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Archive for the ‘glass’ Category

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Disappointing response to Glass Petition

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

I just received the following email from Steve Sutherland from Dortech, the guy who started the glass petition:

First of all a big thank you for supporting this petition. The petition now has more than 500 signatures and I am pleased to say that Glass wire news has now also publicised the petition.

There are 4,760 petitions registered on the downing street web site, and our petition is now in the top 200 – still some way to go, but never the less, it is developing nicely. If you have not signed up to the petition, can I ask you to reconsider doing so, and if you can encourage others to also sign up, it would be very much appreciated.

Thank you once again for your support, hopefully we can get the message over to the dominant glass suppliers that they cannot ignore their direct and indirect customers and that they are not immune to the market forces that we all have to deal with. Announcing, price increases of up to 50% on their products, in the current market will have a detrimental effect not only on independent businesses but also on the entire market.

Personally, I think the response is disappointing.

On this site, 90% of people have agreed that an illegal glass cartel is still operating in this industry, despite being recently fined by the European Commission.

How many people work in the double glazing industry? There must be tens of thousands of people associated with the industry in some way, and the actions of the major glass suppliers will have a negative impact on us all.

There really should be thousands of people signing the petition, not hundreds. There can only be two reasons for the small number of signatures:

Firstly, apathy has set in, and people can’t be bothered. In which case then the glass suppliers get their way, and as an industry we deserve to be bullied like this.

Or secondly, people don’t know about the petition. If this is the case, then I recommend all my readers to tell their work colleagues about the petition. Send them an email explaining the problem, and give them the following link:

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Glass-prices/

Thank You

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Posted in double glazing, glass, glass cartel, pilkington | 10 Comments »

Buy glass from the Far East, says Charles Greensmith

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

For years the major glass producers have exploited their dominance and power in the market, to force through unsustainable, unnecessary and unjustified glass price increases. Price increases that have a damaging effect on us all!

As a manufacturer ourselves, GAP together with sister company Rockdoor, manufacture thousands of sealed units for our panel and composite doors each and every week, to customers across the UK and Ireland.

Just over 2 years ago now we reached a pivotal moment in our groups history. We were presented with yet another increase from Pilkington under the cover of ‘Energy Surcharge’ which we led us into a major decision. We either passed the increase from Pilkington onto our customers, or we looked for a different solution, a solution which would enable us not to pass on an increase.

We reached the decision to find an alternative source as we felt the situation with Pilkington had become untenable. Although their product quality was not in question, their pricing policy was.

Our alternative source took us to the Far-East, to the largest producer of patterned glass in the world. We have in times gone by seen similar copies of Pilkington Patterned Glass, but never were we satisfied that the quality was the same, until now.

The patterns produced for us are extremely close to the original, whatsmore; they are made using very high quality Low Iron glass which results in a far shaper finish with no green tint. The glass is also easy to work with whilst being extremely strong and robust.

Following several quality inspection visits back to the Far-East and substantial investments in glass rollers, we now have exclusive distribution rights to import Partnered Glass to the UK. We would be happy for other glass users in the industry to benefit from this, and to vote with their feet rather than accepting another unnecessary increase.

Please feel to download our Cosmopolitan Door Panel Brochure, on page 37 you will see just how close our designs are to the original. https://www.gap.uk.com/file/cosmopolitan-brochure.pdf

Please feel free to call me personally to discuss potentially huge cost savings.

Best regards

Charles Greensmith
GAP HEAD OFFICE
Partnership Way
Shadsworth Business Park
Blackburn
BB1 2QP

T: 01254 682 888
E: charles@gap.uk.com
W: www.gap.uk.com

Posted in PVC stockists, composite doors, glass, glass cartel | 4 Comments »

Sign the petition and fight back against the glass cartel!

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

I received the following email from Steve Sutherland from Dortech about a petition to the Prime Minister to instruct Lord Mandleson to investigate glass pricing activities currently being taken by the dominant glass suppliers to the UK:

The dominant Glass Manufacturers in the UK have announced price increases of up to 50% on their products, with an almost immediate effect. I find this almost unbelievable given the state of the economy and the construction industry in particular.

The timing of the announcement – in the middle of the MP’s expenses scandal, the scale – up to 50% (a nice round number), the time to implement – within a couple of weeks of the announcement, and the fact that they are all unsurprisingly going together, is in my view scandalous. One Glass Manufacturer has even confirmed that they will not honour fixed price and valid quotations – which indicates a certain lack of integrity.

