After a tough few years during the slump in construction, the mouldings sector is enjoying better fortunes and while perhaps only a few claim to be back to pre-recession levels of business, manufacturers agree that the market has improved substantially since mid-2013.
The recovering residential new build sector has driven sales of mouldings, such as architraves and skirtings, while repair and maintenance work, although not as sharply improved as new build, has also shown growth and driven sales of "functional" mouldings.
That’s the view of Paul Martin, channel marketing manager at Richard Burbidge, who added that rising house prices are prompting homeowners to invest more in the value of their homes.
"The DIY market is usually involved with lower value projects than the small builder market and is therefore more elastic to change," he said. "The small builder market purchases a more diverse range of mouldings than DIY."
Either way, said Mr Martin, "it’s good news for merchants and their customers".
With its specialism in small section mouldings, such as dowels and Scotias, Cheshire Mouldings mainly targets the RMI market and said that sales are up signi¬ cantly.
"Our sales are approximately £6m per year and we’re seeing 20% year-on-year growth," said John Carney, managing director. "And we’re seeing 14% year-on-year growth in different types of ¬ finishes, particularly white primed and oak."
Snows Timber has also seen most of its mouldings growth emanating from the RMI market and said that, while sales across all product categories were on the up, it had witnessed a sales growth of around 12% year-on-year for its softwood mouldings since 2013.
"Our market is products for independent builders’ merchants and thus for the small-to medium-sized builder," said Mark Bowers, commercial director. "In our view the new build market is predominantly MDF but, with the age of the UK’s housing stock, there is still a substantial market for replacement softwood mouldings. The volume of softwood mouldings we are selling indicates the extent of RMI work currently available to the building trade."
In terms of specific profiles, reversible softwood skirtings with depths of 6in and above are Snows’ fastest sellers. "Of these, the torus/ogee profile pairing is the highest volume product, alongside matching torus architrave," said Mr Bowers. "Torus is still the most recognised pattern, without a doubt."
W Howard’s best selling product lines continue to be the primed offering of torus, ogee and pencil rounded profiles, according to Graham Williams, managing director. "This will always be the case as a result of house builder volumes," he continued.
Cheshire Mouldings said it had seen higher growth in more contemporary shapes and profiles and that dado picture rails on decline pencil round and chamfered ranges were growing in popularity.
It cites quadrants, Scotias, angle corners and stripwoods as its best performers, while Burbidge also singles out Scotias and quadrants, attributing sales of these flooring mouldings to the recent growth in wood and laminate flooring.
MDF mouldings specialist W Howard said it isn’t seeing any changing trend in profiles. "The trends are largely driven by house builders and, given the volumes taken, this is unlikely to change markedly," said Mr Williams. "Trend changes are largely seen in the lower volume make-to-order requirements that can be project specific."
He added that W Howard is about to release a series of profiles aimed at the refurbishment market for period properties. "The specific periods targeted are Edwardian, Georgian, Victorian and Art Deco and the mouldings will be white primed and available in single lengths as part of larger orders meeting the minimum order quantity.
"A chamfered and rounded real wood veneered profile aimed at the more contemporary end of the market is also available."
While there is some consensus over profiles, there is a broad range of opinion when it comes to the choice of the material itself and the level of finishing that’s offered.
Snows Timber specialises in softwood and MDF mouldings but said it had seen a small but growing market in hardwood alternatives, adding, however, that this still represented less than 5% of its market.
"They are popular for high-end developments, hotels and offices and the market has developed slowly but surely over the past 10 years," said Mr Bowers. "We are testing the water with a focused selection of American white oak skirting and architrave as a part of our ‘one stop shop’ service to our customers."
Cheshire Mouldings has also added oak mouldings (which it will lacquer as a special request) and white primed mouldings to its predominantly softwood range and said the profile designs of these are similar to its existing core sellers.
Richard Burbidge also pointed to a big demand for white oak within the non-painted ranges. "This trend for the domestic market can be seen in furniture, flooring, stairparts and finishes such as mouldings," said Mr Martin.
"We’re constantly looking at ways to improve our offers to customers and these offers can be split into finish and material type," he continued. "Some market segments are particularly receptive to MDF mouldings and we already supply these via another company within the group, Atkinson & Kirby."
