Reflections on FIT Show 2025
Danny Williams, managing director of Pioneer Trading, gives his thoughts on the 2025 FIT Show, and on the price pressures that are now being applied to premium products.
Although by the time you read this, thoughts of the FIT Show will be far from most people’s minds, at the time of writing this, my latest sharing of wisdom, FIT Show was but a few days ago.
It was a decent event, as we have come to expect, and whilst to me it felt more compact and perhaps a little quieter than previous outings (though being on a stand previously did not allow me a serious comparison) it felt good to be there again and amongst friends.
I attended as a visitor this year just on the Tuesday, as my priorities have changed in the evolution of Gerda, the upmarket resi-door brand that I have very successfully used FIT to promote at recent past shows.
I am always on the lookout for new opportunities and it’s interesting that as crap as the market is for those of us already trading in the UK might be, there seems to be a never-ending supply of foreign companies that want a part of the action.
There seemed to be an especially high proportion of Turkish and Chinese exhibitors, and it is especially the latter whose motives I have to question about being there…
Every Chinese exhibitor I have ever seen taking part in the FIT Show, but also other events around the world, seems to take the same approach: basic shell-scheme stands, with few if any graphics and with little to establish at a glance, what products or services that they offer. The people look bored, they are often on their phones or laptops, and there is often food and other debris on the table, breaking the fundamental rules of exhibiting.
Why do they bother? I didn’t see one single visitor engaging with any of these companies.
Unless I am missing the point of course: perhaps there are other forces at play: have these firms applied for a grant or tax concession from their government that requires them to at least go through the motions of embarking on an overseas mission? Perhaps I have answered my own question but I welcome comments from anyone that has an answer.
As for the others, most at least make the effort to appear interested. But pitching to a foreign market cannot simply be limited to appearing at a trade show. Our relationship with Gerda began after we went after them as something that was standout in a UK market that had become swamped with lookey-likey composite doors. And when we pitched up at FIT with Gerda we had product, graphics, trained people and a plan. And most important of all, we had a very deep knowledge of the market.
My friends from Gerda always come to FIT these days. And I believe they remain bemused at the extraordinary display of products and services produced for a market that is quite distinct and unique from any other – home improvements. I still don’t think they get it if I am honest, which of course suits me just fine.
But how any of these overseas exhibitors that expects to crack the UK without specialist knowledge and help, is beyond me. Let alone the ability to look interested in actually engaging with visitors.
In other news…
I have had a glimpse of Chris Brunsdon’s latest market report, which is based upon analysis of 200,000 quotes done through his Tommy Trinder quoting app.
From the data compiled over the last six months, Chris believes that prices of premium ‘niche’ products – flush casements, box sash, and bi-folds are the examples he uses – are falling, as they have been adopted by the broader market: “As those premium products moved from hands of the few into the hands of the many, selling prices have come under pressure,” says Chris.
But has it not always been thus? Where once retailers would quite happily chuck in a resi-door with a houseful of windows, residential doors now represent a market in and of themselves. And most syscos have been offering flush casements for some years and therefore making them available to the hoi-polloi, with R9 long ago losing what indeed was an exclusive niche. Markets always evolve.
And neither should we be surprised that prices are falling in these and other categories, as so-called ‘sales executives’ resort to chipping the prices rather than putting any effort into upselling a customer. Now that, is a whole other issue: when the going gets tough, discounting is always the first course of action and that, I believe, is where the primary problem lies.