As a leading British firm with systems designed for the British commercial fenestration market, Comar Architectural Aluminium Systems has been in business for forty years. Comar is 100% British and privately owned this means that Comar, in the current prevailing economic climate, face the same constraints and worries as their approved fabricator network. However, Comar are enjoying unprecedented success and having survived several UK recessions, here, Comar talk about how their systems and business practices are securing record levels of work for their approved fabricator network…
The Importance of Time Critical Delivery
Anyone with experience of British construction knows the time delays that can happen throughout the construction process. Once an order is placed the client/contractor needs to be on-site yesterday, systems companies therefore need to be able to deliver a JIT policy, with products that are available on demand and in full.
In a busy business, costs associated with time are rarely quantified. Dealing with poor suppliers who have unreliable lead times becomes part of the norm – these subsequent costs are swallowed as day-to-day running costs. Conversely, companies will invest in machine tools to maximise production efficiencies, but they rarely look at the efficiency of their suppliers as this involves the short-term pain of changing over to a new unknown, partner.
Some fabricators look at putting profiles in stock to overcome these issues, however, this can tie up valuable liquidity. Liquidity and cash flow is an especially pertinent issue with today’s reduced finance options, so finding a reliable supplier to maximise profitability has never been more important
If, out of the blue, your business has to wait 4-6 weeks for materials and accessories, you and your business will have to wait longer before you can get paid from the contractor/client. This can also impact on manpower hours: overtime might need to be paid to hit a site deadline, reducing the margin on the originally profitable project.
Time Critical Infrastructure
Comar have built their business on market leading stock holding and fast-track delivery. Quite simply Comar have invested over £5M in stock so that their fabricators don’t have to, thus freeing up their fabricators valuable financial resources. For polyester powder coating and dual colour Comar have invested in another facility next door to the industry renowned Barley Chalu, ensuring coating commences as soon as the order arrives. Here stocks of mill finish ready to be powder coated speed up coating lead-times to the best in the aluminium industry. Comar carry most profiles in a standard white finish at their head offices so white materials can be delivered to fabricators on their next weekly delivery. As Comar own and control their own logistics fleet, fabricators can rely on flexibility of delivery when demanded.
Intrinsically, all Comar systems have multi-function profiles and accessories: profiles have been designed so they can be used in a variety of systems and applications. This means fabricator knowledge of the profile range is quickly assimilated and wastage is reduced as profiles can be used on the next project.
In summary Comar is British by Design. This not only means aluminium facades for curtain walling, windows, doors and ground floor treatment that provide longevity and legacy it means a British designed infrastructure to deliver to the uniquely demanding, time-critical British construction market.
