Seismic events in the last 12 months, such as the Grenfell Tower fire and the collapse of Carillion have rocked the construction industry and the joinery sector has not been completely untouched.
However, despite the resulting erratic market – exacerbated by unusual weather patterns – according to the British Woodworking Federation (BWF) the sector has had another solid year.
“According to our latest state of trade survey, at the end of Q1 this year around 60% of our members had experienced growth, with just 16% falling back,” said Iain McIlwee, BWF chief executive. “Few (just 14%) see the market going back over the next 12 months, with 30% predicting growth of over 5%.
“Possibly the biggest challenge that comes through our analysis is coping with material price rises. Inevitably this puts huge pressure on margins, which are already low, making events like Carillion all the more serious “Realistically I think we are only starting to scratch the surface of the long-term impact [of Grenfell and Carillion] but it is my hope that we will embrace wholesale change of the regulatory, contractual and competence framework that has undermined safety and productivity in construction in the UK,” he added.
Of course, while these major events affect the wider market, at the grass roots level it is somewhat different – people still move house and refurbish their new properties.
“One of the driving factors on the fenestration market is property transactions,” said Helen Hewitt, the BWF’s membership director and lead on the Wood Window Alliance (WWA). “Many home movers make improvements relatively quickly after they have moved in.
“According to data from Palmer Market Research, over the past circa 20 years the percentage of replacement has never been below 15% of the market. This has slowed up a bit, running about 1% below 2017 levels and, with new build taking a higher proportion, by rights the windows market should be slowing. But we’re not seeing that.”
She added that impetus is coming from homeowners extending or improving rather than moving – either because they haven’t enough equity to move up the housing ladder or, more significantly, because they are retired, mortgage-free homeowners who don’t want to downsize and who have benefited from long-term housing wealth and new pension freedoms.
“Timber and aluminium clad timber windows fit nicely in here,” said Ms Hewitt. “In 2016 wood accounted for around 15% of the window market, so there is plenty of room for growth.”
Around 60% of the BWF’s members supply into the new build housing market and this remains buoyant, with completions up 12% in 2017 and on course to grow again this year, albeit at a slower rate.
RMI is a huge market for joinery producers. Taking fenestration as an example, of an overall domestic market (including aluminium clad) of around £480m, refurbishment accounts for around £350m.
“The commercial market is significantly smaller at around £60m but is anticipated to grow to £70m over the next five years,” said Ms Hewitt.
“Public sector replacement of fire doors has started and overall 2018 has been very buoyant in this sector,” added Mr McIlwee.
“And with the backdrop of press attention on fire doors, this is unlikely to change any time soon.”
He added that the BWF had seen a positive uptake of third party certification for fire doors and a focus on competence of installation, leading to new training products, such as the NVQ Module in Fire Door Installation that it launched with Neath Port Talbot Group of Colleges.
Door manufacturer JB Kind Ltd certainly backs the view that fire door sales have risen.
“The demand for fire doors has increased following the Grenfell Tower tragedy,” said James Cadman, managing director. “There is more focus towards the use of fire doors and also there is a very large demand for replacement doors in tower blocks throughout the UK.”
Cheshire Mouldings, which has recently added internal doors to its portfolio, has also witnessed the increase in demand from both private and local authority customers post Grenfell.
“Well established joinery product suppliers should be able to react accordingly and provide the highest standard of products to meet evolving market demand,” said John Carney, managing director.
Cheshire Mouldings has doubled its range of doors and says the one-stop-shop approach is paying dividends, with customers able to source co-ordinating internal doors, beading, architraves and skirtings from the same manufacturer.
Scotts of Thrapston cites the aforementioned “improve not move” phenomenon as a driver for growth.
“In our opinion there isn’t really any more certainty in the market this year and the Brexit issue is still not showing any clarity,” said David Scott, chairman. “However, we feel that the overall economy has improved over the past 12 months and people are slowly beginning to invest in their properties again.
“We have seen an increase specifically in the high-end redevelopment market,” he said. “There also seems to be more excitement in 2018 with respect to new-build projects and we are starting to supply more contractors and self-builders with bespoke joinery requirements,” he added. “We have recently won three large new-build projects.”
Roy Wakeman, CEO and chairman of the Performance Timber Products Group, which encompasses Mumford & Wood, Timberwindows.com and Dale Joinery, said market demand had been “steady rather than strong”, particularly in the home improvement market.
“Overall demand has improved by around 5% over the last year,” he said, adding that this was despite the negative impact of price deflation in the housing market and the slowing of transactions in the south-east. Haldane UK could be bucking the southeast trend, however. Ninety per cent of the bespoke handrail and staircase specialist’s business is in London, many miles from its Glenrothes base.
Managing director Forrester Adam says the high-end market was really busy in the second half of 2017 with “incredible business coming in”, although he conceded that 2018 to date had tailed down slightly.
“We have a lot of business on the books but it is all delayed,” he said. “We are always the last people in [on a building project] and we are getting delayed by prior onsite problems such as products not being delivered on time.”
He added that having carried out some commissions in the US, Haldane is now looking towards exports and to targeting new markets. For example, it has an interest in the marine sector and is honing skills that it acquired on cruise ship fit-outs several years ago.
Quality appears to be coming to the forefront throughout the sector.
“The consumer has been moving towards better quality products that sustain higher margins, which is a good thing,” said Roy Wakeman. “The consumer is also getting more informed and up to speed with the environmental issues and performance standards. Price is still an elastic measure in that volume is governed by the price levels and large volume production costs must be continually driven down to get a return.”
