ConservatoryTrucks

Glassex 2002

FutureCorbyForce 8

In ThisI s s u e

THE SYNSEAL TIMES

ISSUE NO.4Spring 2002

SynsealVoted No. 1

AGAIN

Did You

Know?

Synseal returned to Glassex 2002 after agap of two years with a lot to show. Theverdict? Four days of exhilarating,overwhelming responses to the launch of thestate-of-the-art Shield Conservatory System.

Nick Dutton, Sales and Marketing Director comments:"We were right to return to the show because we hadsomething big to say. The response exceeded even ourexpectations. Our presence was like a wake up call to theindustry. It was so good to see the penny dropping asvisitors to our stand saw for themselves the benefits ofbuying a complete conservatory instead of the roof andwindows separately.

"You could feel the buzz throughout the whole exhibitionas customers and potential customers packed onto our16m x 37m stand, the largest floor area ever used atGlassex by a system company or a conservatory roofsupplier. The massive stand and the 15 members of staff

we had manning it at any one time, were needed to copewith the number of visitors we had. So much so, that atthe time of writing, we’re still analysing visitor numbers.We went to Glassex to show our customers but firstindications are that we’ve had in the region of 300enquiries from non-customers alone. The icing on thecake for us was one of our last visitors who came tothe NEC from Kent at 3pm on the last day, just tosee the Shield Conservatory System.

"I'd like to say a big thank you to those whohelped make the show another Synsealsuccess, especially those who took timeout from running their own businessesto visit and see the ShieldConservatory System forthemselves. Remember youheard it here first… one day

Synseal - Committed to Sustainable Development

Document L

FEATURE

S Y N S E A L EXTRUSIONS LIMITED, COMMON ROAD, HUTHWAITE, NOTTS. NG17 2JL

TEL: (01623) 443200 FAX: (01623) 550243e m a i l : nickdutton@synseal.com www. s y n s e a l . c o m

Several customers haveasked us for extra copies of

The Synseal Times to hand out to their salesteam, and place in their

showrooms.

If you'd like to get extracopies of the newsletter to

use in this way, call Phil Elseon 01623 443 200

This newsletter was printed on material

from a sustainable forest.

Like it or loathe it, Document L is here to stay. If youare reading this on or after April 1st, the legislation isnow in force. Suddenly it’s serious, despite theunfortunate choice of starting date. You must beFensa registered or inform building control of everyinstallation you undertake, or else you are breakingthe law. Even if your installations are Document Lcompliant. Penalties for non-compliance are notcheap. An installer could be fined £5,000 per non-compliance and £50 per day for every day untilcompliance is met.

HOW IT WORKSThe easier and cheaper option would seem to be toregister with FENSA.Once registered a company must notify FENSA ofeach installation it undertakes. From a job consistingof one replacement window to 1000 you will need toregister it. Inspections will then be carried out

randomly to check that the new standards are beingmet. For PVC-U frames the minimum standard is a Uvalue of 2.0W/m

2k or better. Metal frames are

permitted a U value of 2.2 W/m2k. The good news for

Synseal customers is that we started a long time agoto prove our compliance in an effort to provide peaceof mind for customers. Tests carried out show thatour systems meet the relevant U value standards withroom to spare if glazed with Pilkington K glass orsimilar.

Hard coat low E will enable you to comply, while softcoat will improve performance still further. Contrary towhat some suppliers are saying, you don’t need gasfilled units, although you can use them to give youthat little bit extra. Nor do you need additionalchambers within the profile to comply. The benefits ofextra chambers are marginal, and there may bedownsides in fabrication and use.

If you require further information on Document Lthe person to speak to at Synseal is our residentDoc L expert Bob Priest.

Conservatories Cover Even More GroundTo keep up with the demand for the new Shield Conservatory System, Synseal have had to increasetheir delivery fleet. An expansion already warranted with four conservatory system trucks doing 4,000miles a week between them, a total of 208,000 miles a year. "The demand for the system wasincreasing at such a pace we needed specialised conservatory trucks," comments Vince Irving,Logistical Director of SynsealExtrusions Ltd. "The way aconservatory is loaded isdifferent to window profile, sodifferent trucks are requiredto ensure that the quality

product that leaves the factory is still a quality

product when it reaches the customer."

Force 8 displayed Synseal’spatio door at Glassex this year andDennis Sumner, Managing Director ofForce 8 was very pleased with how it was received.Hardly surprising though as it was voted the best on themarket in November 2000 in an independent study of320 patio buyers. (Source: Michael Rigby Associates).

