Last week Rocal, producers of Endurance Doors, announced that they had acquired Witham-based BDC Aluminium. It meant the year started with a bang as a company predominantly in the composite door space made a massive move into the aluminium side of fenestration.

Given the size of Endurance and the huge client base they have around the UK, this is going to transform the business and certainly up the competition within the aluminium space.

Embracing aluminium

I know some of you get a tad irritated when I wax lyrical about the future potential of aluminium. In previous posts I have predicted that it would not be long before a major company that has not had exposure in the aluminium market decides to enter that space. Endurance purchasing BDC Aluminium as proven that prediction accurate.

Endurance Doors, up until now, has had no exposure in the residential aluminium market. They do have their Avantal range which is a collection of doors designed to mirror the look of aluminium, whilst remaining a composite door. Now, with BDC Aluminium in their portfolio, they now have access to a large range of aluminium window and door solutions:

  • Smart Alitherm windows – 400, 300, 600, 800, Heritage and EcoFutural ranges
  • Smart vertical sliders
  • Stellar fully flush casement windows
  • Smart entrance doors – Designer, Alitherm 400, Alitherm Plus and EcoFutural ranges
  • Smart bi-folding doors – Visofold 1000 and Heritage 6000 ranges
  • Stellar bi-folding doors and patio doors
  • Smart Visoglide patio doors
  • Stellar fully flush door
  • Smart Heritage door
  • Commercial and residential curtain walling systems
  • Heritage internal screens – fixed frames, hinge doors, pivots

That is a very extensive range of products, all of which is now under the banner of Rocal and Endurance. The news is still fresh and there isn’t anything known in the public domain about what existing Endurance customers can expect. However, I am thinking that at least a very large portion of the above product portfolio will be made available to existing Endurance customers during the course of the year.

These sorts of acquisitions and mergers take time to bed in and settle. It may be some months before installers will be able to access the products fabricated by BDC Aluminium. But just think about the ramifications of this deal. Hundreds of installers up and down the country are now going to be able to access a huge suite of aluminium window and doors products, perhaps for the first time. Endurance get a ready-made entry into the aluminium space, and are able to give installers the tools and products to help pay back that investment hopefully as quickly as possible.

What it also does is put Endurance way ahead of their competitors. Most composite door suppliers still do only composite doors. One or two have an aluminium entrance door within their product range. Endurance however have an entire suite from top to bottom covering all spaces within the aluminium market. It puts them eons ahead of the rest.

For now.

A sign of things to come?

I continue to believe that much more of the fenestration sector is going to delve deeper into the aluminium space. It is the one area that shows the most profitable and robust growth compared with others. I don’t think Endurance will be the only non-aluminium company to muscle their way in to the space. Whether any other PVCu/composite door companies decide to join them this year will remain to be seen. But I firmly believe that others will follow in the same foot steps of Rocal and enter the aluminium space in a very meaningful way.

I remain steadfast in my belief that the biggest opportunities in the residential fenestration sector are in the aluminium space. It is here where you have the most dynamic and exciting products that both installers and homeowners can get excited about. And that is the key. Even during tough economic circumstances such as the situation the country is in now, a compelling product and things people can get genuinely excited about will still be enough to convince people to spend.

Self-builders and architect work is such a rich vein of opportunity. Installers and fabricators can use aluminium products to help open up new opportunities in these lines of work and exploit the very profitable business that can be found in that part of the sector.

Find out more about the BDC Aluminium range here: https://www.bdcaluminium.co.uk/

Find out more about the Endurance range of composite doors here: https://endurancedoors.co.uk/

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