At a time when all businesses are managing/reducing our costs, taking every effort to become more competitive, and support each other with fixed price agreements, the actions of the glass manufacturers clearly undermine the efforts that we are making. I have therefore started a petition on the downing street web site – web address given below, asking the Prime Minister to instruct Peter Mandleson to investigate the actions of the Glass companies. If you feel as strongly about this matter as I do, please feel free to add your name to the petition.

Although we have protested about the increases directly to our suppliers, we thought that a higher profile ‘statement’ was required, to capture their attention.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Glass-prices

Thank you for your assistance

Steve Sutherland
Chairman

I urge everyone who cares about the industry and the bullying tactics of the main glass processors to sign this petition.

Posted in glass, glass cartel | No Comments »

Industry unites against Pilkington / SGG price fixing cartel

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

It’s clear that I’m not alone in my concern about the latest glass price increases from Pilkington (and Saint Gobain) when you look at the voting in the poll I added to the website:

Glass cartel

I’ll leave the poll on the website for anybody else who wishes to place their vote.

I was also pleased to read some of the comments from my previous post, and have included below some of my favourites below:

Dave Bingham from ConservatoryLand:

I think back 20 years ago when we paid over £18 sq.metre for standard float glass and £35+ sq.metre for standard toughened.

Of course back then we would sell for £4500 what we would now sell for £3000.

We now pay less for glass, profile, hardware and all other materials that go in to the manufacture than we did 20 years ago! I do understand however that this has partly been made possible due to modern technology and efficiency.

I always believe that everything does a full circle and that prices will be forced back up somewhat, at some point.

I’m not saying that I agree with Pilkington’s price rises, it’s no benefit to me, however I do believe that they need it. It is very bad timing though.

We always immediately pass on any increases to our customers and always will do. You’ve just got to have it for those figures to work I’m afraid.

Mike Harvey Rice from Paragon Windows

If only we could persuade every company to switch to St Gobian or similar and left Pilks on their own, we would then find find the cartel busted, Pilks would under cut the others just to win some business back but of course this will not happen, Pilks biggest customers will just negotiate a better discount and this price rise will not effect them.

Derek Stocker from Uniglaze2

I would just like to respond to the comment made by Mike Harvey-Smith that the increase will not affect the big companies, I work for a large sealed unit manufacturer and we are not immune to these price increases mainly because we have no other choice but to buy from Pilks or Saint Gobain who incidently have just announced to us that our prices will be going up by the same amount. I also understand that prices have fallen to a level that cannot be sustained and prices need to rise, but what annoys me is that Pilkington’s give us all a big price hike and then low and behold their down stream branches then attack our customers with stupid prices and they then confirm that they will not be raising their sealed unit prices, in fact I have had one today where they are including the optiwhite and the Argon gas for free and holding the prices for 6 months, if anyone can tell me that £17.00 Sq.Mt for the above product is a price that is sustainable then I will eat my hat. It is obvious to me that the independents are being squeezed out of the market. Sorry Mike I am not having a go but we are all in the same boat.

Scott Nicholas from Reflex Glass

In the last round of price fixing it was reported that anyone who had suffered from the illegal activity could claim compensation through the national courts from the guilty party.

Well everyone glass processor who had purchased raw glass material from Pilks or SGG had clearly suffered!

Did anyone actually make a claim?

No, well maybe if they had then Pilks & SGG would think twice before trying it again!!!

I urge anyone who has been sent a price increase letter from their raw material supplier (Pilks & SGG) to keep it on file, this is evidence and your ticket to having that price increase refunded next time they are in court and slapped with a big fine.

Don’t let them get away with this, we can put them on notice regarding this matter and make them so sh*t scared of all the legal claims that this type of price fixing behavior will be a thing of the past!

————————————

I wonder how the big float glass manufacturers would feel if a group of larger sealed unit manufacturers worked together to fix the prices they were willing to pay for glass? And, would such action filter lower prices back to smaller companies?

Posted in glass, glass cartel, pilkington | 4 Comments »

Pilkington Glass Price Increase

Thursday, May 28th, 2009

As the industry struggles to come to terms with the dual problem of the deepest recession for decades and saturation in the replacement window market, Pilkington have sent the following letter to its customers informing them of impending price rises:

As you will be aware, the demand for raw glass in the UK in the last year has declined to unprecedented levels and revenues have fallen dramatically along with demand.