"There must have been approximately 10% more visitors to Glassexthan last year, which is obviously good news for us. We wereopposite the Synseal stand which I thought was impressive. It wasobviously a success because the stand was busy every day right untilthe end of each day."

Corby Windows GroupHighly regarded Corby Windows Group appeared atGlassex displaying the Shield Conservatory System onstand CO31. Philip de Clermont, Managing Director ofCorby Windows Group commented. "Fitters like itbecause the Shield Conservatory is a complete productand is extremely fitter friendly."

Frame-Up WindowsAlthough Frame-Up are not currently fabricatingconservatories, Andy Pudney, Manager of Frame-UP sees it asthe way forward for the company and is intending to fabricatethe Shield Conservatory in the future.

"We have already asked Synseal if we could have one of theirConservatory Systems on our Glassex stand next year. We hadin the region of 500 visitors this year, I am confident with thenew conservatory we could get even more next year."

PANELS PLUSPanels Plus had a stand at Glassex just two stands away from Synseal. Nick Lake, Communications Manager of the company said "The Shield Conservatory System was well received by Glassex visitors and certainly got the attention of other exhibitors. We are of course also very pleased with how well our own Synseal door surrounds and canopies went down at the show."

Conservatory Quarterly Trends SponsorshipThe Conservatory Quarterly Trends Report beginsits 6th year in 2002 with a new sponsor, SynsealExtrusions Ltd who has taken over sponsorship fromUltraframe. The report is also moving fromConservatory Industries to a new host. The nextQuarterly Trends survey, The Synseal Shield Reportwill be featured in Conservatory Magazine, the sistermagazine of Glass & Glazing Products. Futurereports will also have a fresh look with more chartsand tables. New features also include a monthlyindex and confidence tracker. For the latestinformation visit www.521621.com.

DID YOU KNOW….Every week Synseal sellsover 300 miles of windowprofiles, that's over 15,000miles a year. Producing1000s of windows everyweek, we estimate thatclose on 1 million Synsealwindows and doors areinstalled every year.

DID YOU KNOW….Naturally Synseal is aBS5750 registeredcompany (ISO9002). Youwouldn't want a profilesupplier who’s not. AllSynseal PVC-U windowsystems carry theprestigious BS7413Kitemark earned byundergoing extremetesting for shape retention,colour fastness, weatherresistance, impactstrength, cold resistanceand even heat resistance.And for security, allSynseal profiles have beentested and passed therigours of the BritishStandards AdvancedSecurity Kitemark BS7950.

DID YOU KNOW….The combined Synsealservice record of the 7strong board of Directorsis over 80 years.

Congratulations to Tim Armitagefor achieving the

"Best Salesperson of the Quarter"Congratulations to Tim Armitage for winning this quarter’s ‘BestSalesperson’award. With fifteen years experience in the industry,Tim was pleased with his award and is happy to be working for

such a successful company. "The number of sales achieved in thelast quarter is a continuation of the success achieved last year."

Tim is pictured receiving hisaward from Synseal chairman

Gary Dutton at Glassex.

We are pleased toannounce that following

the success of the virtualtour of the conservatoryon CD we are launchingthe same virtual tour onvideo. The video, like the

CD, will be a user-friendlysales aid to help all our

customers sell thebenefits of the innovative

conservatory.

S Y N S E A LPART

Meeting your Conservatory needs The new Conservatory Division at Synsealnow consists of five team members, all thereto assist you in any way they can.Dave Bingley is Operations Manager, ChrisBoyington is Technical Sales, Jennie Thorpe is SalesNegotiator and Aaron Housley and Carl Patrick dealwith order processing.

Video

Launch

(Left-right, Aaron, Carl, Chris, Jennie and Dave)

Answer to Logic Quiz

all conservatories will be made this way."

S Y N S E A LP V C - U

P R O FI LE S Y S TE M S

F O R Q U A L I TY

W I N D OW S &

D O O R S

S Y N S E A LEXTRUSIONS LIMITED,

COMMON ROAD,H U T H WAITE,

S U T TO N - I N - A S H F I E L D ,NOTTS. NG17 2JL

TEL: (01623) 443200

FAX: (01623) 550243

e m a i l :n i c k d u t t o n @ s y n s e a l . c o m

w w w. s y n s e a l . c o m

BS7413KM 30983

FM 31451

BS7950/7413KM 41324

For those of you who missed the latest in the Glass Age series of articles “Nick’s in the Chair”, here’sanother chance to see Synseal’s Sales and Marketing Director “Profit from the Core” article.

