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?)

 http://www.the-glazine.com/WeeklyFolders/glazine13april2010/African_charity_link-up.html.

I’ve also added details on the Conservatory Outlet website with the emphasis on every frame we make (window frame, conservatory frame, composite door) then we plant a tree. 

In actual fact, we’re more likely to make around 50,000 frames this year so we’re actually planting more than one tree per frame, but the numbers are not really too important.

What interests me is the idea that other companies in our industry join Conservatory Outlet and support Ripple Africa in planting thousands of trees in this very poor part of the world.  This is about alleviating poverty while at the same time absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and helping fight climate change. 

I’ve spoken to a couple of big players in our industry who are keen to get involved.  I’m intending to go over to Malawi in June / July to see the charity in action and visit the various tree nurseries.

Wouldn’t it send out a good message to consumers if as an industry we were planting millions of trees whilst at the same time helping fight poverty in one of the poorest countries of the world….

If you wish to find out more please email me at matthew@conservatoryoutlet.co.uk

In the meantime I thought I’d share with you part of an email conversation I had with Paul Godwin of VAST PR, one of the UK’s leading double glazing industry PR guys.

Background: You may have noticed an increase in press releases in trade magazines about Conservatory Outlet and this is due to the hard work of Paul and me pushing him hard with continuous stories.  Yesterday two press releases were being finished off – one about how happy Conservatory Outlet dealers are, and the other about the new deal I’ve sorted with Ripple Africa where we’re funding the planting of 72,000 trees in Malawi.  The initial confusion relates to a last minute change in the emphasis of the tree planting release – whether we emphasise 50 trees to be planted for every conservatory installed, or one tree planted for every frame we make.

Paul: So why not say:
 
‘We plant a tree for every frame we make’
 
Stylise it on the page for effect, but keep it readable.
 
Non?
 
Paul ‘Woody’ Godwin

Me: I agree – let’s go with ‘We plant a tree for every frame we make’.
 
Did you send the wrong press release to me as it still states 50 trees per conservatory??

Paul: Hi Matthew
 
Sorry, I didn’t realise that the sentence was for the release. It had already been sent.
 
PG

Me: Oh, OK.

Paul: Oh f*ck this is confusing!
 
Understood now I think…..doh

Me: That’s good, because I’m totally confused.  So, the last press release you sent me is the one that went to the press?  Yeah?

Paul: Yeah!

Me: Cool. Groovy. Peace man…

PS. Is it too late to ask the editors to send it back to us so we can send them the right one?

Paul: I did send them the right one. The one you’d agreed at the time! Yes, it is too late. The quote that went out is INCREDIBLY, no really, SUPERBLY IMPRESSIVE.  Frankly it left me breathless. Honest.
Leave it.
Please.
Sob.

Me: OK slight confusion as I think you may have taken my signing off the ‘Conservatory Outlet extends…‘ press release as the tree planting press release. But you’re right we should leave it. In fact, forget it. Let’s not dwell on this. There’s no point going on about it anymore. There’s more important things to worry about. Let’s look to the future and not discuss this any further. Are you OK with that? Please let me know if you’re not and we could discuss it further. I mean you could be right about all this and I could be totally wrong. If that is the case then definitely best if we draw a line under this. Might be best if you don’t reply to this.

PS. unless you want to of course.

Paul: I am delighted that you have taken the attitude of pragmatism and magnanimity towards this issue as well as brevity of course which is always (I believe) to be regarded as a very real quality and one that is completely underrated by almost everyone I know except of course the poor person that is on the end of a tirade from someone that has no concept of the term but nonetheless I will be very happy to discuss this issue (obviously one that you feel very strongly about) to the point where you are either satisfied that your wishes have been carried out satisfactorily or perhaps actually not at all in which case I guess we will be no further on than we are now.

Do you agree?

Me: Yes, I do feel we are bringing this episode to a close and there’s really no need for us to discuss this any further, although I must stress that this is not something I feel strongly about.  Indeed, if I did feel strongly about it, I would probably wish to continue the conversation further.  The truth is that I have far more important things I need to be getting on with, such as looking up the meaning of the word ‘magnanimity’, which I had thought was a large mammal residing in Africa (mostly seen in wallowing in mud), although it can’t be that as what you have said would be slightly insulting.  So, best we just accept that the press release you have sent out is mostly right, although not entirely (and I must stress that I’m not having a further dig here) and the likelihood is that no one will notice, in the unlikely event that they read it.

Is that OK?

Paul: No.

Too much punctuation.

Obviously, the first week or two was pretty slow at the factory with the severe weather conditions and the naturally slow trading you would expect straight after Christmas, but things have picked up since. We’ve manufactured 2216 frames, which although well below our peaks through last year, was still 14% up on January 2009. The order book for February is also looking very strong.

I’m confident that 2009 will be a good year as enquiries have been flooding in, mainly due to website leads being up 46% compared to last January. Our dealers have been reporting strong sales over the last couple of weeks so I’m hoping the factory will be busy in February and March.

I’m also pleased with this website, which had good visitor figures for the month, despite the fact that I didn’t write as many posts compared to normal.

I’m still keen to receive guest posts, or suggestions of relevant content for RCG. Don’t be frightened to contact me.

Hopefully, everyone else reading this has had a similarly positive January, and I’m keen to hear what your thoughts are for the rest of the year. I would have expected far more casualties over this period than I have heard about. I have to conclude that the industry is far more resilient than before, and most of the companies in it are more efficient and ready to exploit more stable market conditions.

By the way, Murray is hanging on at 6-3, 5-3 down as I write. My money’s on Federer though!

With hindsight, I should have spent that time of my life concentrating on more important and more serious marketing campaigns which actually generate sales.

Nevertheless, I’ve just had a quick look through my YouTube account, and was surprised to see that we’ve had a massive 336,127 viewers to date.

Below, are the most 5 viewed videos we posted, with a short explanation of my thinking at the time:

1. Break In Challenge – Kung Fu – 46,687 views

The day we filmed this was probably one of my most enjoyable days at work. The idea was to have a sexy, Kill Bill femme fatale demonstrating the strength of our uPVC windows. For obvious reasons this is the most viewed video we ever produced.

2. Calendar Boys – 41,717 views

This video takes a bit of explaining. It all started with a calendar we produced to help raise money for Heal. Various members of male staff at West Yorkshire Windows jumped at the chance to strip for this cause, so we produced a calendar showing the process of building a conservatory in the nude. As West Yorkshire Windows were running a radio campaign with a George Formby-style jingle, it seemed an obvious fit to combine the pictures and music together to produce……..ahem…….this:

3. Break In Challenge – Tarzan – 32,589 views

This video also takes a bit of explaining. You might at first be fooled, but it’s not really Tarzan. He’s actually a male stripper from Leeds pretending to be Tarzan, and struggling to get through the super strong Conservatory Outlet manufactured windows:

4. How to install a uPVC Window – 27,926 views

This is how they used to replace windows in the olden days:

5. Window Security Test – 19,129 views

This was about the first video we produced (way back in April 2007). Biddy, who is one of our most experienced fabricators, was convinced he’d get through the window in 2 minutes maximum. His body language is quite funny as he struggles to jemmy open the sash:

I hope you’ve enjoyed these videos, and not found them too cringe worthy.

If you can stomach any more, you can view all the videos we’ve produced at:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ConservatoryTV