A Halo for the saints

Once, visiting a well-known UK holiday island, I met the new owner of its biggest hotel, who said he hoped to add a large conservatory as a dining room. I passed the message to Network Veka, at the time a client, only to hear there was not a member within 60 miles.

Apart from the near-saintly standards it sets its members, the biggest curb on the Network’s growth was the obligatory use of Veka and, despite various regional pushes, its coverage remains at best patchy in some areas. Now, over three years after Halo joined the Veka fold, its users can apply to join the Network (read the story here). Some existing members may be less than thrilled at the news, but at least the body may be nearer to true national coverage as well as increased volume and clout.

Elsewhere, soon after Safestyle announced its move into conservatory replacement – potentially 20,000 units a year – we hear Leads2trade is now distributing 250 enquiries a week for conservatory roof replacement and the count is still growing (read the story here). No one ever completely believes the ‘next big thing’ soothsayers but it is looking, to say the least, interesting.

So, whether you’re out to cover the country or just re-covering an old conservatory, we hope you enjoy the coverage in this week’s issue.

Chris Church Editor

Please send all your news stories to news@the-glazine.com

This Week's News

Network Veka opens its doors to Halo

Network Veka has gained a major boost to its growth as well as its national coverage with the news that it is to open up membership to Halo fabricators and installers.

The organisation stresses that it will continue to avoid competitive overlap in appointing new members and it is understood the body has been very selective in the companies it approached. Nonetheless, the news has not found favour with all existing fabricators, though the reaction from the majority has been very positive.

Network Veka is envied throughout the industry for its standards of customer service, training and guarantees and the Veka UK Group, which acquired the Halo brand and systems over three years ago, emphasises that those standards will remain unchanged. Group Sales and Marketing Director Colin Torley said: “It's only natural that we've opened up membership to other branches of The Veka UK Group. Halo manufactures quality profile that is highly regarded throughout the industry and we have no hesitation in supporting it with the same customer assurances we have for Veka products.”

Read the Rest Here...

Conservatory roof retrofit ‘soaring’

Demand for conservatory roof retrofit is soaring to a ‘perfect storm’ according to lead generation network LEADS2TRADE, which is now distributing around 250 leads a week since launching into the sector just two months ago.

“This is great news for installers as it shows there is an active and lucrative market for conservatory replacement roofs,” said Director Andy Royle, It’s a bit of a perfect storm at the moment in this sector as the summer is approaching, major pension reforms are seeing money flood the economy and the improve rather than move trend is still alive.”

Leads2trade launched the service following strong demand from both homeowners and members, he added, and the company expects the volume of enquiries to go on growing as it invests in new websites and consumer demand continues to increase in the coming months:

Read the Rest Here...

New scheme aims to tackle ‘the cowboy customer’

A new scheme that aims to protect both tradespeople and consumers by a third party escrow-style account is out to recruit new members from all home improvement sectors.

The Home Improvement Guarantee (HIG) is based on a series of staged payments which are held in a Financial Conduct Authority regulated holding account, then released to the tradesman only when the consumer is happy with the work and agrees to release the funds before depositing the next staged payment into the fund.

HIG founder Harvey Ellingham said as well as protecting the homeowner, it ensures that tradespeople are protected from ‘cowboy customers’ who commission work they can’t afford.
“By placing the money in an independent account, the consumer knows that the money is safe and the tradesman knows the customer has enough money to pay for the work.”

Read the Rest Here...

Don’t trust fake web reviews, FMB warns homeowners

Consumers have been urged to seek independently vetted tradespeople and not to put their faith in customer review websites following the announcement of an investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) into fake customer reviews.

The warning comes from the Federation of Master Builders, whose Chief Executive Brian Berry says fake reviews are: “another string to the bow of cowboy builders and dishonest tradespeople.”

He continued: “Many sites that promote businesses on the back of these reviews are far too easily manipulated by their users, as the CMA has rightly recognised. All too often, we see builders sourced from customer review-based websites causing havoc with their poor quality and sometimes dangerous work.

Read the Rest Here...

We Have Email

From:
Gary Mayer
Managing Director,
Wegoma Machinery Sales

Thank you for giving priority to the coverage of the acquisition of Flamstead Holdings Ltd by Quanex. It is an exciting time for all of us and we are pleased to see that the trade media recognise its significance.

May I clarify for the record that one of the companies referred to as part of Flamstead Holdings is Wegoma Machinery Sales Ltd. This became part of Flamstead Holdings in 2014 and it is this, and not Wegoma itself, that is the subject of the acquisition by Quanex.

www.wegoma.co.uk