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Until the arrival of companies like Door-Stop, composite doors were still very much a niche market product, very expensive and unknown to the general public.
But now with many more manufacturers involved in the composite door market, the product is now very much a mainstay of the industry. They’ve lowered in price, there are dozens of door styles and colours, but critically the general public are now starting to really get to grips with the product and it’s becoming common knowledge – they key for any successful product in the double glazing industry.
The composite door is becoming so popular in fact that the sales of PVCu panels seems to have completely bottomed out. Out of all the doors I’ve sold so far this year, I can only recall 3, maybe 4 doors that were PVCu panels. The vast majority have all been composite doors. When you compare their looks, U-values, colour and door style options with PVCu panelled doors, there’s currently only one winner…and it’s not the panels.
When I speak to others they report very much the same, lots of composite doors, very little PVCu panels. So, with composite doors looking set to become the main door of choice in the country, how long has the PVCu panel got left?
Probably not very long. There’s not a lot companies can really do in order to physically change a PVCu panel, it is as it is. More colour options won’t boost sales. I see composite doors as the natural evolutionary replacement of panels. I’d give it about 3 years before we see the probable death of the product. And I don’t see that as a negative thing really. Offloading a product no one is buying can only be a good thing – it will free up more room to really expand the potential of the composite door market.
Composite doors have been one of the few niche market products to really start making it big in the industry as a whole, and I believe there’s still lots of potential left to take advantage off.
