Launched. Now going into orbit.

Gerda doors made their UK debut at this year’s FIT Show. We catch up with Pionner Trading’s Danny Williams, to find out more about the launch.

Most outings of the old Glassex and now the FIT Show, have been characterised and even dominated by one major product group.

Back in the day it was often the systems houses that ruled the roost, generally because they were the financial heavy hitters; then it was the superfabricators that threw money at the event; then conservatories and even the software houses.

More recently, aluminium has dominated the FIT Show. But this year, it was unequivocally the turn of residential doors. They were everywhere and with some pretty impressive stands too. Including a brand that was new not only to the FIT Show, but to the UK home improvement sector too – Gerda.

Although an established household name in its home market of Poland, this was Gerda’s first foray into the highly nuanced British home improvement market partnering with industry veteran, Danny Williams, and his Pioneer Trading Group.

Danny, with 35 years under his belt selling, making and installing windows and doors of every marque and material, shape and size and in every sub-sector, explained how the partnership came about: “Around two years ago my frustration with elements of some of the suppliers of composite doors boiled over.

“And just as I have done when this happened with my key systems supplier some years back, I decided to do something about it. But there was no point in simply moving to another conventional composite door brand even if they had decent product quality and customer care. I needed something different,” said Danny.

Danny intuited that what he was looking for would not be found in the UK, which made the search considerably tougher, he said: “I know the UK market well and whilst there are some good brands out there in terms of product and even service quality, some of the majors have really damaged customer faith in resi doors.

“I therefore wanted something that was easily distinguishable from the masses, and I was determined to offer service levels that would give installers the confidence to sell to their homeowner customers. So, I began looking at Europe… but just as Europe, especially Italy and other major window and door markets, were hit by the pandemic. Which meant trade fairs were cancelled and travel restricted.”

Danny recalls conversations with a Polish window and door fitter who worked for Pioneer: “This guy was an excellent fitter but he constantly complained about the quality of the composite doors we were sending him out to install. He was always on about ‘you should fit Gerda doors from my country’; I didn’t do anything about it at first, but I had tucked the information away.”

Some time later, Danny spoke to Ray Sinclair, Pioneer’s group commercial director, who had dealt with Gerda in a previous life. This was a seminal moment: “The closer I looked at Gerda, the more it made sense.”

Contact was made and after what Danny describes as ‘cautious interest’ on the part of Gerda’s family owners, a deal was struck via a series of online meetings for Pioneer to become the exclusive distributor for Gerda residential doors in the UK.

So what is the big deal? Danny explains that a key difference is quite literally skin deep: “Gerda uses steel and aluminium for its skins. They are stylish, and unequivocally upmarket in appearance, although at price points that pleasantly surprised FIT Show visitors.

“But the emphasis on high security with superior thermal performance to cope with European winters, makes them generally superior to established products in this sector. They are attractive at first sight and the difference is obvious at first touch,” he added.

Danny and his team have had their work cut out to filter the 200 ‘qualified’ leads taken at FIT, a task simplified by the prequalification forms each was asked to complete at the show: “We have already established some serious retail installers in some areas of the country and the first Gerda doors should be installed in British homes by August,” said a smiling Danny.