Having never visited Newport before I was interested in this promotional music video about the town:

I must admit it’s tempting, isn’t it!!

Anybody up for a chips, cheese, curry washed down with a Special Brew some time in August?

So, as it’s 23.41 and I’m trying not to drink during an evening any more, I’m wide awake.  To be fair, today is the second day of this new regime, and I haven’t thought about alcohol at all (apart from mentioning it now).

Anyway, just thought I’d share a few thoughts…

Budget

I don’t know about you, but I couldn’t care one way or another about the budget and what the new Chancellor has to say.  He’s unlikely to help our industry in any significant way, and indeed is more likely to make doing business more difficult.

So, I’ll not be showing much interest and will be concentrating on my own little world and just getting on with it.  Over recent weeks I’ve heard from a few sources that things are getting tougher in the window industry.  Window factories have little volume going through them, and staff are being laid off.  I keep being told we’re ‘bucking the trend’ and we must be, as June will be close to a record month, and the majority of our dealers are hitting good numbers still.

What are your thoughts on this?

BFRC / WERs

I’ve had no response from Giles Willson or the BFRC to this post on June 11th:

http://renegadeconservatoryguy.co.uk/still-no-answer-about-the-solar-gain-in-the-wer-scheme/

You have to assume that nobody at the BFRC wishes to answer the question raised, and that will continue to create suspicion from the increasing number of sKeptics of the scheme.

Huddersfield Town box

I realise I’m opening myself up for sarcastic remarks here, but would anybody like to come to watch Huddersfield Town next season?

We share a hospitality box with West Yorkshire Windows, so in effect Conservatory Outlet has 5 places for every home game.  It’s not fancy - we have a couple of beers, and pie, chips and gravy.  If the football’s not good we tend to stay indoors and watch Sky Sports News and have a natter.  Occasionally it does get exciting, and we have seats outside if we wish to soak up the atmosphere.  Anyway, here’s next season’s fixtures:

Saturday, 14 August 2010
Huddersfield v Tranmere, 15:00

Saturday, 28 August 2010
Huddersfield v Charlton, 15:00

Saturday, 4 September 2010
Huddersfield v Bournemouth, 15:00

Saturday, 18 September 2010
Huddersfield v Yeovil, 15:00

Saturday, 2 October 2010
Huddersfield v Bristol Rovers, 15:00

Saturday, 16 October 2010
Huddersfield v Southampton, 15:00

Saturday, 30 October 2010
Huddersfield v Walsall, 15:00

Saturday, 20 November 2010
Huddersfield v Exeter, 15:00

Tuesday, 23 November 2010
Huddersfield v MK Dons, 19:45

Saturday, 11 December 2010
Huddersfield v Brighton, 15:00

Sunday, 26 December 2010
Huddersfield v Hartlepool, 15:00

Monday, 3 January 2011
Huddersfield v Sheff Wed, 15:00

Saturday, 8 January 2011
Huddersfield v Plymouth, 15:00

Saturday, 22 January 2011
Huddersfield v Colchester, 15:00

Tuesday, 1 February 2011
Huddersfield v Carlisle, 19:45

Saturday, 12 February 2011
Huddersfield v Oldham, 15:00

Saturday, 26 February 2011
Huddersfield v Leyton Orient, 15:00

Tuesday, 8 March 2011
Huddersfield v Rochdale, 19:45

Saturday, 19 March 2011
Huddersfield v Swindon, 15:00

Saturday, 26 March 2011
Huddersfield v Notts County, 15:00

Saturday, 9 April 2011
Huddersfield v Peterborough, 15:00

Monday, 25 April 2011
Huddersfield v Dag & Red, 15:00

Saturday, 7 May 2011
Huddersfield v Brentford, 15:00

If you’re interested in attending any of these games then please let me know.  I don’t even have to know you, although I would appreciate not being sold to, and in return I won’t try selling to you.  How does that sound?

Ripple Africa

Finally, I mentioned previously that I had started supporting a charity called Ripple Africa, and Conservatory Outlet is sponsoring 20 tree nurseries.  Well, next Tuesday I’m flying over to Malawi to check on the progress and see how the tree planting is getting on.  I’ll be out of action for about 10 days, but no doubt I’ll write about my experiences in case anyone’s interested.

Anyway, I’m off to bed.

(Or shall I have a night cap?)

“Following the mamouth climb of Mont Ventoux the team has been brought back down to earth with a bang, 180 miles of rain, not great and very tiring.”

The guys have raised over £20,000 so far for Hope House Children’s Hospice, but their target is £55,000 so if you would like to make a donation go to:

http://www.justgiving.com/rome-2-home

My friend Jon Twigge, from RPS, is the latest person to try it on with me.  He sent me the following email:

Good morning,

Do you think u could make a renegade story out of this?

