Day 1 of the FIT Show is over. Lets get straight to it. Day 1 was good!
Solidor: colours and designs
After getting to the TIC at a brisk 8:20am, the door officially opened at 10am and I was shown around the Solidor stand. They have two new colours: Peacock Blue and Golden Sands. I love the new Peacock Blue colour, the Golden Sands I’m still undecided on. However, they have expanded their range of door designs and hardware options – click here to check out @glazingblogger on Twitter and see the new options for yourself.
Their website has been overhauled and the Solidor Cloud service now includes all new product options and a new layout. After being shown the revamps, although the existing services were already good, there are some marked improvements and from an IT perspective and a sales person, these are improvements I can admire.
R9 no more!
R2, R7, R8 and R9 is now the Residence Collection. I will go into greater detail about R2, R7 and R8 in the full FIT Show review at the end of the week. However I can report that Residence 9 and their R&D department have been spending quite a few hours in the office and produces some innovations that will really get the rest of the sector wondering “perhaps we should have done that”.
If you’re coming to the FIT Show as a visitor on Wednesday or Thursday, be sure to look out for new Window Widgets hardware, ancilliaries and of course the new suite of Residence 9 systems. The build quality is as you would expect, and should provide a genuine challenge to the timber sector.
Alumina by Liniar
The Liniar stand is perhaps one of the best throughout the exhibition. An in-built NYC-class coffee shop is a perfect place to recharge and take in their enormous Alumina ali bi-folding door system, which they have on show at 2500mm high and 1200mm wide per sash. The thing is huge! It also looks damn good. Well worth a visit if you’re down over the next couple of days.
Modus
The Modus system from Eurocell has been out for a while now. However, after a few teething problems here and there, their latest version seems to have corrected the issues that remained. After seeing the third reincarnation of Modus on the John Fredericks stand, I can say with an honest heart that Modus is now the system is was always designed to be.
Prefix Systems
There is so much I could mention on Prefix that I am going to reserve it for a post of my own. However, I can say that after seeing their brand new timber clad systems, their new veranda products and aluminium products, they are MILES ahead of their competition.
Also, be sure to see their UltraSky with timber internal clad, this will be one of the nicest products you will see all three days.
Summing up
After day one and seeing a number of stands I must say that the standard of new products being launched and the marketing to back it up has been very good. Nothing game changing as yet, but a clear indication that innovation is in top gear and progression is moving quickly.
Stands have been impressive, although I must say not surpassing levels seen at previous events, which in fairness were great already.
The footfall on day 1 was steady in my opinion, with the morning being the much busier part of the day compared with the afternoon. I expect Wednesday to be much busier, with Thursday being the quieter day.
I have seen so much on day 1, and I will be including a lot more detail in my full review once the show has concluded. Day 2 lies ahead, with an abundance of opportunity for all I am sure!
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