Renegade Conservatory Guy

Ian is the owner and editor of the industry’s leading online news service - Fenestration News.

I have got to know Ian over the last couple of years as his understanding and knowledge of the industry is second to none, so I regularly throw ideas at him to get his opinion! As you will see from the interview below, he has strong opinions about the way the industry is developing.

I like to think he is a fan of Conservatory Outlet also, and regularly features our press releases on his website:

Conservatory Outlet Press Releases

When did you start the Fenestration News website, and how has it developed over the years?

The Fenestration News part of the site was launched back in 2005. It has evolved organically and mainly in response to our users’ needs and feedback.

How do you see your website developing over the coming years?

The development will be as much on the basis as before- in response to the requirements of our users.

There are some exciting technical advances coming to the internet that not only push the imagination but jump the medium forward to be an even more intuitive communication tool. However that said, these were expected to be up and running a year ago and the sign off/launch is still just around the corner.

Do you consider the Glazine to be a healthy competitor?

For any industry to exist and grow competition is the key, competition creates customer awareness, as such competition causes growth, and when competition exists customer satisfaction rises.

You have however, asked about the one outfit I have little or no knowledge of, I was only ever made aware of their existence by Paul Godwin of Vast PR a year or so back.

There are around half a dozen or so industry internet news publications that all seem to make good reads.

While acknowledging the need for completion to keep everyone on their toes, does any participant in any market place see any of the other players as competition? I doubt it - haven’t we all got the only offering our customers would ever need.

You must see hundreds of press releases per year. How do you decide which ones are worthy of inclusion on your website?

No matter what medium is used, TV, Newspapers or Trade publications, news is no longer a log of events or happenings in its purest sense. News is about pushing a story or a view to sell something whether it is the daily government release (to let you know they are there), or a newly introduced initiative, product or innovation, it’s still someone selling something.

We recognise that as a trade publication our readers are actually buyers and are primarily looking for ideas and innovations to advance their own business. This is borne out by our visitor tracking of the news releases that people read. To that extent there is some skewing of how we order the news releases, but not to the extent that we are ourselves causing trends. Then again a bit of fun is also needed to lighten the mood at times.

Other than that we do take into consideration commercial sensibilities in relation to our sponsors and others. We also try to separate companies with similar releases from appearing next to one and other. Most things get published as and when they arrive. The only exceptions being those with a blatant sales pitch, which should really be paid for adverts. The internet, and in particular the Fenestration News as an advertising medium, has no printing and minimal distribution costs, so it couldn’t be cheaper be to get a message across. All farming orientated releases, where no prior arrangements have been made, get ignored.

Which companies do you really admire in our industry?

All the front line companies who are dealing direct with the end user, without them, the rest (the supplier chain) wouldn’t exist.

What will be the biggest challenge facing fabricators and installers over the coming years?

Most companies seem more than on top of their brief and have an assured future. There is, however, a more vocal section primarily in the supplier chain that give the appearance that they have lost their way. In this section while at first it may seem well meaning, if they could just hear what they were saying they would realise they are actually shooting themselves in the foot.

In the last year we have had major players saying “please help me, give me ideas, I am lost.” Or the other favourite - as competition we must stick together. Competition sticking together – explain? Once competitors in any market get together, and however well meaning or rational the agenda starts out - the loser will always be the customer. Effectively what happens - competitors meet and start cooperating, they then soon realise that the other guys are quite nice, the agenda then switches to how we can work for a mutual benefit. Or in other words how can we stop others competing with us? There is only one outcome, the customer loses and/or the industry dies. If any fabricator or installer has suppliers who work at any level with any other competing supplier, it is time to change.

The arbiter for any industry is the end user, the customer, the consumer. If a company or an industry is struggling it means they have lost sight of the needs and requirements of those that pay the bills.

Most of the angst expressed at the moment seems to be coming from a minority faction of PVC system suppliers. Yet look at the systems, they are all very old technology, they are all based on the same technology used in the PVC windows I was selling 30 years ago with some aesthetic tweaks. Product development as far as insulation and draught proofing is concerned is stuck so far in the past that it is becoming irrelevant. So if an industry is feeling it has problems, the real question is - does my product fit the needs and aspirations of the consumer? That’s it – nothing else. An extreme illustration of this would be in the use of warm edge insulating glazing units.

If a supplier is charging the consumer extra for their use in a conservatory roof, they are ripping the customer off. Warm edge as a technology obviously works, and in isolation it can be clearly demonstrated to be an improvement on the alternatives. However, it requires a different approach from the framing material for these benefits to show. There is nothing that would allow a warm edge unit to provide a benefit over a standard IGU when it comes to a conservatory roof. No improvement in U values, no reduced condensation – absolutely nothing. This situation can be translated in varying degrees to all PVC-u windows. The aluminium guys have seen this and started changing, and wood was warm edge capable from the outset.

