Reminds me of a Huddersfield Town song:
Those were the days my friend, we thought they’d never end, we’d sing and dance forever and a day, we’d live the life we choose, we’d fight and never lose, for we were young and sure to have our way.
La, la, la, la, la, la…
Those were the days, oh yes, those were the days 
Impressed the socks off me lol!
Mary Hopkins, how do you make windows now, serious question from a thick installer, I have not been in a fabrication shop for years. Time for a new video I think.
Well certainly not one at a time. I appreciate this has been done for the purposes of the video but looking around the factory it looks to me that this company is a prime candidate for buying in.
I was very much reminscing as we started with such machinery but now have a more automated production line. No videos in the pipeline at this end although you’re more than willing to visit Wakefield for a demonstration, mike
This is the kind of fabricating i Know best , none of your fancy multi- tasking machines for me. I remember working for one company who were just starting to move over from ali to pvc , i had a single headed saw , a single headed welder , an end miller for mech trans , a hack saw for cutting reinforcement and a few hand tools , ah those were the days!
Matthew, i,m interested in what you say about this company being prime for buying in, what do you reckon is the minimum a firm should be selling for them to fabricate themselves? I have a mate who has a small factory making 60 – 80 frames a week mostly to trade, but he has 3 or 4 fabricators and a couple of girls in the office. I don’t know how he manages to make a wage for himself when taking into account all his other o/heads.
So how much do you think it costs to set-up a fabrication shop?
Well, firstly if your friend says he’s making 60-80 frames, I would have a wager with you that he probably averages 30-40.
If he is making 60-80 frames with 3-4 staff and assuming he’s charging right money he might have a chance of being profitable. But, I was always told that it doesn’t make sense manufacturing at less than 100 frames per week. We started manufacturing our own at this point, and never considered it beforehand.
David – we started manufacturing with around £50K of machinery. No expert on machinery, though. I’ve always left the manufacturing side for others to sort.
They do buy in
When fabricators outsource specialist products like patio doors and vertical sliders that use different profiles from their windows, even a relatively small fabricator can be “lean”. The same applies to bi-folding doors which require more space and specialist hardware.
We make all three and are pleased and proud to count Chelworth Windows and 700 others as our customers.
Ian
so how much were the set up costs?
Those were indeed the days! With the new fully automated saw / prep centres those days are long gone for most of the larger fabricators!