He added that, within the PTP group of companies, the best growth was being witnessed by its consumer brand, Timberwindows.com, thanks to its “very effective business model” and Dale Joinery.
“Our Dale Joinery brand has a unique selling proposition for the builder’s merchant with high quality products at prices that provide healthy profits for the distributor,” said Mr Wakeman.
Others agree that consumers are becoming more discerning.
“We believe that legislation and green credentials have an ever increasing impact on driving the market,” said David Scott. “Our customers are also becoming more insistent on the performance of products, along with the continuation of innovative design.
Although cost is obviously still a factor, we believe design, quality of finish and aesthetics have the main influence on final purchasing decisions being made.”
The BWF and WWA are also optimistic that joinery specifications are edging towards quality over cost.
“We are definitely having more positive engagements on quality, certainly with the larger contractors and merchant groups,” said Mr McIlwee.
“Grenfell has shone a spotlight on an unhealthy culture of value engineering in construction and we are certainly starting to see tighter tenders coming in as a result
I think there is also an awakening that the biggest area of waste is the amount of work that needs to be redone too rapidly due to poor choices and bad installation.”
The value-over-cost equation also relates to aesthetics, of course.
“Windows and doors are one of the key external features that can add character to a home,” said Ms Hewitt. “With windows we think about the outside but their contribution to interior design can be immense.”
She added that WWA members are starting to see an increasing rejection of PVCu windows as consumers recognise the technical advancements in the timber windows industry.
“According to our research, one in four home owners is planning to decrease the amount of plastics in their home this year,” said Ms Hewitt. “Conversely, timber is cited by 67% of homeowners as the material they would like to have more of in their homes. This can only been good for wood windows.” Investment levels have been encouraging and the BWF reports a real emphasis on productivity to meet the challenge of rising prices. Manufacturers are looking to automate.
“Half our [700] members have increased investment over the last 12 months and none are planning to scale back levels over the next period,” said Mr McIlwee. “We are also seeing capacity utilisation in some businesses so we have seen a number of members move into larger premises in the last year.”
Haldane is a case in point, having spent more than £700,000 on new machinery over the last 18 months.
“We now have five CNC machines, two of which we installed in the last 18 months,” said Mr Adam. He added that the MAKA CNCs were built to Haldane’s specifications and they could perform any function “you could possibly want”.
The investment was made to speed up output but also to improve accuracy. “It is taking us less time to do anything and our installers on site say they have never had that accuracy before. The accuracy we are working to now is 4,000th of an inch.”
A knock on effect of the super-efficient, super-accurate CNCs was that the sanders had to be replaced in order to keep up, so further investment was made in two Boere wide belt sanders. The shopping list also included new panel saws.
Scotts of Thrapston has also invested in new CNC technology as part of its office and factory refurbishment, which will continue to the end of the summer as the company nears its centenary.
In terms of trends in style and timber species Scotts of Thrapston says the choice of veneers and flexibility in designs had led to a resurgence in enquiries and orders for its internal doors.
“Buyers are increasingly requesting contemporary, eye-catching internal door designs, with feature grooves and panels leading the way,” said Mr Scott. He added that new materials are being specified more frequently and that Accoya and Red Grandis are becoming more commonplace.
“Smoked and dyed veneers are becoming more popular this year as they create a contemporary look, with dark greys and black the favourite colours,” said Mr Scott. JB Kind also picks out grey as the colour of choice in 2018.
“Grey painted veneers and laminates are showing the most significant growth trends this year,” said Mr Cadman. “Oak remains the main species, by far, although walnut is also popular. Pine remains on the decline, however.”
He added that the company’s new products had been focused on laminate finishes and external doors using a MEDITE TRICOYA EXTREME face to provide durability and stability in harsh conditions.
For the PTP companies design trends depend very much on the style of the property – heritage buildings call for traditional products, for example.
“However, we are winning the battle slowly on adding some of the modern attributes to the offer, such as slim glazing units to provide double glazing,” said Mr Wakeman. “Modern paint finishes and a wider colour range have led to the consumer choosing them and dual colours are very popular.”
He added that European redwood is offered in engineered component form for the group’s consumer products and also hardwood if it is requested.
“We still offer Siberian larch for our Mumford & Wood brand, which our customers appreciate,” said Mr Wakeman.
Meanwhile, Haldane mainly uses American hardwood such as white oak, black walnut and cherry and reports an increasing demand for European oak. Reclaimed timber, notably pitch pine, has also entered the product mix as architects experiment with different species.
“We have found some merchants with old stock of pitch pine,” said Mr Adam, adding that he had some 9m-long, 0.6×0.6m beams that in a former life were roof trusses in a factory.
“When we open it up there are some big checks and splits so there is massive wastage but there is some really nice timber in there.”
Looking to the future, there are undoubted threats – such as the uncertainty around Brexit and the prospect of a deepening skills shortage – but there are also opportunities.
“There is an awakening to the massive contribution that timber can make to supporting a low carbon manufacturing sector and in constructing healthy and sustainable buildings,” said Iain McIlwee. “There is also growing concern over plastics pollution and the wider impact of material choice, not just in terms of carbon but the wider chemical impact.
“I do think the timber supply chain needs to step up more,” he added. “We need to support our manufacturing base and sometimes I fear the material is traded as a commodity and there simply isn’t enough focus on how we add value and support the manufacturing end of the supply chain.
“We really need the supply chain to rally around how we can deliver leaner and better solutions to our customers and secure the strong future for the UK woodworking sector that is there for the taking.”
