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
Tags: dortech, Double Glazing, Glass Cartel, glass petition, glavabel, guardian, pilkington glass, saint gobain
It would be nice to get the consumer to sign somehow. After all it is they who are paying for the increases … Dont ask me kow though
Agreed … I’ll forward to work colleagues and other acquaintances in the industry.
”apathy rules” seems to be order of the day, as is too often the case when it comes to slightly controversail topics.
I hear from a very reliable source, a well known upmarket conservatory supplier is about to have the bank pull the plug on them … yet another quality company going to the wall … does this suggest the market place for £70K plus conservatories/orangeries/garden rooms etc is an extremely difficult sector in which to maintain a healthy profit (based on the number of businesses that have folded)?
There is another reason, the larger glass unit manufacturers may be frightened of upsetting the ‘glass apple cart’ as they may be black balled later. Don’t under estimate the power of the GLASS SIDE, or was it dark side? Whatever, our industry has never been so fragmented and quite frankly any fines will be paid by us eventually anyway as we are their only source of revenue.
Promoting online petitions to Downing St is a futile exercise.They are largely the domain of assorted nutters peddling bonkers causes, such as the flippant Jeremy Clarkson for Pm, which has reportedly attracted thousands of votes from presumably disinterested folk who view Parliament as just an extension of any Big Brother household.
It seems, sadly,that an absolute pre-requisite for grabbing public attention these days is to get celebrity endorsement. See how skillfully Gurka lobbyists used Joanna Lumley to further a dubious cause to their advantage.
Maybe the truth is that ”Record glass price hike” just like ”Small earthquake in Chile-no one hurt” will never resonate with politicians or public alike.
Edward Burgess says “Apathy rules” but who cares anyway!
Signed both petitions but as Neil Donaldson said, we will pick up any fines in the end, the price increases cover any fines.
I would like to thank the Renegade Conservatory guy for the tremendous help and support that has been given to this initiative, and to all of the supporters of this site that have also given their support.
Looking through the list of signatures on the petition, I am impresed by the quality of the people who have signed, who clearly disapprove of the action taken by the dominant glass manufactureres. PVCu and Aluminium Systems Comany Directors have signed, a past president of the GGF is there, as is the current vice president of the Council for Aluminium in Building, notably a number of senior managers/directors from some of the major construction companies have also signed, and number of people have signed their companies up to the initiative.
Many of these people will not leave their protest on the site, they will pursue them via their political lobbyists, through the Press and directly with the Glass manufacturers. It is important that we convince Ian (another one) to sign, and that the petition continues to gain momentum.
Remember the Glass Manufacturers are also threatening another increase in September, a poor response to this initiative will encourage them to go for another 50% increase, I urge everyone with an interest to send a very strong signal to the Glass Manufacturers that their direct and indirect customers will resist further activity very strongly.
Hi Steve
Thank you for your comments.
I completely agree that we must take action, even if it may appear futile to some.
Today over 100 people have signed the petition, so if that type of momentum could be maintained then maybe the glass manufacturers might take notice. I did receive a personal email from a well known PR guy who suggested he had spoken to a number of people who were unaware of the petition.
RCG
Hi RCG and Steve,
Just for clarity, – I signed.
Trade fabricators (even ones who do not supply any glass) should, as many here suggest, support this initiative for the benefit of their customers and the end user.
After 6 years of working hard to become the largest patio door specialist Sliders UK took the plunge last year to start making (Veka) vertical sliding windows.
We now enjoy substantial volume on this line which, despite being our only glazed product, has introduced us to the glass market.
I note (from an ex-employee) a competitor of ours (who makes various patio doors and vertical sliding windows) has recently laid off 17 production staff and all their salesmen. Their claims of delivering quality products on time (in this weeks Glazine) being in stark contrast to our experience of taking business off them ever more quickly as a result of their very poor quality and missed delivery days.
Things are difficult enough in this industry – why let the glass cartel get away with it without a good fight?
On a better note, I’m amazed we haven’t made it into your recession busting list Renegade. Our accounts for last year make good reading and we’re substantially up on those figures already for this year – with a brand new bi-folding door just coming to market!
The future is bright, but its not orangeries!
Ian
Hi Ian
You make me laugh.
Out of all the people who read RCG on a regular basis, you are the most skilled at adapting a comment on a particular issue into promotion of your own company’s main USPs (and in this case you’ve managed to slate the competition also!)
I will certainly keep you in mind for round 2 of ‘companies beating the recession’.
RCG
Hi RCG,
I try.
Cap doffed and thanks!
Ian
p.s. (hint) the competitor used to roar!
Hi
Just a thought in case it hasn’t been discussed before.
I glaziers like me buy a single share in say Pilks, I understand that then allows us to attend their AGM’s.
If enough glaziers did that, and the press just happened to get wind of the idea there was going to be a large number of very p****d off glaziers there, well at least the issue of price increases, cartels, et al would be in a much wider public domain.
I would welcome some feedback (positive or otherwise).
Stephen F Allen
The Acorn Group
Webmaster: I don’t mind the above email adress being published to enable the above.