Cutting the cost of colour
Emplas has expanded its ex-stock colour range, cutting lead times and reducing costs as it builds a new offer, designed to support installers in tapping into growing end-user demand for premium foiled finishes.
It means that foiled cream, anthracite grey, anthracite grey on white, black brown, and black brown on white are now available as ex-stock standard colours.
Sitting alongside existing ex-stock foil colours including white, golden oak and rosewood, Emplas’ most popular foils are now available in lead times of 10 days or under.
John Leary, sales and marketing director at Emplas, said: “There’s a definite shift within the market towards foils, and the volumes we’re now doing means that we’re now able to bring more colours into our ex-stock ranges and in turn build upon the service that we offer to our customers.
“This includes delivering reduced lead times but also rationalise our pricing structure to reflect increasing volumes, which has allowed us to reduce the cost to our customers.”
Emplas began manufacture of Profile 22’s Optima last summer. With fully sculptured, chamfered and flush options available, the system has been developed to tap into increasingly discerning end user demand for enhanced aesthetics.
A six chamber outer-frame and five chamber sash, mean the 70mm system achieves U-values as low as 0.8W/m2K and an A++ WER.
With 24mm-44mm beading, improved sealing with a 10mm cover, a 35% increase in hardware retention through local thickening, plus a wider colour and foil offer, mean that the system also puts lots of ticks, in lots of boxes in retail but also commercial environments.
Leary continued: “The increased flexibility that we’re now able to offer our customers through our expanded ex-stock foil offer increases its reach in retail sectors still further.”
According to The Window, Door and Conservatory Markets in Housing in Great Britain, by Palmer Market Research, foils and colour are taking a growing share of the PVCU market. This argues that whereas in 2013 standard white finishes accounted for 88% of PVCU windows sold, in 2015 this had dropped to 81%.
The report suggests sales of woodgrain finishes increased from 3% to 6% and sales of colour finishes from 9% to 12% over the same period.