Shared trends, shared values
Michelle Wright, group marketing manager at Glazerite, explains how the company’s composite door offering has been transformed with support from Doorco.
While the size of a brochure isn’t necessarily significant, it can actually tell a story. And if you look at our door brochure – which 18 months ago was just 24 pages, and is now 64 pages – this does give an idea of the growth in door product range, scope, designs and service we’ve undergone as a business.
From only offering a traditional range incorporating 26 door styles and eight colours, our customers can now access the full range of 48 Doorco traditional and contemporary doors. Driven by market demand and in parallel with Doorco’s increased colour offering, our range also includes 40 colours with the option to colour match any RAL.
Anyone involved in the composite door supply chain can see what a huge transformation the sector has undergone in the last three to five years. From its original foothold in social housing, to the material of choice in mainstream retail and new-build, composite doors of 2020 will have to offer sophistication, individuality and above all choice – and all within acceptable lead-times. That’s how markets generally evolve when they hit tipping point and become mass-market. End-user demands get more complicated in terms of product quality and choice but customer service, fast lead times and value for money have to keep improving too.
So while Doorco’s product choice, with such a huge selection of contemporary and traditional door styles and their painting, prepping and glazing service is so important to Glazerite, I have to say that it’s their service that really matters to us. Their can-do attitude and flexibility to react quickly to our requirements is a massive help. For example, the launch of the new range, and supporting marketing materials including a bespoke brochure, was a huge undertaking, but Doorco’s product knowledge and technical support enabled us to create something fresh and modern.
All of us within the composite door supply chain continuously review our product offering, and successful companies are those that can react fast to changing end-user trends, which could be door styles, colours, glass or finish. This is something that Doorco has always done for us, so that in turn, we can offer our customers what they need. The result is that Glazerite can offer one of the most extensive door portfolios in the industry, with the supply of the Ultion 3-Star cylinder, and Fab&Fix furniture as standard. In 2020, we’ll also be adding our standard offering to include smart locking tech.
Glazerite’s key objective when it comes to doors is that our installers will always have something to suit their customers’ properties and, in 2020, this looks set to be more diverse and demanding than ever. Doorco’s latest trend reports show that colour and contemporary styles will continue to be key drivers, and Glazerite sales agree, with our sales of contemporary doors growing month on month since launch.
Two-thirds of Doorco doors are now sold in colour, and nothing says contemporary more than grey. In Q3 2019, 10% of all Doorco colour doors were grey and at the end of the year, it announced it now sells more Slate Grey than standard red or green.
For Glazerite, just over one in four of our doors are now painted either in premium or special (RAL) colours, and 30% of all our doors are grey, a trend that’s increasing. Looking ahead, we agree again with Doorco: blue and more blue is certainly coming fast over the horizon. Currently 12% of all Glazerite colour doors sold are blue, something that we forecast will grow in line with Pantone’s 2020 colour of the year: Classic Blue.
The market is always pushing with shorter lead times and we’ve worked with the team to ensure we can deliver in just 10 days. We benefit – so in turn our customers benefit – from Doorco’s enhanced glazing and prepping service too, which is so effective because it’s backed up with robust operating and IT systems with supply chain barcoding that I think is unparalleled in our sector.
And on a day-to-day basis we have a great responsive team at Doorco who deal with any technical queries that are raised.
Markets that have, and continue, to evolve as quickly as composite doors, are not easy to service. Quite rightly, our customers continue to demand more to stay ahead of their competition, so in turn, we have to demand more from our suppliers, which I’m sure Doorco will agree we have done.
As a result, I think true partnering to raise the ante in terms of choice and delivery has resulted in a more vibrant and profitable market for our customers. While Doorco’s constant push for product innovations and investment in ways to successfully deliver more choice has directly shaped and enhanced our door offering, Glazerite has also directly influenced Doorco’s business with aligned trends that are, most importantly, based on shared values.