NICK’S IN THE CHAIR

PROFIT FROM THE COREIn the fourth of a series of articles from Synseal’s Sales & Marketing Director Nick Dutton, argues thatfabricators and installers need to make money from core products as well as from optional extras.

Forty years ago Gillette, a worldleader in shaving technology,achieved a marketingbreakthrough. They saw that thekey to persuading consumers tochange to their new shavingsystem was to give away the razorfor nothing and charge more forthe disposable blades. It caughtthe public’s imagination and profitssoared. But before longcompetitors did the same andoffered cut price blades. And whenmanufacturers sought to improvemargins and charge for the razorsagain consumers objected. It tooktime and effort to re-establish arazor’s value.

Options ‘creep’ in carsand windowsSome marques of car are sold as basicmodels, with manufacturers makingtheir margins on high priced extras.Others sell added value packagesbristling with built in ‘extras’. But extrashave a habit of turning into essentials,and giveaways get taken for granted, asconsumers resist paying more for whatthey see as part of the basic product. Toavert a recession last year UScarmakers threw in all the extras andcut prices to tempt people to buy. Itworked too well. Sales boomed, butlosses were huge and this year they arepaying for that strategy with investmentcut backs and redundancies.

Giving it all awayIn the late 1980s shoot bolts and low Eglass were sold as optional extras onwindows. Few priced them fully but nowmany include them in their standardwindow, using them to prop up theirprices rather than asking a premium forthe added value those benefits deliver.Thus added value becomes a giveaway that eats into margins.

However, added value needs to be soldnot just added to the product, socustomers pay more for the additionalbenefits.

Carried away by

clever ideas Theory is one thing practiceanother. What works in onemarket may not work at all inanother. And smartmarketing ideas can hurtthose that apply themwithout smart thinking aboutthe implications.

A cornerstone of marketingthinking is the need todifferentiate your productsand service. If customerscannot see a differencebetween your products andthe alternatives why shouldthey pay more or pick you at all?

Like peas in a podTrying to choose between onecompany and the next in a YellowPages beauty parade is hard when thehomeowner sees near identicalwindows sporting similar generichardware. That’s why we brandedShield hardware to match Shieldprofile. Shield windows and doors lookgood and the branded hardware clearlysays Shield. The homeowner does nothave to search for clues.

It’s a duckA line up of near identical conservatoryroofs sitting on top of different windowsand doors also makes it hard forprofessional conservatory companiesto differentiate themselves and ask thepremium their expertise deserves. Withlittle that’s visible to choose betweenthem price can become the decidingfactor and margins a casualty.

One solution to help distinguish theproduct and recover lost margins is tosell extras the homeowner might payfor. But if it walks like a duck, quackslike a duck and looks like a duck, thenit probably is a duck. Dressing it upwith a few add-ons may not be adifference people will pay for.

Selling extras is good sense, but not

when you have to because you can nolonger make money on the buildingitself. When conservatory roofs andbases are sold with a small mark up,and the entire margin has to be madeon the windows and doors that sitbetween them you know fresh thinkingis needed. It’s time for conservatorycompanies to start to make money onthe roof using different roofs.

Better on the insideTrue difference is more than skin deep.It starts with design and theassumptions that go into it, challengingevery aspect to improve performance,the way it looks, and the way it’sfabricated and installed. That’s what wedid when we designed the new ShieldConservatory system. Installersassemble the conservatory from theinside, without having to scramblearound on the roof. This produces amore secure conservatory that’s alsoeasier, quicker and safer to install.Designing a Shield roof to fit Shieldprofile makes a better-lookingconservatory with common sightlinesand integrated features - aconservatory system not aconservatory roof system on windows.

Missing millionsSupplying differentiated products at theright price, with innovative designs thatsave unnecessary product cost, putsprofit back into the hands ofconservatory companies. This allowsthem to make money on the coreproduct and the optional extras.

Conservatory companies have seentheir profits erode and have been left tomake good the missing millions byselling extras and decorative add-ons.The industry needs more than this. Itneeds genuine innovation and benefitspeople will pay for, differentiatedproducts that enable companies to sellthe difference without giving it all away.They need a new opportunity to profitfrom the core. If customers cannot see a

difference between yourproducts and the alternativeswhy should they pay more orpick you at all?

Nick Dutton, Synseal’s Sales andMarketing Director

glass age/2002

Based on the 2001 independent annual Benchmarks report from Reputations Plus Ltd,which compares systems companies’performance in the eyes of their own customers.

