Heritage family completed
Deceuninck’s new Heritage Flush Door is the perfect addition to the Heritage Collection, according to sales director Chris Jones.
The timber-alternative heritage look has captured the imagination of homeowners. Most ‘modern’ PVCU casements were made for post-war properties, so they’re great for modern homes but look out of place in older properties. Pre-1914 homes were built for a flush look in windows and doors. So, until recently, homeowners in older properties had little choice but to compromise with ‘not quite right’ PVCU, or pay more for timber with a lifetime of regular, expensive maintenance to keep their windows looking good and working.
The latest generation of PVCU flush sashes and vertical sliders gives homeowners the best of both worlds: high performance, low maintenance PVCU with traditional timber looks. They look perfect in older properties, but homeowners with modern homes also choose heritage to add character and kerb appeal. It’s no wonder the heritage market has exploded.
At a time when the mass-middle market is shrinking (by as much as 10% last year according to our estimates), the top-end premium market is flying with aspirational products like flush sashes and vertical sliders, colours and bifolds. This growth is coming primarily from a large and growing group of house-wealthy homeowners, who are generally over 55 and own much of the country’s housing wealth thanks to the cumulative effect of rising house prices over the past two decades. They account for most of the UK’s savings too, and because of demographics they’re becoming more numerous. They have fewer outgoings than younger homeowners, and have the money to invest in beautiful windows and doors that add even more value to their homes.
We launched our Heritage Flush Window in 2016 and flush now accounts for 22% of total sales. Our fabricator and installer customers love it and say it gives them a real sales advantage.
Natalie Witczak, business manager at Connaught Windows, said: “Deceuninck offers a great choice of products, and the Heritage Flush Window is selling well.”
Peter Dyer, managing director of Dempsey Dyer, said: “Deceuninck’s products help us stand out. It’s a high quality system, and Deceuninck’s 26 colourways and Heritage Flush Family are great selling points.”
Deceuninck’s mission is to give fabricators and installers the product innovations, service and marketing support to stand out and compete in the premium sector where they can sell more at better margins. Heritage windows are built for colour and, given the choice, homeowners will choose colour.
So, we’ve invested throughout the supply chain in a state-of-the-art foiling plant, a world-class foiling team and in the logistics, machinery and warehousing to offer 26 (soon to be 30) colourways from stock across our full Heritage Collection.
The next step was to give our customers the full heritage package and develop a door that gives homeowners the heritage look throughout their home. After all, if homeowners are investing in beautiful heritage-style windows, they’ll want a door to match.
Our new Heritage Flush Door is the perfect addition to Deceuninck’s Heritage Collection. It matches our award-winning Flush Sash for beautiful looks and comes in 26 colourways from stock.
The Flush has dedicated PAS24-approved hardware system, Class 4 600 Pa Air Permeability, Class E1050 Pa Water Tightness (full frame), and Class A3 1200 Pa Wind Resistance. The door set achieves an ‘A’ energy rating with U-values as low as 1.0W/m2K with triple glazing and 1.3W/m2K with double glazing. It’s also Part M compliant.
We’ve designed the Flush Door to be a dream to sell, and easy to fabricate and install. The door uses the same platform as Deceuninck’s Heritage 2800 system and comes with dedicated assembly jigs and pre-formed sash corner gaskets for ease of fabrication. We’ve looked at the small details and included dedicated reinforcement to avoid the need for glass bonding. Dedicated sash and frame-positioning blocks improve performance and make it easier to transport. Sales are quickly taking off.
