Summary
• Timber fire door sales have risen in the last quarter.
• The non-residential sector is still busy.
• Timber fire doors with a 30min fire resistance account for the majority of sales.
• Joinery companies mainly sell to building contractors.

The latest report on UK fire door and doorset trends compiled by Rigby Research shows an improvement in sales, but British Woodworking Federation chief executive Richard Lambert sounds a note of caution.

“When we saw the first report of a fall in fire door sales, I said we ought to wait to see if this was a blip or a trend, so I’m going to be consistent by not hailing the sudden upswing in this quarter as proof of the recovery,” he said. “It’s reading too much into the limited sample and the particular mix of small, medium and large companies to infer that the reported higher sales volumes for this quarter indicate a general improvement.

“There’s no getting away from how tough things are in the marketplace, and anyone who depends on the housebuilding sector is finding it toughest of all. Nevertheless, talking to BWF members, I find the picture is not as unremittingly bleak as you might expect. Our smaller and medium-sized members, and those who work in the non-residential sector, still have plenty of work, although they too are waiting for the ripples to reach them. The government’s schools and health building programmes are, if anything, picking up the pace. There are opportunities out there, but you need to make sure you are well placed to take advantage of them.”

Survey sample

This quarter’s report is based on interviewing 47 joinery companies in July 2008, sampled by company size (in volume and number of employees) and region to ensure a balanced spread.

The sample is made up of joinery companies carrying out further work on manufactured timber fire rated doors without affecting the performance, for example, fitting vision panels or making frames to suit. It is made up to include companies certificated for these processes by the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door & Doorset Scheme, companies certificated by other certification schemes, and companies whose alterations to fire doors are not covered by any certification scheme. The sample does not include prime fire door manufacturers.

The charts here show joinery companies’ volume sales of timber fire doors and sales by door type, rating and customer base.

Just under 44,500 timber fire-rated doors were sold in April to June 2008 by the sample of joinery companies interviewed. This compares with just under 26,500 between January and March 2008 – and around 39,000 between April and June last year. The table shows the percentage of total volume sales by company size and the total number of timber fire-rated doors sold each quarter. Volumes will vary depending on the mix of companies interviewed.

The percentage breakdown of timber fire doors that are bought-in by joinery companies as door blanks or completed fire doors shows the proportion of completed fire doors is a little higher this quarter but the ratio remains broadly similar to previous surveys.

Fire door sales

Timber doors with a 30min fire resistance continue to account for the majority of all timber fire door sales. Doors with 60min fire resistance accounted for 11%, while only a very small number of doors with 90 and 120min resistance were sold.

Forty-two per cent of timber fire doors are sold with a filled aperture, which includes vision panels, air vents and letter plates, 6% are sold with unfilled apertures and the remaining 52% have no aperture. This split remains broadly similar to previous quarters.

Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs or door sets (a combined 89%), with only a small proportion sold as door kits.

The survey also asks for the average price of a door set, door kit and door leaf and found that in July this year they were £235, £236 and £126 respectively.

By customer, joinery companies mainly sell to building contractors – with three-quarters of their sales going to this group. The remaining sales go mainly to installers, with small numbers to merchants, other joinery businesses or other companies.

Thirty-five out of the 47 joinery companies interviewed this quarter (74%) reported selling timber fire-rated frames. From this sample over 22,500 timber fire-rated frames were sold in April to June 2008. Sales ranged from 6 to 4,800 timber fire-rated frames.

Of those selling timber fire-rated frames, 88% were manufactured in-house and the remaining 12% were bought-in from an external supplier.