Voted Number 1Synseal achieve another first,coming top in both Value forMoney and Overall Ratingaccording to the respectedannual Benchmarks report fromReputations Plus Ltd, whichcompares systems companies’performance in the eyes oftheir customers. In the 2001survey Synseal’s customersrated Synseal more favourablyfor Value for Money and forOverall performance thanany other systems company’scustomers rated their ownsupplier.

These results go some way toexplaining Synseal’s fastgrowth over the last fewyears. Marketing gurus haveimpressed on us all thatcustomer delight, theultimate in customersatisfaction, should be ourgoal, and if we attain it fastprofitable growth will be ourreward. "We try to go that extra

Value for Money Rating 2001 by Customers

22nd21st

20th19th

18th17th 16th

15th 14th 13th 12th 11th10th 9th

8th7th 6th 5th 4th 3rd

2nd

1st

System Companies Rated in Survey

SYNSEALBest Value for Money

Worst Value for Money

Copyright: Reputations Plus Ltd 200122 System Companies Rated in Survey

Overall Rating 2001 by Customers

1.0

2.0

3.0

Copyright: Reputations Plus Ltd 2001

SYNSEAL

Overall Rating 2001 by Customers

22 System Companies Rated in Survey

mile for customers," comments Nick Dutton, Sales andMarketing Director of Synseal Extrusions Ltd. "InDecember for example we showed our support forcustomers by sending each of them two boxes full ofmarketing support materials for the new ShieldConservatory System. This alone cost Synseal £50,000 –quite some support."I’m delighted with the results of this latest Benchmarks

report. We value our customers very highly and it’s great toknow they are so pleased with the support we give them."

Future Fabrications were one of the many Synseal customers awaiting thenew Shield Conservatory System in the months leading up to its launch."We use the Shield profile to fabricate all our conservatories and we werereally keen to start using the new conservatory system," comments PaulNeal, Managing Director of Future Fabrications. "Although we don’tinstall the conservatories we fabricate, the new system is beneficial to usin terms of aesthetics. It makes sense that a conservatory should consistof one and the same profile for the entire frame. We are certainlyoptimistic that Synseal's latest development will underpin more sales

for us."

"We’ve seen Synseal change dramatically over the last couple ofyears, working hard to emphasise their position as market leader.

We use them because our customers like to know that the toplevel supplier is the best out there." Paul believes Synseal’s

particular strengths lie in the continual improvement ofdesign and innovation and the wall thickness which

reflects changes in the window industry as a whole.Further affirmation that Synseal drive the market.

"The style and quality of windows haveimproved greatly over the years as

manufacturing processes have becomemore sophisticated.

A significant change is theincreasing use of

SCENES FROM THE SHOWSynseal’s stand, the largest stand ever booked by a systems company or conservatory roofsupplier, was busy throughout the show. Features of the stand included the eight full-sizedconservatories, TV screens demonstrating the benefits of the new system and an example ofhow the glazing bars are securely located inside the building, a key feature of theconservatory was on display for closer examination. We would like to thank everyone who helped make the show such a success.

LOGIC QUIZ....LOGIC QUIZ....LOGIC QUIZ....LOGIC QUIZ....

Bob

Nick

Tim

Neville

Victorian

P Shape

Edwardian

Lean To

White

Mahogany

Light Oak

Mahogany on White

1) The Victorian conservatory was sold in the South it wasn’t mahogany

2) One of the Mahogany conservatories was sold byNick but it wasn’t the Lean To or the Victorian

3) Bob did not sell the White Edwardian conservatory

4) The sales man who covers the East did not sell the P Shape or the Light Oak conservatory

5) Neville went to Scotland and was very happy with the sale of an 18 foot Lean To

6) The Mahogany on White was soldin the West but not by Tim

Record in this grid the

information from the

clues, by using a cross

for a definite ‘no’,

a tick for a definite ‘yes’. Transfer

these to all sections of the grid, thus

eliminating all but one possibility.

Question: What colour was the Victorian roof?see foot of back cover for answer

the reverse weld method and design with the internalbeaded feature. Synseal really lends itself to this design.

Paul Kirby, Sales and Marketing Director of FutureFabrications was delighted with the company’s success atGlassex. "The show went extremely well for us this year.We’re pleased with the number of leads we had for ourwindows, doors and conservatory systems alike. The newconservatory system is big news for the market and I thinkgeneric roof suppliers will really have to sit up and takenotice of Synseal."

A BRIGHT FUTURE