The story behind Britdor
DoorCo’s marketing manager, Ellie Pool, discusses the journey behind Britdor’s creation, its identity, and the promising future it offers to the market.
Britdor, our new range of solid timber core doors, marks a significant development for DoorCo.
It is the first product to be manufactured out of our new Doncaster factory, as opposed to our current overseas facilities and therefore we wanted this brand to have classic British heritage at its core. We’re proud of our connections with brilliant oversea manufacturers, such as our team at DoorCo Korea, but as a nod to our latest investment in Doncaster, we wanted the British theme to take centre stage.
The creative process included sifting through varying ideas incorporating red, white and blue, before settling on a palette of British racing green and a complementary cream shade, which truly captured the essence of what we wanted this brand to be – sophisticated but steeped with heritage and tradition.
We love how many little nods to Doncaster there are within Britdor’s identity. As well as being traditionally British, the theme also replicates the scenes of Doncaster’s famous railways. The chosen fonts capture the strong, industrial nature of the railway signage and give a real feel of stability and longevity.
The result is a visually appealing design in traditional colours, reflecting Doncaster’s industrial past.
Naming the brand
Unusually, the last thing to be settled on was the Britdor name. From a marketing perspective, it’s not typical to pick the visuals and establish the brand identity before the name but the colours and fonts resonated with us far quicker than a name did.
Britdor captures exactly what this is – a simple, solid choice backed by brilliantly British manufacturing.
Getting ready for market
The Britdor product was in development for some time, as part of the expansion to the new Doncaster facility. The move stands out as a testament to our growing aspirations to create a modern facility, with a brand new British made product at its heart.
Doncaster also allows for further expansion, up to an additional 120,000ft2. The space will really accelerate R&D and to have a UK- based location to produce new products on a full-time basis, test new concepts and work on bespoke projects, really does put DoorCo ahead.
We’re already the proud owners of four unique brands: Original – the UK’s favourite foam-filled choice; Gripcore, the superior solid core option that combines timber, foam and aluminium in its core to deliver impressive strength and performance; Firecore, our foam-filled FD30 fire door which has the largest collection of designs on the market; and Flip, our exclusive and versatile glazing cassette system.
But we recognised there was an obvious opening for the addition of a new product that is accessible for the whole market, so much of the development process behind Britdor has been focused on designing a straightforward door product and range that still offers our customers a competitive edge against the rest of the timber door market.
When it came to visually representing Britdor, it was essential to ensure all of this was reflected in all the new marketing materials.
The Britdor icon is designed to represent the multi-faceted nature of the brand. From prepping to suit any profile to having exclusive blank designs not currently available on the market, the multi-directional design of the icon captures the endless options that Britdor presents.
What’s available?
Britdor’s construction is a timber core finished with Thermoplastic CoolSkin technology, available in over 15 colours with 1,000s of design permutations. The collection includes existing styles like 6/4 Combi, Monza 2 and Farmhouse, as well as three new exclusive DoorCo designs Enzo, Eaton and Glenman. Most importantly, Britdor is made to fit any profile on the market, rather than a full doorset, so it will fit seamlessly with your existing product offering.
Marketing assets
The new collection is showcased in a dedicated brochure, featuring a mini brochure for our trade customers and a full ‘prepped’ brochure for their end users. All these brochures have had the ‘DoorCo’ element removed entirely to allow customers to make their own marketing even quicker and easier to execute. The brochures are available to view digitally on our website: https://trade.door-co.com/britdor
