Last week I was at the NEC exhibiting at the Home Building & Renovating Show. This is the largest exhibition of its kind outside of London. We have done this show every year since it started and this year was our largest stand yet. Usually we build a stand with 4 walls and show the maximum ammount of doors that we sell. However this year we took a different tack.
We have launched a couple of new products this year, one of which I have already blogged about (our Pre-Hung doors), the other which had launched the Monday before the show. We wanted to show both of these this year so opted for a new stand design.
In this picture you can see our Smoothfold folding and sliding door set which is brand new to the market. While there are many different sets of these available, several also made by Jeld Wen, this one has a great many unique features.
Less wood, more glass. The door leaves are 44mm thick, normally they are 57mm for these types of door. Also, the stiles are reduced from the normal 120mm to something around 80mm. This gives an asthetically pleasing look as the view outside is much more visible.
Insulation. The double glazed units in the door leaf is only 18mm thick but these are Argon filled which increases the insulation. This in turn reduces the amount of heat loss saving both energy and money.
Mass produced. Making these doors to standard sizes reduces the environmental impact as they are manufactured using LVL engineered timber components which uses almost all of the cut lumber reducing waste. This method of construction also provides much more stability than traditional 'solid component' doors which are susceptible to warping such as twisting and/or bowing.
Fully Finished. These are supplied fully factory finished with a 2% pigmented clear laquer. This gives much better protection than a site applied finish.
Great Price Point. All of the above features have a by product insomuch as they also help reduce the cost to the end user. These doors undercut everything out there on the market currently on a like for like basis. The 6ft tri-fold starts at £1839 inc VAT (price correct at time of posting)
This year the exhibition had around 40,000 visitors and we had a great deal of interest in both the Smoothfold doors and the Pre-Hung door sets, particularly the Oak Croft Elegant Entrance (shown left). For this reason we hope to expand the range to the whole of our Elegant Entrance doors within the next month.
3 days to recouperate from this show then off to the Ideal Home Show for a week exhibition there.
