The new Sheerline aluminium system from Garnalex certainly turned heads when it was launched in 2020, which is why Listers’ managing director, Roy Frost, was first in the queue…

Sheerline is a modern aluminium window and door system designed from the ground up, which promises to offer fabricators, installers and homeowners warm, slim and ultra-secure products.

“As soon as I heard about Roger Hartshorn developing the new Sheerline system, I was straight on the phone to ask him very politely to be part of the journey,” Listers’ MD, Roy Frost, says.

Sheerline is now extruded and painted in Derbyshire, the UK’s newest aluminium extrusion facility, and the result of a £15 million investment by Roger Hartshorn who founded Eurocell and Liniar, and whose window and door experience spans decades.

The latest development from the aluminium systems company is a new state-of-the-art powder coating facility, which promises to control quality, and shorten lead times on ex-stock coloured profile, bringing them in line with PVC-U alternatives. For example, black, white and grey will be supplied by Listers on a two-week lead time, with a further nine on-trend colours available in just four weeks from Listers.

“After meeting with Roger, and with the engineers right at the start of the Sheerline journey, I could see exactly what they were trying to do in aluminium,” Roy says. “It is a real breath of fresh air: an aluminium system designed by PVC system designers.”

Roy argues that while installers can now buy PVC-U products in agate grey in Eurocell, Halo, or Residence flush on short lead-times – the bi-fold at the back of the house is typically aluminium.

“Agate grey on white isn’t a stock colour in the majority of aluminium systems,” Roy says. “But with Sheerline, it is on the same short lead time, which means I can offer installers the same lead time as our PVC-U products.”

Roy explains that many of the design features chime with him as a fabricator, for example: the requirement for less stock holding, ancillaries work across a number of product ranges, and a clip-in bead that speeds-up installation time.

“Right from the start, Sheerline was fixing quite a few of the existing problems that we see when fabricating other aluminium systems,” Roy says. “It’s also Part L-compliant as standard.”

Sheerline windows and doors can achieve U-values as low as 1.3W/m²k with a double glazed unit, 0.9W/m²k with a triple, and can accommodate glazing depths of between 28mm and 44mm. It also achieves PAS24 and has full Secured by Design accreditation.

There are further efficiencies to be found in installation, which has allowed Listers to confidently design larger doors without compromising on safety or speed of fit.

“Some of these bi-folds now have five or six panes, which can be dangerous to handle,” Roy says. “So, we’ve started to talk to our customers about buying doors in kit form, which helps us in our transportation, and it helps installers get the product to site more easily.

“It takes a little bit longer onsite, maybe another 30 minutes to assemble the sashes, but they save so much time without any wedge gasketing, because we’ve got these clip-in beads, which more than covers the extra time of assembly.”

Listers is gearing up to manufacture the full Sheerline range, including the Classic Window range including a Heritage Stepped Sash, plus the new SBD S1 Sheerline lantern.

“The Sheerline lantern is a fantastic addition to our range, and it is a perfect fit with Listers’ goal of offering premium products at an affordable price point,” Roy says. “Available in black or grey, with a white interior, installers love the Sheerline Lantern, because it is probably the easiest lantern on the market to fit.”

Listers also remains one of Reynaers’ largest trade fabrication accounts, allowing it to build one of the broadest aluminium offerings in the industry.

“We have added new machinery to our 20,000ft² aluminium facility in Stoke and our 10,000ft² facility in Essex, so we can now really gear up our aluminium proposition,” Roy says.

“We are also making it even easier for our customers to deal with Listers, by launching an online configurator and pricing tool at the end of the summer.

“But just as importantly, we continue to invest in our people and our processes to ensure that the margin of error is reduced at every stage, and that we regularly achieve an on-time in-full (OTIF) score of more than 96%. That’s another breath of fresh air!”