Garnalex has invested over £1 million into bringing the powder coating of its Sheerline aluminium profiles in-house for the first time.
Powder coating plant manager Greg Grabski explained the benefits customers can expect from the move:
“In the past, we have relied on third party suppliers to powder coat our products. Traditionally this has meant transporting mill finished profiles from our warehouse to the powder coaters, waiting for them to process it, then collecting it back, before it’s put into stock. This obviously racks up mileage, increases the products carbon footprint, and unavoidably introduces an extra incremental opportunity for damage to occur.
“By investing in our own powder coating facility, housed next door to our Hybrex aluminium press, we have built in efficiencies and significantly reduced stock movement – taking up to five weeks out of the process involved in putting painted profiles into stock. This added agility ensures we can fulfil customers’ orders on time and in full, as well as giving us direct control over quality checks, with the ability to rectify any issues in hours rather than weeks.
He continued: “I come from the automotive industry where I gained my experience in running quality obsessed painting operations. I will be using these skills and the higher quality expectations that automotive supply chains work to, to embed the correct processes and procedures into our operation.”
He added that the intention is to exceed the standards defined by Qualicoat – primarily a commercial specification standard – to residential aluminium windows and doors:
“Visual acuity checks that are based on a 3m viewing distance may work for large commercial contracts but leave many homeowners understandably disgruntled. Lots of windows just can’t be viewed from that distance internally. As we bed our new operation in, we will be looking to tighten these standards to offer a better service to customers and more peace-of-mind for homeowners.”
