Price rises biggest concern for industry

I enjoyed a visit to glass and glazing specialist, CRL, last week and while the main purpose of the trip was to take a closer look at the company’s new Glass Rooms veranda system, it also provided a great opportunity to catch up with managing director, Simon Boocock, to gain some insight into how the business faired during the pandemic and his outlook for the future.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, following the Covid home improvement boom, 2021 was a record year for CRL and according to Simon, the company is still going strong in 2022 despite a cooling in demand post pandemic.

He added that, while he was anticipating tougher times ahead – and with the caveat that it was virtually impossible to make accurate industry forecasts in such a volatile market – he remained cautiously optimistic that any downturn towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, could be relatively short lived.

That confidence comes, in part, from new products such as Glass Rooms. Launched at the 2022 FIT Show, Glass Rooms offers consumers an exciting, high-quality and – compared to a conservatory – more affordable way to create additional living space. Keep a look out in the October issue of Glass Times for more details.

On the topic of industry forecasts, Window Ware has released the details of a recent survey that shows
73% of businesses grew over the last 18 months and over a third of those grew between 26-50%.

While it revealed that aluminium products, composites and bi-folds remain in high demand, it also showed that price rises are the biggest concern for business going forward, with 31% of respondents planning to increase prices over the next six months to remain competitive. Click here for the full story .