I think it would be fair to say that April was a very busy month, in all senses of the word and very much in relation to the window and door industry. We’re most definitely in full swing as a sector, and we’re powering ahead towards the busiest period of the year. So as we get stuck into May, it’s time to take a look back at the biggest talking points in April and see how things are going to shape up in May.
Business levels continue to be strong
Judging by my private conversations and overview of the general commentary around the industry right now, as a sector we appear to be chugging along quite nicely. From those I speak to, lead levels and sales continue to perform well, despite Brexit headwinds and the upcoming general election.
At our place, April saw plenty of fresh leads come in and sales were good too. I’d say we’re about on par with last year both in terms of leads and sales. I feel like we’re about to hit a purple patch in May and June, given the number of quotes we have live with home owners. Whether we reach our own massively increased self-imposed targets by the end of the year is another matter. Personally I would be happy just to sell more than last year, anything much more than that would be a great bonus.
Even now, as we head into May, we’re booking leads a full week in advance because of how full our diary is at the moment. Whether this is local economic strength in our area or an indication of a wider resilience in the sector throughout remains to be seen. I’d like to think it was the latter.
I will sound a word of caution though. Sometimes general elections can cause a certain degree of hesitation with home owners and big ticket purchases, like new windows and doors. Whether this one has the same effect only time will tell. This isn’t a close election. And I think the only question mark remains how big will Theresa May’s majority will be. If the general public believe that this is a foregone conclusion, then perhaps the usual hesitancy and caution won’t be there from the consumers this time round.
Snap general election called
The biggest news of the month was the surprise snap general election call from Prime Minister Theresa May. Given how strongly she was against calling one, this really did come out of the blue and caught everyone by surprise.
The announcement sent the FTSE tumbling but Sterling rising rapidly throughout the day. Just when we thought we were going to have a break from all this voting, we get another one. This time to be held in early June. Any with local elections being held on May 4th, I think we’re all going to be sick and tired of vote after vote after vote. I will be happy to see no other major election for another good four or five years!
According to the Prime Minister, her reasons for calling this election was to command a bigger majority in the House of Commons to combat moves by opposition parties who in her opinion were causing issues for the sake of it. I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point. She also wants a genuine mandate, backed up by a strong victory at home so that she increases her credibility and strength when it comes to Brexit negotiations.
We have learned not to trust opinion polls in recent years. So many of them have been wrong. But with many still showing easy double-digit leads over Labour, the question remains: how big will that majority be? Most polls at this stage give her a 150-odd seat majority in the house. Plenty to ensure laws get passed without much opposition. Labour unfortunately look to be in total chaos. They looks set to lose to the Tories in Wales, something which hasn’t happened in around 150 years, and the Tories even look set to steal some seats away in Scotland and become the second biggest party there. There may be some extensive rebuilding of the Labour party required after this election is over.
Biggest ever National Fenestration Awards Winners Event
I don’t want to overdo a review of the #NFA16 Winners Event on here as there are articles going to be published on the NFA website which cover all of that in-depth.
But, on Friday April 21st we held the third Winners Event at Oulton Park Race Track and Macdonald Portal Hotel in Cheshire, and it went bloody fantastic! It was easily our biggest and best yet. The evening portion of the event was double the size of that of last year, and we had some fantastic entertainment on which had everyone talking.
Everyone seemed to really enjoy it, and I am sure there were a few sore heads in the morning, mine included! A massive thanks to all those who sponsored, helped with the event and to all those who attended. I shall be publishing a major review of the day and night on the NFA website and of course I’ll be putting some of that on here too.
Pressure will be on to go one better again next time around!
DGB
As always, I break down how DGB performed in the previous month. I would say that April was OK, not amazing. I’m still on my yearly track, but I need to get my head back in the game:
As you can see there was a bit of a drop in April’s main figures when compared to last month and in comparison to April last year. With the NFA Winners Event so much bigger this year and with more to plan, I had to sacrifice time on DGB when it came to content writing and promotion of that content. And you can see what happens when my daily new post routine becomes disturbed. For a number of days in the lead up to and aftermath of the event there was no new content and that hurt viewing figures for April. That’s on me.
A late Easter and Bank Holidays didn’t help matters either. As much as I would love everyone to read DGB on their days off, it just doesn’t happen. This had some impact too.
Still, on the positive side, year to date I am still well on track to hit and surpass my own yearly targets. I would rather have steady, solid monthly figures than big swings. Stability is key.
That being said, there is a chance for me to score a massive month-on-month growth rate during the month of May. This time last year I was getting ready to go on holiday, so content writing and promotion of said content went quiet for just over two weeks. That caused a pretty sharp drop in site traffic in May 2016. However, I am not going on holiday this year until the end of June. So this now gives me an ideal opportunity to get myself back into gear and post a big month for viewing figures and grow it significantly in comparison to May last year and April just gone.
And with the FIT Show coming up at the end of May, that shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve.
Top 5 most read posts
Here are the top 5 most read posts published on DGB in the month of April. This one is a pretty good list, if I do say so myself:
1. There’s A BBC Drama Based Around A Double Glazing Showroom Coming Soon
2. How Much Would You Charge A Home Owner For This Composite Door?
3. Dear Installers, How We Take Payments From Home Owners Is Ludicrous
4. I Believe The Window Industry Is Now In Crisis
5. There’s A New Installer Scheme Being Launched At The FIT Show
Looking ahead to May
There’s no doubting that there is going to be a lot to talk about in May for us all. Local elections are being held this week, and they will be seen as an indicator as to how things might turn out at a national level in the General Election.
Brexit negotiation preparations will start to take centre stage too, as June looks likely to be when things really get going and the hard work begins. And of course the general election will be creeping up on us fast too.
But as an industry, it will of course all be about the FIT Show, with it’s doors opening on May 23rd. I shall be starting my build up to the show soon, with more regular content on the exhibition being published on DGB. During the event I shall be running my live page right here, which will be running every day of the event until the doors close and will be updated with plenty of breaking news, product news, images and general tomfoolery. This is a big test for the organisers and the industry as a whole. Smash that 10,000 unique visitors mark and it will be considered a success. Unique being the key word here.
Onwards and upwards, and here’s to a productive and profitable May for us all.
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