Everest, Safestyle, Anglian. The three main national window and door companies in our industry. Two priced a the higher end of the market, one WAY down the other. All three vital to the success of our industry. Here’s why:
Advertising
Most of us are what the Government would class as SMEs (small to medium sized enterprises) and the forms of advertising we take out are local, small campaigns designed to boost business locally. The big three however take advertising much differently, and the effects do trickle down the industry too.
Everest, Safestyle and Anglian all have major budgets to spend on things like TV campaigns. Now admittedly Everest and Anglian make the better adverts out of the three, therefore they have more impact I feel. The Safestyle ads tend to irritate quite a lot of people. But one effect all that advertising does have is it energises the market. Although their aim is to create leads for their companies, the general topic of new windows and doors gets brought up, inspiring a percentage of homeowners to seek window and door installers local to their area. No other group of companies in this industry has that sort of influence – we should look forward to them advertising!
Pushing of new products
As a result of advertising, it is the national companies that can help push a new product and really open the door to it for customers. Take triple glazing as a perfect example. It was at least a year ago when Everest started advertising triple glazing on TV. They were the only ones doing it at the time and I think quite a few of us, including myself, thought it was a bit early to start pushing that. But credit to them, they stuck to their guns and kept pushing it on TV and other media campaigns until homeowners have now started to take notice. Now Anglian have joined the race to promote triple glazing, the industry has the two premium national businesses now fighting it out for triple glazing dominance.
Again, because of their ability to advertise heavily and have the budgets to back industry advancements, its the nationals that can influence new products making it to market. They’re not the be all and end all of a product, the other 13,997 of us have our say too. But their media coverage certainly does help.
Employment
These three business also do their bit for the jobs market. Like them or not, these guys employ what must be tens of thousands between them. If ever a company of their size was to ever go under, it would be a terrible mess for thousands of guys and girls who were employed by them. The nationals are an employment powerhouse.
From sales teams, installers, surveyors, factory workers, managers and all others in between, these companies are vital to their homes being paid for and their cars running!
Like them or loathe them, the national companies are a vital organ in what is the organic nature of our industry.
