Securing profitable jobs

As Fareham-based fabricator Novaseal celebrates 20 years in business this year, the company has switched to Ultraframe as its roof supplier. Managing director Gary Grundy discusses his plans for the glazed extension market.

The term ‘one-stop-shop’ is used a lot but, for us, it really does capture the essence of our offering. Our customer-base, which is made up of a large volume of one- or two-man operations, relies heavily on our range of systems. The trade counter also offers a vital service.

In the last six months we have made a number of key changes to the business to ensure that we are on track to deliver our growth aspirations in 2018 and beyond. Moving to new premises was part of our plan to bring greater operational efficiencies to our business and that’s already paying dividends, and certainly tees us up for the growth we anticipate over the next three years.

The other major change we’ve made to the business is switching our roof system to Ultraframe.

We recognise that there is a sizable opportunity for us to support our customers in the home extension space. Quite often we provide a survey-service for our trade customers and over the last two years we’ve identified a significant shift in the aspirations of the home owner looking to extend their home.

It’s not that long ago that the extent of our roof fabrication business was centred around the construction of a standard conservatory. Today’s homeowner has come a long way from that and it’s not unusual for the homeowner to present a ‘mood board’ (for want of a better expression) with the clear instruction: “I would like this”.

More often than not, that extends to the integration of large spans of glass, internal pelmets, cornice, roof lanterns or part-solid, part-glass roofs – a far cry from the conservatory industry we knew 10 or 15 ago. Hence, our switch to Ultraframe, which delivers range of systems that match the needs of today’s homeowner.

The other investment we’ve made is the integration of a showroom at the new site. Many of our customers don’t have the luxury of their own showroom but we recognise that it’s important for them to be able to show a prospective customer examples of the type of extension they’re considering.

Many homeowners will be considering the traditional builder-route but we want to be able to give our trade customers further ammunition to be able to secure a sale, and there’s nothing more compelling than showing a customer the innovation that sits inside an Ultraframe roof.

What will further strengthen our position is giving our trade customers the knowledge, confidence and support to really maximise the home extension opportunity. We firmly believe that the switch to Ultraframe, with the support of a beautiful showroom, will give our customers the very best chance of securing profitable home extension jobs.