The industry has seen quite a number of mergers and acquisitions over the past few years. Since the period of recession, the larger companies have been looking to extend their influence and market share within the industry to make sure they have a bigger reach and expand revenues. The result of all this though is a lot of overlapping.

From one to many

I am going to use DGB sponsor John Fredericks as an example. Before this recent age of mergers and takeovers, John Fredericks were a Halo fabricator. Then VEKA took over Halo, giving John Fredericks access to a range of VEKA products like the Imagine range, remaining a mainly Halo fabricator.

Then A & B Group took over John Fredericks a few years ago. A & B are a big Eurocell customer, and before long John Fredericks are using Eurocell. Modus and their Aspect bi-folding doors being two of their stand out products.

And recently, they have taken on Synseal’s Warmcore bi-folding doors. So from one product stream to four in a short space of time. There’s a lot of overlapping there just in one piece of the industry landscape.

A pattern repeated

This sort of overlapping is common now in the industry. It means though that fabricators now have more access to more products than ever before. Which in turn means the customers of those fabricators have access to a more diverse range of products.

From the point of view of an installer this is a good thing. Diversification is something which is constantly advertised as important. By their fabricators having access to more and more products, it allows the installer, with the confidence of an existing relationship, to go to the home owner with more options than their competitors.

Crossed paths?

One thing to be wary of in the future is crossed paths. For example, DW3, the group which owns Solidor, took over Eclectic Systems, makers of the popular Residence 9 timber alternative product. This gave Solidor a link to Residence 9.

For all those Solidor customers that sell the rival Evolution product, that brings Residence 9 closer to home. An interesting dynamic which will push both companies to continue to invest and improve. Again, only a good thing from the perspective of the installer.

There are interesting and exciting times to come in this industry.

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