We are starting a drawing service for people who want single conservatory drawings done – maybe be they don’t want to commit to buying straight away, scared of computers or perhaps too hard up to shell out for the software.

What do you think?

Thanks,

jon

Well this is what Jon was wanting me to comment on:

Given how tough the commercial climate is at present, we’ve been thinking of ways to help you.

We are frequently asked to produce drawings for customers, which is something we didn’t do (until now!).

So, to help you win more business, we’ve created the RoofWright Drawing Service.

Not Yet a RoofWright User?

Don’t worry – if you don’t already use RoofWright, then try this – it’s inexpensive and will give you a taste of the quality of drawings from the World’s Favorite Conservatory Software.

Try it here:

http://www.roofwright.com/drawingservice/trade.htm

Existing Users

If you’re already a valued RoofWright user, this service could help you save time – and we might be able to get you out of a tight spot!

Full details are at:

http://www.roofwright.com/drawingservice/trade.htm

Well, Jon, I don’t think my readers like being sold to in this way. I appreciate it might be an exciting new development at your company, but it doesn’t mean you can take advantage of our friendship and my good nature.

Got it?!?

PS. Great idea though

There is still room for other Mo Bros and Mo Sistas to join in this weekend, and with all that moustache growth we can…

‘Change the Face of Men’s health!’

To donate to me, the Mushbashers team, or even join in then you can do so at:

http://uk.movember.com/mospace/22901

I’ll certainly by updating with weekly pictures of my progress…

Guest post by David Bingham of ConservatoryLand

Name: Bungle
Specification: Brown/Grey/White in Colour. 6 years old. 8″ ears. Likes rolling around in mud and rubbing its bottom on fences. Doesn’t always do what it’s asked to. Makes a loud ‘Ee-Aw’ sound every morning at around 7.00am. Eats most things including grass, trees, shrubs in the garden, children’s toys. In good condition. FSH.

We paid around £500 for the donkey a few weeks ago, and I’m keen to get as close to this figure as possible.

I will consider a part exchange for a mountain bike as I enjoyed a recent trip to Dalby Forest, and am keen to get some exercise in before I take part in Cycle India in January. Ideally, I’m looking for a bike with front and back suspension.

If you have any questions or would like to make me an offer please leave your messages below.

(PS. My wife doesn’t know the donkey is being sold, so please don’t mention this to her if you are likely to see her).

“Alliance. As I have often said, anything that helps to bring structure to this industry is always to be encouraged.

What concerns us however is the group’s apparent shyness about its own infrastructure. Unless they all met by chance like ‘Strangers on a Train,’ can we assume they are bonded by some common factor and, if so, do they have some reason not to share this with us?”

According to the latest APWF press release:

“A new trade alliance of window fabricators has been established. To date a group of nine select companies have formed an alliance whose main purpose is to become THE voice of the fabricator and to introduce professional standards to their industry in both the fabrication of products and business practices.”

My thoughts are that this is quite a wide remit, and if the structure of this organisation is made up of volunteers from the nine member companies then they’re going to struggle to implement such professional standards to the industry. I find it difficult to believe that this new organisation (whose goal is to have 30-40 companies on board) is going to be able to challenge the GGF and BPF in representing the interests of the industry as a whole. I haven’t really shouted about it on this blog very much, but recently our company joined the GGF and I have been surprised at the amount of work going on in the background that previously I was unaware of.

I assume the main reason for the establishment of this organisation is for the members to work together when negotiating with suppliers. This is something that I have discussed with other fabricators in the past, but it will be a delicate concept to pull together with company owners being reluctant to share information. Then you have larger fabricators grumbling if smaller fabricators are achieving the same rates etc etc.

But, having not met the individuals concerned it is hard to say whether this organisation will come to anything and it will be interesting to see how things develop.

The website is a bit lacking on information at this stage, but can be viewed at http://www.apwf.co.uk/

It’s not good news, and if you compare with August and September of last year, it doesn’t bode well for the coming months:

In both August and September there are names on the list that were very familiar to me and that I was unaware had gone bust (although, they may still be trading unfortunately).

If you think back to August and September of last year with all the news in the press you would have imagined that the world was coming to an end, yet according to the Double Glazing Forum only 94 companies ceased trading. In comparison, the market seems far more buoyant now with more positive spin in both the national media and trade media, yet in August and September this year 409 companies have gone bust. That’s more than four times the amount of business failures!

Assuming the information on this website is correct (and I have no reason to doubt that it isn’t), it seems there is some sort of lag between an economic downturn, and business failures. If this trend were to continue then the natural peak for bankruptcies in our industry over the winter period could be at unprecedented levels.

But, if this has got you all depressed, don’t worry. At least we aren’t these people!