Prepare for further industry consolidation

It’s been a strong start to the year as installers make their way through the backlog of orders that were placed at the tail end of 2021.

Most installers went back to work at the start of the month with enough in the pipeline to see them through to the end of Q1 and from what I hear, January has also been unseasonably busy.

The forecast for 2022 however, is that activity in the retail sector will begin to get back to normal. That will no doubt be welcome news for many after the intensity of the pandemic, but it will also play into the hands of companies that have invested in effective lead generation and marketing as business starts to become more challenging.

According to Insight Data, ongoing consolidation in the industry also presents further opportunities in the industry.

While this was first highlighted at the Double Glazing Summit in October last year, the facts and figures in the Insight Data report are a real eye-opener.

In the last 10 years the number of PVC fabricators has dropped by 35% and since 2017, we have lost over 1,000 installation firms. The remaining 12,209 have mostly diversified, offering a wider range of products.

And while the number of installers and fabs has declined, the volume of general builders offering windows and doors – sourced through builder’s merchants and trade counters – has increased dramatically.

The bottom line, according to Insight Data’s operations manager, Alex Tremlett, is that an overall decline in glazing industry firms means less competition and could actually prove to be advantageous to those that remain.