What a busy November it has been in the world of windows and doors. Awards, continued strong business activity, another major acquisition and a generally strong sector and wider economy. It felt more like the start of a year than the end of it. Unless you were working outside in the early snowfall and frost! So as we start to look towards the very end of the year and the much needed Christmas break, it’s time to look back at what November brought us.
Another major industry acquisition
The big news on the M&A front during November was the take over of lantern roof producers Roof Maker Ltd in a stunning £30m deal by New Wave Partners LLP. You can read more about that story here.
This was a big deal for the rapidly growing lantern roof market as it was, at least to my knowledge, the first and largest takeover of a lantern roof-specific business in that part of the market. The price tag of £30m was impressive too. A signal of the quality of the business and the huge market potential that still lies ahead. The deal itself will have most likely raised the asking price of other lantern roof companies who may become acquisition targets over the coming 12 months.
Will this be the last industry acquisition of they year? I’m tempted to say yes, given that there’s only four weeks of the year left. But I said this not too long ago and then two more came along in the following week!
Continued strong business activity
A normal November sees business activity slow down in the run up to December. Home owners put new windows and doors to the back of their minds and focus on life at home as Christmas approaches. That’s a normal November. This however I don’t think was a normal November.
In my usual conversations with my friends at installer and fabrication level, all reported strong business activity. Stronger than they were expecting at this time of year, and that order books were looking healthy for the end of this year and well into 2017. In fact I saw a tweet the other day from an installer that was boasting about having work booked in all the way to February. Assuming that tweet was truthful, that quite an impressive achievement.
At our place, we broke the target we set ourselves for November. And to be honest, it felt more like May than November in terms of the energy in the business. It looks like we’re going to sale past our 2016 yearly target with time to spare. Anything more is a bonus. So it looks like we’ll be raising our targets for 2017.
We have to question if there will be any major slowdown as we really motor towards Christmas. We’re still getting leads in. Still signing people up. Fitting already booked in well past the New Year. There will of course be a slowdown, there always is. But I get the sense that it won’t be a start a drop as is usual. Good news for us I hope!
DGB
As always, I produce a nifty infographic to show how this website did during the past month compared the same month in the previous year. So here’s November’s stats…
I’m really happy to see 10%+ rises in visitor and unique visitor numbers last month compared to the previous November. This is harder than you think, especially as website traffic generally dips this time of year. Momentum is hard to keep up. It was also a bit more difficult than normal as the National Fenestration Awards was coming to an end at the end of November and was taking up quite a lot usual DGB traffic. On the last day of November the NFA site had just short of 2400 page views alone. I suspect had that not been the case, I could have hoovered up a few more page views and turned that dip into a rise.
Still, traffic on DGB on the three main metrics; page views, visitors and unique visitors are all up on last year’s figures, and as long as that continues in the long term, I’ll be happy.
Awards season gears up
November saw the culmination of two awards, the G Awards and the end of the voting phase in the National Fenestration Awards. You can read about the G Award winners here, and the ending of the NFA voting here.
Winners of the 2016 NFAs are set to be announced during Winners Week which begins on Monday 5th December. Industry awards at the end of the year provide positive relief after what is always a hard, often stressful year.
A look to December
Will the industry actually start to wind down? Perhaps not all that much. If consumers are feeling confident about their own finances and they continue to see new windows and doors as a vital purchase, no matter the time of year, then I think we could find a normally quiet December far busier and more profitable than normal. Here’s hoping!
As we head into the final month of the year, it means I can start to write my end of year content. Things like Top 10 posts published, my opinions on what is the product of the year, and what to look forward to at the start of 2017. So it’s going to be a busy month for me any way. And the NFA winners are going to be announced from Monday 5th onwards too.
I’m sure we’re all now looking forward to a well earned rest. But we have just a few more weeks to go. So it’s heads down for that one final push before we can eat and drink beyond our normal human limits!
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