In his New Year message, Mr Pattenden, managing director of Specialist Joinery (South) Ltd, said he was encouraged that joinery manufacturers serving the housing industry had seen a “real and tangible” improvement in recent months, backed up by positive indications in the BWF’s State of Trade survey.
“But as you are all aware, working in a joinery business is never as easy as simply sitting back and watching the money come in,” Mr Pattenden told members.
“Late payment, lack of available finance and restrictively tight margins remain ongoing industry issues, and even if the market share of wood products was to increase, a reduction in the UK manufacturing share could still act to negate this, as happened for wooden windows between 2007 and 2012.”
The BWF is making a series of launches in the coming weeks, including a Health and Safety Hero initiative, as the BWF seeks to help members introduce a zero tolerance culture on health and safety bad practice.
Other news will include improvements to the federation’s CE marking resources, helping members generate U-values more cost-effectively, while new guidance will assist companies running their joinery business.
This year will also be a busy time for standards work, with the harmonised standard for windows and external doorsets performance set to be reviewed, while the BWF is also working on the proposed harmonised standard for fire door performance –prEN16034 which could be published in the summer.
