The sweetest launch

Sweet has just been unwrapped by Brisant Secure, a range of suited door furniture that boasts 8,000+ hours in a salt spray chamber. Nick Dutton, CEO, explains the influential factors from concept to launch.

Let’s face it, the market for suited door furniture has changed little over the last decade and the industry has become accustomed to a standard design for most hardware systems. Installers and manufacturers have also been forced to accept widespread pitting issues. While many claim a ‘suited’ range, this generally extends no further than a common colour with no consistency in shape between the components.

I believe the hardware sector in many respects has become stale when it comes to product development as a fundamental business process. Our own experience with Ultion and Lock Lock, shows that the industry has a thirst for innovation and outstanding security credentials.

In the case of door furniture, the race to the bottom price has resulted in value engineering, resulting in the pitting hardware and poor build quality. Indeed, our own market research of 270 installers returned some damming statistics with 88% reporting that they have had pitting problems on their hardware in the past 12 months, with just 22.5% reporting they were happy with the way in which their respective warranties were being handled.

So, installers are faced with having to replace hardware repeatedly and with 5, 10 and even 25 year warranties, but is this really a reflection of the longevity of these products or the timeframe in which installers are expected to frequently replace said items?

With Sweet we’ve kept it simple: a 10-year consumer warranty directly with us activated with only e-mail, name and date required. The result is that installers and entrance door manufacturers can now wash their hands of any potential warranty issues, as we’ll take care of the whole process.

Sweet has also been tested for 8,000+ hours in the salt spray tank, that’s 34 times more than the 240-hour standard and eight times that claimed by stainless steel furniture. Our success with Lock Lock and Ultion shows that the industry is happy to pay a little more for innovation and longevity, and homeowners are certainly expecting more with composite doors now costing upwards of £2,000.

Sweet is a fully integrated range of door furniture including handle, knocker, letterplate, escutcheon and numerals all sharing the same registered, curved design ethos and that now also adopts Lock Lock as the high security upgrade within the suite.

Each component of Sweet is a product of beauty on an entrance door and while the industry is well aware of the design for Lock Lock, the single element knocker for example is an object of style and substance. Complementing this is the new letterplate that not only boasts our curved shape, but a completely frameless design for elegance and weatherability.

Sweet has been part of a very careful product development process in terms of design, operation, material and integration. Those that have seen some of the concepts have been captivated by how form meets function and already we have several of the most trusted and respected composite door brands ready to launch with it. We believe we have just ignited a new way of thinking in terms of door furniture and in a way that will help put to bed the epidemic issues of pitting once and for all.