Oversized and over here
Investment in high performing products and machinery go hand in hand, argues Mark Norcliffe, joint managing director at Cornwall Glass Manufacturing.
In 2015, Cornwall Glass Manufacturing opened a new factory to the east of Plymouth, which was a big step up from the small premises the company had moved from in Saltash. This new facility was fitted with specialist machinery that allowed the company to focus on the manufacture and supply of specialist glass products.
“When we moved to Plymouth, our aim was to supply the market with high quality oversized sealed units,” said Mark Norcliffe, joint managing director of Cornwall Glass Manufacturing. “So, we invested heavily in oversize cutting facilities, oversize toughening ovens, and oversize unit manufacture.
“The whole strategy was a bit of an unknown for us, but we knew from talking to customers which way the market was heading, and we knew that with the right investment we could meet that need with high quality products.”
Mark explains that those conversations with customers demonstrated the growing trend for what he describes as the “Grand Design-type house” in the domestic aluminium market. Homeowners were looking at the large living areas with large walls of glass, either in windows, or bi-folding/sliding doors.
And once window and door fabricators discovered a reliable source of oversize units to go into these products, they could confidently pitch for new work thus creating new profitable revenue streams, continued Mark.
“What we originally saw as quite a challenge – producing double glazed units that were 3m+ wide – we are now finding ourselves manufacturing on an almost daily and weekly basis.
“And these are not standard units either. These oversize units are going into high-end properties, which often need to be triple glazed, and include specialist glass like solar control and acoustic control.”
According to Mark, Cornwall Glass Manufacturing has been on a steep learning curve since 2015, because this move into the oversize market has effectively been a shift from volume unit manufacture to specialist high-value product manufacture.
“Ultimately, we create new and profitable opportunities for our customers,” Mark said. “And our involvement doesn’t stop with the supply of product. We also provide technical support, and we help minimise the chance of spontaneous breakage in situ by investing in new equipment.
“We’ve had a heat soaker down in our St Austell factory for 10 years now, and we recently invested in a new heat soaker for oversize units in Plymouth because the volume demanded it, and we wanted to minimise the movement of high-value products.”
The new heat soak oven was supplied and installed by Peter Lambert, and can handle units up to 4.2m x 2.7m.
“Certain specifications insist that glass is heat soaked, such as overhead glazing, and some clients insist that their glass is heat soaked,” Mark said. “Nickel sulphide inclusions are inherent in the manufacture of glass. We can’t see it, and the only way of finding it is by heat soaking it, and then it should burst in the heat soaker.”
Mark explains that while this heat soaker is in part a reaction to the needs of the market, it will also create opportunities for Cornwall Glass Manufacturing’s customers.
“We’ll be selling the benefits of the soaker to our customers,” he continued. “Basically, for a small cost, we can heat-soak an expensive unit and potentially save what could be thousands and thousands of pounds in replaced products, as well as the cost of site access and specialist machinery.
“This means that some customers who would see these costs as a barrier to entry to this market are now granted access thanks to our investment in specialist machinery.”
Mark’s comments come as the Cornwall Group has committed to spending £20 million in new property, new machinery, specialist fleet vehicles, and other new equipment over the next two years across Cornwall Glass Manufacturing, Mackenzie Glass and commercial glazing and retail arm Cornwall Glass & Glazing.
“As our move into oversize unit manufacture proved in 2015, Cornwall Glass Manufacturing is not looking for short-term wins,” Mark concluded. “Our profits are ploughed back into the business to make sure we are looking one step ahead and invest wisely for the benefit of our customers.”
