24 | Sector Focus: Joinery
Above: Mumford and Wood has invested
in new machinery, including this Homag
processing technology
Below: Timber Windows is selling at a rate
of £10m-worth of timber windows annually
Bottom: Window production at Howarth
Timber (Windows and Doors)
◄ rough split of £9m for Mumford & Wood,
£6m for Dale and £10m for Timber Windows.
Alan Shearer, general manager of Howarth
Timber (Windows and Doors), agrees that the
market has been a little inconsistent of late.
“The market grew last year but not by as
much as people were expecting and I don’t
think it really knows what it’s doing,” he
said. He cited the possible Brexit and the
extremely wet weather at the beginning of
the year as probable reasons for a dip in new
build housing construction, which makes up
most of the company’s customer base for
windows and doors.
Scotts of Thrapston, which manufactures
bespoke joinery, including doors and
windows, also noted a quieter start to 2016
following “the biggest single increase in
turnover since 2000” in 2015. It too
attributed the slowdown to the EU
referendum, which, according to chairman
David Scott was “an unwelcome distraction
for a growing manufacturing business.”
Staircase, doorset and doorkit
manufacturer Stairways Group, which focuses
on the newbuild sector, has found the market
to be buoyant but with pressure on margins.
“There is plenty of work around but we’re
finding that buyers are taking longer to make
a decision and are giving us less time to turn
product around on a tighter margin,” said
Karen Wood, joint managing director.
She added that this year has been
extremely busy and that the company had
been performing “outside of capacity”.
“Our annual capacity is about 43,000
doorsets and about 25,000 stairs but taking
March as an example, we moved out just
over 5,000 doorsets and around 900 stairs.”
John Watson (High Performance Doorsets),
which has recently rebranded, having
previously operated as John Watson Joinery,
has witnessed a growing market, particularly
in the residential sector in London and the
south-east.
“Demand for high end residential
apartments has been particularly strong,” said
Steve Kirtley, sales director. “The expansion
of new student accommodation also
continues to be buoyant.”
When the company was established in
1973 it was geared to the manufacture of
timber windows, doorsets and conservatories
for the domestic sector but a move into
Secured by Design (SBD) products led to a
switch to specialising in making high
performance doorsets for the construction
sector.
The company manufactures 300 doors per
week and said that SBD internal and external
doorsets, which can be fully factory paint
finished, are its top selling products.
However, a large percentage of its turnover is
internal fire and acoustic doorsets in a
variety of finishes, including veneer, laminate
or primed for paint.
“We also supply fire and acoustic-rated
timber screens/sidelights and fan lights as
well as skirting and window boards,” said Mr
Kirtley.
Fashion is as important to sales and
product development as performance and
energy efficiency is and, within the
fenestration market, sash windows have
continued to be on trend.
“The market mix for sash windows is about
30%,” said Mr Wakeman. “Mumford & Wood
is predominantly sash windows so has a
higher mix than that, while Timber Windows
would usually be more or less where the
market goes. However, Timber Windows has
sold more sash windows over the last 18
months, so there is growing trend there.”
JELD-WEN said there is continued interest
in “firm favourites’ such as casement
windows but also acknowledged “a
renaissance” in sliding sash windows.
“This is because homeowners are looking
for ways to improve kerb appeal or match
the existing architectural features of a period
property,” said Tony Pell, senior product
manager.
“We’ve also seen a growing trend where
TTJ | July 2016 | www.ttjonline.com
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14/07/2016 11:40