Aluminium growth in Scotland

By Stag Aluminium.

The team at Stag Aluminium, based in Kilmarnock have been designing, manufacturing and installing aluminium doors, windows and curtain walling for over 36 years, operating mainly across Ayrshire, around south Glasgow, and on the Isle of Arran.

With an injection of ambition, coupled with a dyed-in-the-wool aluminium man now at the helm, Alex McLean and Fiona Kelly have plans to double the size of the business in the next couple of years.

For decades, Stag has manufactured frames using Senior Architectural and Metal Technology aluminium sections, and have very recently added the latest series of Reynaers products to their portfolio. Reynaers was introduced to help the Stag team approach developers, contractors and self-builders of large residential, grand design homes, prevalent right across the UK. This type of project is generally in the £50K-80K bracket for the glazing package alone, and Stag has the design, manufacturing and installation capabilities to provide an exceptional service.

To excel in this grand design-type market, the Stag team recognised that the supplying company should ideally be a niche aluminium design and manufacturing business, which has the technical knowledge, experience and pedigree to offer sophisticated design solutions, relevant to a particular property.

Thankfully, contractors now recognise the value of Stag’s experience in commercial aluminium because it’s one thing to attend a site visit for a single set of bifold doors that have dropped, and quite another to attend for a curtain wall screen that is leaking water.

Stag Aluminium has an incredibly long serving team. Of the 19 employees working at Stag, five have over 30 years’ service, two have over 20, and two have over 15. Furthermore, five team members have been recruited in the last year to help the company cope with anticipated demand for the Reynaers system.

This commitment to the aluminium cause is a major factor in the success of Stag because the team are true aluminium experts. There is almost no project they have not successfully tackled, including distilleries, prisons nuclear plants, hotels and private dwellings.

Stag Aluminium’s strategic focus is on the Scottish and Cumbrian markets, and the company will always be a niche player, serving a tight network of premium customers who demand a high level of personal service that they know is backed up by outstanding technical competence in aluminium glazing systems.

Increasingly, aluminium glazing is becoming a popular choice for residential homes north of the border, as the weather performance and thermal values of most aluminium systems have dramatically improved. While we may never witness the installation of very slim sightline windows and sliders with 20mm interlocks due to valid concerns over weather extremes in Scotland, standard aluminium frames are usually much slimmer than their PVCU counterparts, and the market will continue to grow.

Every day, it seems, the Stag team receives quotation requests for two- to three-storey glazed screens that will accept a front door, for a substantial new build home. Stag can usually offer the perfect glazing solution in aluminium that will be structurally sound, watertight and slim, plus they can specify an aluminium residential entrance door, sourced from sister business, Spitfire Doors.

Since Stag Aluminium has been under Kaliber Group ownership, the company has started to supply products to sister company KAT on a supply-only basis. The new partnership with supplier Reynaers will allow the KAT team to develop sales to their trade partners, which specialise in the residential market, knowing that they have the expertise, know-how and back-up of an expert aluminium team at Stag.

Stag recently signed up to receive newbuild and project information from Barbour ABI across Scotland and Cumbria. This will assist the company to identify the movers and shakers in their chosen markets and, with the assistance of their aluminium supply partners, align their marketing, products and service to the requirements of those carefully selected clients.