Deceuninck was the original systems’ company to invest to make it easy for fabricators and installers to sell colour with confidence. Deceuninck’s Rob McGlennon talks colour..
When it comes to colour in our market, it’s a bit of a double edged sword. While the concept of colour should be an attractive, aspirational sell, the actual reality can present a headache. For systems companies who haven’t invested in significant colourway stockholding, the whole area is one of complexity, expense and logistical nightmares. For fabricators, it can be a pain because some suppliers force them to buy in full stillages for what may just be a one-off order. And that’s if the fabricator can get hold of the foiled colours in the first place within a reasonable lead time. In turn, installers are reluctant to proactively market and sell colour because they simply can’t reply on their supply chain to deliver. All of this is a wasted opportunity.
Almost half of Deceuninck’s sales are foiled. The responsibility for making a success of colour in our markets lies at the top of the supply chain with the systems company. As Deceuninck’s own sales figures show, for those who get it right, the colour potential is huge. In 2016, 44% of the profile we sold – including of course matching foiled trims, ancillaries and cills – was foiled. We could deliver this because we’ve been supplying colour on a big scale for a long time, especially in the commercial sector with our patented Decoroc coatings.
Just as importantly, we took steps to ensure we could meet the demand for colour in the trade and retail arena and it’s an area that has enjoyed a significant chunk of our £3 million investment in the last 2 years. Colour or white, we keep 26 colourways in stock to go on your next delivery. Products are available off the shelf as bar length, negating expensive stillage purchases and the inherent problems with fabricator storage space. To ensure we can deliver on our colour-from-stock promise, we’ve recently invested more into our dedicated fully automated Foiling Hall. This gives us the extra capacity we’re forecasting will be required over 2017 and allows us to keep feeding into our 140,000 ft2 purpose built warehouse, stocking over 2,500 colour units plus ancillaries, cills and trims.
All of this investment into facilities and space works hand in hand with our dedicated online ordering system, Deceuninck Online, which allows fabricators remote, real time access to the Calne warehouse. Our fabricators know all these products will arrive in full on their next delivery because they’ve got their name on them. So they and their installer customer have the confidence to sell them.
It’s a big investment to keep so much colour in stock, but as a systems company we have a responsibility to meet market demands on behalf our customers. It’s this investment that means we can all reap the benefits of a vibrant, growing market place, rather than missing out completely due to previous bad experience or weakness in the supply chain.