Pilkington has taken action to reduce its cost base and to try to balance output and demand. The Company ceased production on one float line in St Helens last October and has also closed five downstream branches across the UK. However, both demand and prices have continued to fall and despite the cost reductions, glass manufacture and supply has become uneconomic and the Situation cannot be sustained. As a result we have taken the decision to urgently and substantially increase the price of our raw glass. We understand that this will put pressure on our customers in the short term but we hope that you will recognise that it is vital in the long term to return prices to a viable level.

We will apply increases to the prices of glass products supplied by Pilkington in the UK & Ireland, commencing Monday 8th June 2009. Therefore, please be advised that, with effect from that date, price increases will be applied to all deliveries of glass products from Pilkington Building Products UK.

I’ve not included the full list of items to be increased, but the highlights are:

Pilkington Optifloat Clear 3mm-12m +50%
Pilkington Optiwhite +25%
Pilkington K Glass and Pilkington K Glass OW +10%
Pilkington Activ, Pilkington Activ Blue and Pilkington Activ Neutral +10%

In a period of deflation and increasingly cut throat competition, are installers likely to pass this price increase on to consumers? Of course not, so basically, Pilkington is forcing lower margins onto it’s customers.

Of course, if there was competition in the float glass market then we could switch to other glass suppliers, but as they work as a cartel then Guardian, Saint Gobain and Glavabel will follow suit.

Please leave your feelings on the latest Pilkington price increase below, or alternatively feel free to vote on whether you feel there is still a glass cartel in operation in the UK.

Posted in economy, glass, pilkington | 25 Comments »

Business opportunity – glass doors

Friday, April 3rd, 2009

I think there’s a real business opportunity in fixing glass doors if you consider the competition in the market:

Posted in double glazing videos, funny stories, glass | 2 Comments »

Window strangeness

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Is this funny, or what? Maybe, it’s a Yorkshire thing….

Posted in double glazing, double glazing videos, funny stories, glass, upvc windows | 2 Comments »

Pilkington energiKare video

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

Interesting consumer video by Pilkington showing the benefits of using Pilkington Energy Rated products:

I like the thermal imaging section, although I’d be interested to see how energiKare sealed units would compare with standard double glazing, rather than single glazing.

The explanation of the Window Energy Rating System for the complete window and frame is also good for getting the message across to consumers. I suspect, though, that Pilkington energiKare has been created to prolong the life of Pilkington ‘K’ when soft coats offer better results.

But, any efforts to educate consumers towards buying energy efficient windows has to be applauded.

Posted in double glazing, double glazing videos, environmental issues, glass, pilkington, upvc windows | No Comments »

Double Glazing from Down Under

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

G’day!

Interesting video from Australia showing how double glazing can actually reduce the amount of heat getting into your house:

So, for uPVC framed double glazed uPVC windows at fair dinkum prices visit:

http://www.certainteed.com.au/

If there’s any companies in Australia looking for a good supplier of uPVC windows from the UK, I’ll be on the next plane with my sample window:-)

Posted in double glazing, double glazing videos, glass, upvc windows | 1 Comment »

Glass makers fined £1bn for fixing prices in car market

Wednesday, November 12th, 2008

The four main glass suppliers to the automotive industry have been fined 1.38bn euros (£1.14bn) by the European Commission.

Glass cartel news

Asahi Glass, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Soliver have been hit with the biggest cartel fine in EU history after being found guilty of ‘cheating’ car buyers. Saint Gobain thought the 896m euros fine it received, the largest cartel fine imposed on a single company was ‘excessive and disproportionate’.

The four companies were penalised for illegal market-sharing and exchanging commercially sensitive information.

The Commission found that they held regular discussions between 1998 and 2003 to allocate glass supplies to car manufacturers and keep their individual market shares as stable as possible.

This news follows the decision last year to fine Guardian, Pilkington, Saint-Gobain and Glaverbel for operating a similar cartel in the European flat glass market. At the time EU Competition Commissioner, Neelie Kroes, stated, “the companies will have done very well out of this cartel until today.”

Interestingly, as the energy surcharge on glass has reduced due to falling oil prices, the main flat glass suppliers in the UK have recently increased their prices by between 18-25% at a time when the window and door industry is struggling with falling demand, intense competition, business failures and decreasing margins.

Posted in double glazing news, glass, glass cartel, news, pilkington | 4 Comments »

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