Window companies looking to adapt at the FIT Show

Window companies visited the FIT Show in May looking for new ways to stay one step ahead of trends in home improvement, Bohle’s MD Dave Broxton said, pointing out that visitors to their stand were interested in broadening their product ranges.

“Going into 2023, we saw that the market for windows, doors and conservatories starting to shrink,” he said. “This was alleviated to some degree by high-margin work picking up the slack for a drop in high-volume projects, but as the year has progressed this has started to tail off.

“The discussions we had with window companies at the FIT Show really centred on the issue of diversification, and being agile to changing demands, without additional investment.

“The work is still there, you just have to have the products and the support to take those opportunities when they present themselves.”

Dave said that visitors to Bohle’s stand were interested in broadening their offering to include complementary products to window installation, such as balustrading and internal sliding doors.

A significant draw for many FIT Show visitors was Bohle’s new Juliet Balcony System – Lyon – which comes in an almost limitless range of colours, and can be installed quickly and without specialist tools.

Lyon can extend up to 4,000mm and, with just four fixing points on each side, it can be fixed directly onto the window frame.

“Juliet Balconies are a fantastic upsell for window installers, offering a great opportunity to add extra margin with minimal additional overheads,” Bohle’s national sales manager, Paul Miller said, who was also on the stand.

“Since Lyon is powder-coated in the UK, colour choice is virtually limitless, giving window installers access to high-end jobs where colour plays a major role in the decision-making process.”

Dave explained that visitors to Bohle’s stand at the FIT Show were keen to talk about how they can pick up those jobs on site that could have gone to another contractor on home improvement projects.

“For example, our FrameTec 2.0 glass partitioning system had a lot of interest because it has been designed and built to support fast and cost-efficient installation using a modular design and easy-fix system,” he said.

“If homeowners are installing bi-folds that bring in more light, they will be interested in opening up the interior, and the FrameTec 2.0 system creates that opportunity, offering installers excellent margins in the process.

“Visitors to the stand were also interested in MasterTrack FT, a high-end sliding door system, which was designed to provide an exceptionally high-quality smooth opening and closing function, while being easy to install.”

Dave said that Bohle’s aim at the FIT Show was to equip window installers with a broad range of products that help them take on more profitable work.

“I think we did that in spades,” Dave said. “But we also saw a changing industry. The forward-thinking window companies are those who realise they need to keep adapting to evolving market demands – and they are going to reap the benefits.”