The UK’s mass production and architectural joinery sectors both appear to have enjoyed reasonable levels of activity during the summer, with many companies admitting to being pleasantly surprised at how little the negative talk surrounding general economic prospects has damaged their order intakes. However, strong competition in the market, as well as ‘very little inflation in the raw materials market’, have generally undermined their chances of raising prices.

Of course, the terrorist attacks in the US have cast a giant shadow over the entire business community. And with stock exchanges around the world responding with substantial falls, there is some concern that would-be joinery customers will postpone substantial capital expenditure projects.

For the mass production trade, demand for timber staircases and fully-glazed, factory-finished windows seems unstoppable.

An established timber window producer reckoned that, purely as a factor of demand, more than 80% of his company’s turnover was now taken up by factory-finished product while glazing accounted for around 90%. Another manufacturer described fully-glazed, factory-finished windows as ‘the future’ for the given the on-site skills shortage.

The police-led ‘Secured by Design’ initiative has also helped focus customers’ minds on windows and doors, with many joinery firms picking up business as a result. ‘We have had a lot of orders for this – mainly for social housing,’ said one firm. ‘It hasn’t filtered through fully to private housing but, if insurance companies offer lower premiums, it will certainly catch on.’

Crowded market

The internal doors market remains busy but crowded, with overcapacity helping to push prices slightly lower over the course of this year. According to one contact in the mass production sector, there have been signs over the past three months that a peak has been reached in the market for internal doors. Prices had ‘softened’, he said, but there had still been a marked reduction in sales volumes.

For stairs, however, demand has been sufficiently strong for price levels to be maintained and, according to several sources, many builders still appear to be busy and plenty more staircase business remains in the pipeline.

If there has been one overriding complaint to emerge from the mass production joinery sector this week, it is the seemingly ever-lengthening delays for planning approvals. ‘Planning applications are taking 8-12 months for some of the work we have quoted for,’ said one contact.

Several other sources complained of a continuing lack of clarity surrounding Part L of the Building Regulations. ‘We understand it is going to impact on replacement but even building control officers don’t know how it will be applied,’ said one. ‘How it will all work is anyone’s guess.’

TWAS scheme

The British Woodworking Federation (BWF) is claiming that more than half the timber windows produced in the UK are now made by members of its Timber Windows Accreditation Scheme (TWAS). And according to latest information reaching the federation, members of its scheme are expecting the value of their sales to increase by an average of around 8% this year, not least because of growing customer awareness of – and insistence on – ‘sustainability’ criteria.

Summer sales activity has been boosted by a product awareness campaign conducted through builders merchants on the back of Wood for Good advertising. Copies of the TWAS brochure and directories will be made available as part of a new Wood for Good campaign to be targeted at local authorities, housebuilders, housing associations and local conservation officers shortly.

Better timber sought

TWAS membership stands at 26 manufacturers, installers and suppliers, but the BWF anticipates that three more ‘large’ timber providers will shortly join its ranks. ‘Timber window manufacturers in the scheme are looking for even better timber and so it is in timber suppliers’ interests to take part,’ commented a federation spokesperson.

BWF’s Certifire fire door certification scheme has also gained several new members in recent months, including a company that manufactures fire resistant glass. The federation pointed out that several fire door frame and glazed aperture suppliers were also considering joining the scheme, which will shortly be boosted by a promotional campaign through builders merchants.

The TRADA fire door scheme has also witnessed a rapid increase in its membership – from a total of 20 full and provisional members this time last year, to a tally of 40. A spokesperson attributed the rise to the increasing importance attached to ‘respected third party approval’ in product areas where safety considerations were ‘critical’. With the industry trend towards risk management, many blue chip customers were seeking independent product approvals to give them peace of mind and were also prepared to pay a premium for the product, he suggested.

Everybody contacted in the architectural joinery sector was pointing to a reasonably healthy level of business over the summer. However, there is widespread concern over how order prospects will develop, particularly around the turn of the year.

One company said it had been ‘extremely busy’ on commercial fit-outs, hotels and, most particularly, on quality apartments. ‘But architects tell us that things are getting quieter and that there are fewer of the big contracts coming up,’ TTJ was told. Another contact voiced similar sentiments: ‘Unlike at the start of the year, we are not getting people booking us months ahead. Since the end of July, there has been a considerable falling off in enquiries.’ Work was flowing through at a reasonable rate just at the moment but there were clear signs of customers growing ‘edgy’, he added. ‘Just around the corner, there may be problems.’

The UK housing market seems to have retained some strength, while demand is also said to be reasonably robust from the restaurant and hotel sectors. However, many joinery companies were already pointing to a serious slow-down in other areas, most noticeably shopfitting orders.

This view was reinforced in the latest results from Havelock Europa, in which the company acknowledged a slow start to the year for its retail interiors division because of difficulties experienced by some major customers in the non-food retail area.

Cause for concern

The office fit-out sector is also giving some cause for concern. A joiner noted that, in the light of the recent dip in hi-tech industry fortunes, one company in that sector had pulled out of a move to new premises on which his firm had been booked to carry out joinery work. Comments from other joinery firms suggested this may not have been an isolated incident.

Despite reasonable levels of business, most joinery firms complain of strong competition driving down the prices they are able to charge and thus their overall profit margins. One operator explained: ‘We have put our rates up because we thought the market would accept it, but then the enquiries started to dry up. So we have had to drop our rates again to ensure we can get orders to fill the quieter months.’

The pressure on margins is being exacerbated by the continuing lack of skilled labour and the need to maintain or even increase pay rates to retain the top workers, even though this latter course of action was a recipe for creating further ‘inflation’ in the worker market place, one operator acknowledged.

One joiner said that he was always combing the press for news of local business relocations or failures in the hope of picking up skilled staff from the fall-out, while another described the labour market as ‘dog eat dog’.

There is a widespread belief that labour pressures will diminish as the industry heads towards the slower Christmas period, although one joiner believed it would take ‘quite a bout of recession’ to affect pay rates.

Hardwood timber prices have constituted at least one relatively stable factor in joinery firms’ financial equations, although there is concern about the hardening of some North American and Far Eastern hardwood prices. Joinery customers have continued to favour lighter species this year, with beech and hard maple seemingly the pick of the crop.

Darker woods

However, one or two contacts identified a slight swing back in favour of darker woods such as cherry and black walnut. Latest export figures from the US confirm recent growth in demand for black walnut in the UK market, with several joiners pointing to a notable increase in its popularity for high-quality applications.

Softwood prices have remained quite depressed while MDF has been experiencing severe and sustained price pressure.

The UK’s architectural joinery sector is generally anticipating similar or slightly higher levels of business for 2001 compared with 2000 but few are hopeful that the current pace can be sustained throughout next year – especially following the recent events in the US. If the stockmarket continued to suffer damage, then decisions involving high expenditure are almost certain to be affected, it is feared.