He added that, when it came to the questions of ‘to pre-finish or not to prefinish’, Burbidge tended towards the latter. "Our customer base is very diverse, so priming or treating can limit the application for the product. We have various value-added finishes within the group but these are aligned to specific market segments."
Snows supplies primed MDF mouldings but shares the same view on further finishing: "Call us traditionalists if you will but the age demographic of householders commissioning small-scale improvement works and refurbishments tallies with the generation who appreciate the aesthetics and natural look and feel of solid wood," said Mr Bowers.
"Our customer base also demands a good quality but basic product, which allows them to gain additional margins through add-on sales in coatings and other categories. Thus we’ve not yet felt a significant demand to pre-finish any particular product lines."
For the MDF mouldings specialists, prefinished is top of the agenda, even though it doesn’t yet account for the bulk of business.
There is a definite growth pattern in fully finished product but it is miniscule by comparison and will take a considerable time before reaching any kind of maturity," said Mr Williams. "With regard to real wood veneered profiles, this is growing significantly in percentage terms but is starting from a very low base. However, it’s certainly growing in greater numbers than fully finished – and the most popular veneer by a country mile is American white oak."
In volume terms, primed products dominate SAM Mouldings’ output but, said Gerard Wilson, sales director, the company’s fully finished ranges are growing as a percentage within the whole package and "narrowing the gap year-on year".
"We’ve seen substantial growth from 2014 onwards and are really starting to benefit from the range of brands we have – and in particular the value-added brands we have alongside our core primed range. We’re pushing those added-value streams along because they yield higher value sales on less volume – and that helps the revenue."
He singles out SAM’s wrapped (SAM Wrap) and fully finished products (SAM Zero) and the latest addition to its range, Trimax, which is made from Medite Tricoya Extreme MDF and is suitable for exterior applications such as soffits and fascias.
"We’ve established our brands in the DIY/ RMI markets because the nature of the clientele [in those sectors] is that they want products that make life easier and the price maybe isn’t as sensitive. Paying a bit extra to have their skirting or architrave fully finished or wrapped or real wood veneered to match their doors is worth it if it makes life easier," said Mr Wilson.
As with other manufacturers, within the real wood veneer range white oak is king. "We do get the odd pockets of walnut, a bit of beech and then some weird and wonderful species but there’s no real deviation from white oak, which accounts for more than 90% of our wood veneered mouldings."
Trimax is very much front and centre of SAM Mouldings’ marketing drive at the moment.
"We’ve spent quite a bit of time on educating the market and have a RIBA approved CPD in place," said Mr Wilson. "And that is starting to get some traction in terms of specification coming back in.
"We’re already seeing some really good success for Trimax in our export markets – particularly the Benelux countries where they are more into claddings, fascias and soffits and are maybe a little ahead of the UK market. Having said that, the education and training effort we’re putting into the UK is bearing fruit now."
SAM retains a high level of flexibility, said Mr Wilson, and up to 35% of its output is bespoke.
Fellow Irish manufacturer Balcas also calls itself a primed MDF mouldings business at its core but it too is focusing on its value-added lines.
"Arnold Laver has committed to prefinished mouldings from us and we do a lot with the door sector," said Gary Sowerby, sales director. "We’re supplying a lot of frames and architraves into doorset manufacturers.
"We’ve seen a big upturn in demand for veneered products – oak is the go-to species, with a bit of walnut and cherry coming along," he added. "And we’re seeing more demand for pre-finished veneers, where the lacquer is impregnated into the veneer. Customers can specify the level of sheen they want."
While Balcas is very active within the merchant scene, it has also focused on the DIY route where its pre-finished KOTA mouldings are performing well.
The company sells KOTA mouldings through B&Q and has been very pleased with the way the product has been accepted. "B&Q put it into 220 of its 300-plus branches from day one and sales have been very good," said Mr Sowerby.
The KOTA mouldings range thus far has included fairly traditional skirtings and architraves but more products are at the development stage and will be launched next year.
Mr Sowerby is in no doubt that they’ll be as popular as their predecessors have proved to be.
"It’s a quick and easy product to fit – nobody wants to gloss paint mouldings if they can get away with it," he said.
