White window fabs ‘running out of road’
PVC-U fabricators who are chasing increasingly small margins on volume ‘white window’ manufacturing are running out of road.
That’s the opinion of Martin Nettleton, Euroglaze’s managing director, who in this week’s newsletter argues that the business model for PVC-U fabrication has now changed significantly.
He points out that Euroglaze enjoyed a strong year in 2024, despite overall estimates that the market was down by around 20% and attributes this to investment in manufacturing efficiencies and a focus on broad range of high quality, mid-market products – plus the ability to respond to demand for premium products, through sister company, Ecotec Windows.
According to Martin, the traditional manufacturing mantra that relatively low volume, niche products slowed up production and ‘distracted sales teams’ is no longer relevant – you can read his comment in full here.
The Boomer boom?
According to recent reports, potential UK homeowners will benefit from around £5.5 trillion via cash gifts and inheritance in the coming years, as the ‘Boomer’ generation looks to offload its collective wealth.
Boomers, those born between 1946 and 1964 and who are now aged from 60 to 80, are estimated to own property worth more than £2.5 trillion, and a large chunk of that is said to be mortgage free.
Half are reported to have more than £500,000 in assets and around a quarter more than £1million.
So where does all this Boomer money go? According to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, £17billion is given or lent informally each year to adult children, enabling them to get onto the housing ladder, with gifts averaging more than £20,000 typically used to buy or fix up property.
There is a strong argument that this is a strong contributing factor to the current housing crisis, keeping prices high and widening the gap between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ – but it is also clear that a decent amount of this vast pot of Boomer ‘gold’, will ultimately find its way to the window and door industry…