Often seen as an easy upsell, doors should form a key part of your product offering, according to aluplast’s Director of Sales and Marketing Ian Cocken.
Since we launched our flush French Door in 2022, demand has almost gone through the roof. This wasn’t surprising, but it did prove why it was important that we invested in this core element, and not rush out a product that didn’t meet every requirement.
Here are five reasons why I believe you should have the right flush French Door as part of your product offering.
Broaden your market offering
Historically, we may have viewed the French Door as a profitable add-on, but today’s homeowners are increasingly buying a houseful of window and doors, and so want to be presented with a product suite.
If you don’t have the French Door in your portfolio, it puts you on the back foot when it comes to matching style, colour and even lead times.
Our flush outward opening French Door suites with both our Ideal 70 and Ideal 4000 ranges. For the fabricator, this reduces the amount of stockholding required, but it also creates opportunities in both contemporary and heritage properties where a flush casement window is also specified.
The vast majority of our flush orders include colour, and with a range of 40 different finishes, including the next generation woodec and aludec foils, we have invested significantly in our foil offer. This has allowed us to maintain a strong supply of our most popular stock colours, with foiled product accounting for as much as 50% of total order volume.
Companies that cannot demonstrate a broad colour offering on sensible lead times are going to put themselves on the back foot when pitching for sales.
Offer consistent airtightness and security ratings
Security and weathertightness also need to be consistent.
Our new open-out Flush Door is robust, fully secure and weather-tight, having successfully passed the rigorous PAS24:2016 and BS6375-2:2009 testing procedures, bringing it in line with our Flush Casement Window (which was tested using a dummy sash to demonstrate the security credentials of our purpose-designed dummy sash retention clips).
Since the doors are a focal point for would-be intruders, it is vital that you can prove that your products meet the strictest security requirements in the industry, especially since there is increased demand from higher value properties.
Having the credentials to prove the high performance of your suite of products could be a key point of differentiation when a window company is in front of the homeowner.
Part L compliant across newbuild and refurbishments
Our Flush Door has a five-chamber design that can achieve U-values as low as 1.2W/m2K. This makes it Part L compatible for both newbuild and refurbishments. It also makes it compatible for extensions on existing properties where newbuild rules apply for U-values.
Having this flexibility cannot be understated, especially when it comes to our Ideal 4000 system and contemporary projects. Many aluminium systems are struggling to offer products that can meet the latest Part L requirements, and being able to offer a thermally efficient, flush, contemporary looking suite of aluminium alternative products could offer valuable opportunities.
Sustainable
Not demonstrating a sustainable supply chain could mean falling at the first hurdle.
Our Flush Door is made using ecotech, which is the result of an advanced, ‘dual-extrusion’ process that uses two extruders in parallel to push recycled and virgin polymer through the profile die at the same time. This ensures that recycled material is only used in the internal webbing, remaining isolated from the external wall, with virgin polymer used to provide the external wall of the profile.
Secure supply
Finally, by offering a suite of products, you have greater control over delivery and installation times. Not only is this key to maintaining good customer relations, but it also protects your margins, and less time is spent returning to site.
To underpin this we have invested in a new site in Poland which will help guarantee supply. Our new £26 million state-of-the-art extrusion facility on a 15-hectare site, will include a production hall, a raw material mixing plant, alongside state-of-the-art R&D facilities.
We are also doubling in size our facility in Tewkesbury, and together these investments will help guarantee the supply of high-value, robust and secure products into the UK, creating opportunities for our customers.
For more information about aluplast, call 01684 273401 email info@aluplast.co.uk or visit www.aluplast.co.uk.