A hardware superpower

Glass Times editor, Luke Wood, talks to UAP’s CEO David Jennings about the hardware company’s new headquarters – regarded as a ‘superpower’ for the business – as well as product development and plans for the future.

Luke Wood (LW): You’ve recently moved into new premises – can you tell us more about the decision behind this investment?

David Jennings (DJ): We were previously trading from numerous sites and warehouses in the local area and while this was actually quite beneficial during Covid – giving us the agility to shut down individual sites if required – it was certainly not the most efficient way of running a business.

Simply put, we needed more space, so when the opportunity arose to acquire our new headquarters, we quickly secured it. It was previously a location for 02, providing office space for around 1,000 people, so it had the capacity we required, it was relatively close so we could accommodate all our existing staff and it was well placed for transport links.

It ticked every single box – but because it was a telesales facility, we still needed to do a lot of work to repurpose it to a warehouse, including purpose-built racking for around £9million worth of stock, new offices, R&D facilities and also to introduce the Fire Door Maintenance training facilities.

The investment programme was just under £1million, and we’re not finished yet. We’re currently utilising around 60% of the building, and that gives us space to expand, whether from natural growth or with further acquisitions.

LW: Does the new HQ introduce additional benefits for your customers?

DJ: There are multiple benefits for our customers – we see the new HQ as one of our ‘superpowers’, because when they visit, they can see product development first hand and they can talk directly to our team of experts to learn more about our portfolio and the advantages it brings.

It allows us to better support our partners, but also our customers can use the building for their own requirements, for sales meetings or to demonstrate the quality of our offer.

And it also gives us the capacity to keep one step ahead of the market, with better R&D, so we can develop new product ranges – again that gives our customers a keen advantage over their competition.

LW: Are there any product lines that are currently performing ahead of expectations?

DJ: We’re seeing really strong traction with our high security letter plates. That’s because of a great design and with compliance to fire resistance standards, there’s high demand for them in the fire door market so that’s proving to be one of our ‘hero’ products.

In addition, our suited cylinder products are performing very well and we’ve just launched a new range of door hardware called Armasmart, which features unique, anti-viral technology that can eliminate 99.98% of viruses, including Covid-19.

LW: Can you tell us more about the development – and science – behind Armasmart?

DJ: As with all the best ideas, it all started in the pub, when one of our sales team, Richard Morris, struck up a conversation with Dr Alex Neilson. Dr Neilson was studying metallurgy and was looking at ways to prevent tarnishing on coins for the Royal Mint.

By using electroplating, he had developed a way to add a chemical solution to the surface of the coins to ensure they kept their shine.

We really liked the sound of that, and the potential applications for our industry, but then Covid happened. Dr Neilson then developed the technology further to make it antiviral and effective enough to kill Covid.

One of the biggest costs to the NHS is cleaning surfaces, to avoid the spread of germs and to prevent contaminating visitors, staff and patients. That’s a cost measured in time and resources but also in harsh cleaning chemicals.

The technology in Armarsmart can be applied to any surface, and it kills bugs without the need for constant cleaning. The potential for its use in care homes and hospitals is massive, and that’s just for hardware. It can also be applied to air filters, air conditioning units – it has the potential to be bigger than the whole hardware market put together.

Needless to say, we jumped at the opportunity to acquire the technology and bring it into UAP.

LW: What is your outlook for the smart hardware sector?

DJ: We introduced our Ionic smart lock at the 2023 FIT Show, it’s a state of the art product with outstanding features and we’ve enjoyed some great traction with it.

With that said, it’s still a young market so I think that the trajectory for smart hardware will really start to climb in the next 10 years and it will take some time before it becomes mainstream.

There are various options now for smart hardware in the marketplace, but I think consumers really want more than just being able to tell if their windows or doors are secure. Remote locking and unlocking is also a nice to have, but we think the future of smart devices is in more advanced features, such as Intuitive Haptic Technology or IHP.

With IHP, homeowners can be alerted if their windows or doors are being attacked, which we believe delivers much greater value. We currently have a patent pending on IHP and we will be looking to introduce it on a new smart handle, which will also build on the technology featured on Ionic.

Cyber security is also a huge selling point with smart technology, especially as some competitor devices store data for finger print recognition and retina scanning and there have been instances where that data has been stolen from unsecure servers. We believe that the successful growth of smart security depends very much on whether consumers can trust the technology.

LW: What is your outlook for the industry going forward?

DJ: For retail, we are in a challenging time with recession and high energy costs – and global events such as Ukraine and the Red Sea are not good for consumer confidence – I believe that some smaller companies will fold because of it, if they haven’t already gone.

The new build market is also challenged with a slowdown in demand from buyers, new planning regulations and shortage of labour, but is supported in the long run by a requirement for new homes, and for warmer, more energy efficient properties.

The social housing market is also under pressure from a lack of money with local authorities – but despite all this, I think there is a more positive outlook for the industry in general in the latter half of the year, especially if interest rates start to fall.

At UAP, we are very positive for the future. We’re now better placed than ever to support our customers, we have a wide range of innovative, market leading products and we’re actively looking to make further acquisitions – in the UK and overseas – for opportunities that are strategically aligned with us as a business.