Thankfully the real industry, the fabricators and installers, are still able to read the signs, have the vision and are flexible to move on and change with alacrity. They tend to recognise who pays the wages and their needs. These guys also recognise their major asset – the customer contact, and go on to use this as a channel for related products. As we have already seen there is a trickle moving towards Solar Heating and Photo Voltaic panels, and with the predicted energy cost rises in the coming years causing customer demand, this move will obviously continue.

Which is the most environmentally friendly – PVC, aluminium or timber?

Surely this is a BBC style question; we must save the planet and go green. If the planet could talk it would probably say I have this irritant, this disease, it is all over my outer surface, how can I get rid of it? The planet will still be here long after mankind has fulfilled its purpose; there is no planet to be saved!

By environmentally friendly, is this meant in the context of prolonging human habitation as a whole or is it self-centred around ones home life? Are the materials being seen in isolation or as a component of a finished consumer product?

In isolation all three materials are readily available, virtually lying around waiting to be picked up and used. All three are equally recycled in one way or another and have extended life cycles. Aluminium is one of the World’s most common metals, at a stretch you say pvc can be derived from allowing sea water to dry out and a tree can be grown as a crop.

The meaning of environmentally friendly, under the terms and heading of the ‘theory of global warming’ and therefore seen as being caused by human generated CO2 emissions is something entirely different again. The first part of this is the ‘theory’, a theory is such until it is proved, of course in this case once proved it will be too late. As for global warming the people that created the initial measurements to prove the case for it have recently admitted they are wrong –they were measuring in the wrong place. Under a wider more inclusive system of measurement the indications are that the Earth is moving into its next cycle of lower temperatures. Still, all just theories though.

Accepting for the sake of this discussion that the rise in CO2 comes entirely from human activity and comparing the three materials as a finished product, let’s say windows, which product is the least damaging to the environment? How can anyone say?

It’s the complete process, not just one element that dictates environmental credentials. In making a window the major components are the frame, the glass, and its hardware. To the equation the source of the power for the manufacture and the distance travelled has to be added. If we have the glass, hardware, and frame materials all produced from a power source that emits CO2, and if we then have the situation of these components being shipped from all corners of the globe in transport that emits CO2, with these windows then being fabricated in Devon and shipped to Scotland for installation, then there is no logical claim that can be made on an environmental basis. When this is compared to a window using an alternative material with the glass supplied from a source that has a nuclear power station up the road, the hardware made locally and then fabricated and installed around the corner, whichever preference for the framing material, the latter is the clear winner. While the monetary cost of the former maybe incredible cheap, in environmental terms it is very expensive.

As none of these materials are used in isolation, their environmental credentials can only be seen as part of a whole and then only over their full life circle.

Even the recycling arguments between the materials are at best iffy. What no one tells you is, what the distance travelled to collect the old material is and how much CO2 is produced in the process of recycling and how relevant it is to the finished item. If there are no final factory gate CO2 figures, no comparison can start.

All one can say is, that while recycling is a good management practice just as material optimisation is, when it comes to the environment it can only be seen as a cynical marketing ploy, which then goes on to discredit any real global warming concerns there maybe.

The whole environment debate is in danger of being damaged by those that are spuriously trying to capitalise on it, along with the insatiable need by government to tax. If fuel duty/tax is there as a deterrent to reduce vehicle use, as it is said vehicles damage the world’s climate, it poses the question, why does the UK alone have to have the highest duty/tax in the industrial world. How will the UK alone cutting back affect anything? The reality is the only loser is the UK, forcing industry abroad to survive. Transporting goods back to the UK does not reduce the worlds CO2 emissions, it just causes the loss of UK jobs - that’s all.

The environment as a concern could just turn out to be the same as the threat of world famine of the 50’s & 60’s and the threat of the next ice age from the same period. The threat of AID’s and the ‘bird flu’ pandemic, the millennium bug and so on. These could just be stories to sell news papers or push political agendas.

There is a genuine concern over the distribution of the world’s resources and that of course impacts on what we do tomorrow. The raw materials we need to keep the machinery of commerce moving forward and therefore the prosperity of the country intact are now all in the wrong places, hard to get at and controlled by regimes we could well do without having to negotiate with. With that in mind it makes sense to be creative in our use of resources, conserve them and think about how these are consumed.

Environment concerns and available recourses are not necessarily the same thing.

What is the biggest opportunity you have missed?

I usually get there too early to miss anything, maybe I should hang back.

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For more information please visit:

http://www.fenestration-uk.com/News/News.aspx