Safe and sound

Today’s reassurance from Steve Miller of Warmseal – now the owner of £7million of would-be Safeglaze orders – must come as a great relief not only to the 2,000 homeowners who worried their deposit must be in doubt but perhaps to the industry as a whole. The whole Safestyle/Safeglaze debacle had gained widespread newspaper headlines around its Yorkshire/Lancashire heartland so the fear of those homeowners was very much in the public domain, with the inevitable likelihood of a serious smear on the reputation that most have spent 40 years trying to leave behind. Read Story

A lesser controversy was probably drawing to a close this week as HWL completed its own journey to prove the value of non-bonded glass frames. Read Story

And finally, we are very happy to announce that Mark Watson is to join the long list of top comedians to host the G-Awards.
Read Story

And on that note, we hope you enjoy this week’s issue.

Chris Church Editor

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

This Week's News

Safeglaze £7million order book goes to Warmseal
– buyer will honour all
2,000 contracts

The order book of Safeglaze, the me-too rival of Safestyle which went into administration last month, has been bought by North East retailer Warmseal, whose director assured The Glazine today that it would honour all 2,000 deposit-paid orders, together worth over £7million.

“I want to put everybody’s mind at rest,” Steve Miller said, “We have provisions in place with a whole team of call centre operators to contact every one of the customers. We will honour every contract, whatever the size, and we will not inflate the price.

Lead administrator Robert Adamson said in a joint statement said: “This deal will ensure that customers of the Company, the majority of whom have paid a deposit without having any reassurance that work will be done, will now have the opportunity to have the work they ordered completed by Warmseal.”

Read more

Unglazed R9 gains ‘official’ stamp, says HWL

HWL Trade Frames has potentially closed the controversy over its manufacture of non-glass bonded R9 frames with the announcement that the process is now included in the Residence Collection’s updated approved manufacturing methodologies.

The move follows extensive independent testing of the method, based on Timberweld 90° butt-welding, and means that Residence is now revising its manufacturing manual to include the technology.

Managing Director Mark Haley said: “We started supplying R9 unglazed 18 months ago, so it’s been a relatively long road but worth it because of the commercial advantage that it’s allowed us to deliver to our customers. Manufacture of R9 using Timberweld means that we can deliver increased weld strength and that eliminates the requirement to glass bond the sash in the vast majority of installations.

Read more

Mark Watson is G-18 host

Award Winning comedian and talented author Mark Watson has been announced as host for the G18 Awards Presentation and Gala Dinner at the London Hilton on Park Lane on Friday November 30.

Mark, the Last in a long line of top comedians who have compered the event in past years, is Time Out Critic’s Choice and his recent TV credits include Taskmaster (Dave) and Bear Grylls’ Celebrity Island (Channel 4).

He has appeared on Mock The Week, Celebrity Pointless, Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You?, Live At The Apollo and Channel 4’s Comedy Gala, and has also been the face of shows such as BBC Four’s We Need Answers and BBC Radio 4’s Mark Watson Makes The World Substantially Better.

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Deceuninck up 17%

Deceuninck UK reports sales are up 17% in the year to date – and 40% in the last quarter alone – on the same periods last year, despite an overall market estimated to have dropped by 10%.

Managing Director Rob McGlennon said: “Deceuninck is bucking the market trend and we’re on track for a record-breaking year. We have a simple recipe – providing innovative products to give customers a competitive advantage so they grow faster – and it’s working!

He added that the company, which announced a year ago that it had topped 50% colour is now selling around 55% colour and its Heritage Flush Sash now accounts for 22% of total sales, without taking volume from other products.

Read more

Tougher sentences ahead for negligent employers

Companies that fail to protect their workforce face much tougher sentencing from this month – including up to 18 years jail for manslaughter through gross negligence, according to new sentencing guidelines introduced for England and Wales.

The weight of the sentences will be defined by a wider assessment of company culture and attitude towards health and safety, not simply with respect to a single incident, so those companies that are unable to show their commitment to employee welfare will face the most severe sentences.

The new powers follow the publication of comprehensive new guidelines by the Sentencing Council outlining the penalties employers can expect to receive for a host of offences from covering up an assault in the workplace to a fatality caused by negligence.

Read more

We Have Email

From: Nick Dutton,
CEO, Brisant Secure

Since publishing our door furniture performance and warranty research in May, installers have told us about the true cost of product failure which is tarnishing reputations as well as furniture.

The door furniture ‘credit on return’ policies, where a credit for the rotting component is paid only when the faulty product is brought back from site, packaged and shipped off to the supplier for inspection. This is a contributor of why 77.5% reported they are unhappy with how these warranty issues are handled.

Customers tell us the return processes are so convoluted that in many cases they simply don’t bother returning the item. They pay the supplier of the faulty product for another one and fit the same again!

The real cost to installers is taking the complaint from the homeowner, returning to site, ordering replacement products and then going back to make good a fault not of their making. But the cost is far greater than the hours and fuel, it’s the alternative cost of what they could have earned whilst servicing their suppliers warranty promise.

Read More