICENCE WORTH £399 UP FOR GRABS IN HURST DOOR’S INSTALLATION OF THE MONTH CONTEST
Hurst Doors, one of the UK’s largest PVC-U door panel and composite door manufacturers, is launching an Installation of the Month competition commencing October.
Prize winners will receive a year’s free subscription to the retail version of the Hurst Composite Door Designer, worth £399 plus VAT. To be in with a chance to win, all the company’s customers have to do is send in their pictures of recent Hurst door installations.
The Hurst team will then judge the winner, with the help of followers voting for their favourite on Hurst’s social channels, and the company responsible will be awarded ‘Installation of the Month’ and win the prize! In addition, the homeowner of the winning installation will also receive a £50 Amazon voucher.
“We know that every week, our fantastic customers complete hundreds of stunning installations all across the country,” comments Sales Director Mark Atkinson.
“With our new competition, we want to shine a light on their workmanship and skill, and celebrate their success.
“We look forward to receiving some excellent submissions, and crowning our first Installation of the Month!”
Easily integrated into an installer’s website, Hurst’s user-friendly door designer allows homeowners to tailor the perfect door to their needs and preferences. Choosing from a vast array of options, users can specify the exact style, colour, hardware, glass designs and more, as well as add Secured by Design. The designer can be fully customised to feature a company’s branding, and allows installers to send personalised emails to their customers.
The platform also syncs with Hurst Live, Hurst’s exclusive 24/7 trade-only online ordering portal. This means that any leads customers generate through the door designer on their own website can be managed within their Hurst Live account, from quote to order, to delivery. To enter the competition, installers of Hurst Doors can either share their project images on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, making sure to tag Hurst Doors or alternatively, send in their images to marketing@hurstdoors.co.uk. Terms and Conditions apply, see website for details. For more information, please call 01482 790790 or visit: www.hurstdoors.co.uk.
A GLADIATORIAL SHOWROOM OPENING FOR ENDURANCE
With the help from Hunter from 90’s TV series Gladiators, Endurance Doors have opened a new showroom in Brigg, North Lincolnshire to help drive consumer sales in the local market, formed as a basis for Installer Partner product training, whilst also providing a physical platform for marketing launches and activities
This new cutting-edge retail environment for entrance doors is located separately to the manufacturing facility, but still within Brigg, North Lincolnshire. It features seven doors in total from across the Endurance range, along with wall mounted hardware boards, colour swatches and even a supersized interactive digital board. The doors include two from the Classic, Country and Urban Collections, along with a new ultrapremium Avantal doorset which is already generating considerable interest. Consultations can be booked online with a Design Consultant, whilst the virtual showroom also gives web visitors a taste of this new retail investment by Endurance. It also fully reflects the consumer marketing strategy that underpins the strong Endurance Doors brand too.
Stephen Nadin, managing director of Endurance Doors enthused: ‘This isn’t a typical trade only showroom, but a cutting edge, premium retail environment. We feel this is the perfect opportunity to develop new marketing ideas, provide both online and face to face design consultations and generate high quality leads for our Installer Partners in our immediate area.
He continued: ‘It was fitting to bring Hunter back for the day to open the new retail showroom and we’ll be looking to have him back again to revisit the sledgehammer test. He’s got through a GRP door, another timber composite, but not yet one of ours!” For further information on the Endurance Solid and Secure composite door range including the ultra-premium Avantal door please call the sales office on 01652 659259, visit https://endurancedoors.co.uk, or e-mail marketing@endurancedoors.co.uk. You can also follow us on Twitter @EnduranceDoors.
