Renegade Conservatory Guy

I had a meeting with Matthew at Gablecraft last week, and as part of our meeting I gave him a brief history of my time in the industry. He suggested I should put the story on the RCG site, and as I quite like writing about myself I thought – why not!

So, here is my history in the business as brief as I can make it:

Family tradition

It all starts with my late Grandad who was a glazier by trade and lived in Battersea, London. When his son (my father) finished school he joined with my Grandad and learnt all about the fitting of timber windows, and the early aluminium windows. Apparently, they worked as a fitting team on glazing the Post Office Tower, amongst other projects.

With a glint in his eye he moved to Jersey and got a job boiling lobsters in a kitchen, and chatted up a Yorkshire lass who was waitressing there (my mother). Anyway, one thing lead to another, and my mum and dad ended up settling in Bradford, West Yorkshire (otherwise known as God’s own county).

It was a difficult time financially for them as they tried several business ventures, such as selling ice creams out of an ice cream van, and working the markets selling pottery. It was particularly difficult when they had two children (me and Andrew) but they got through just about. Apparently, I was a mistake and Andrew was a misunderstanding.

Anyway, I’ll try keep it brief. We moved to Huddersfield and then to a village called Flockton, Near Wakefield where we spent our childhood. Dad got a job selling cavity wall insulation for a company called StructureCare, where he started as a door canvasser and was soon promoted to a salesman. This was really how he learnt the necessary direct sales techniques required for selling double glazing.

Evershield

I’m not sure exactly the year, but in the late 70’s (or early 80’s) he set up a double glazing company called Evershield. He was manufacturing aluminium windows within a hardwood subframe, but soon cottoned on to the new trendy product which was beginning to take off – uPVC windows.

In the early days they used to mitre the frames and then glue the corners, before sophisticated welding machines became the norm. He swears that those glued joints will still be holding together today!!! But I do remember the late John McDonald of Apollo Windows telling me that my Dad had gone round to their factory with a sample window and was telling them how strong the windows were. John picked the window up and dropped it on its corner and the window fell to bits. Obviously, uPVC windows are far stroner these days

Evershield became quite a sizeable installation company in the Yorkshire region in the 1980s with at least 10 fitting teams and showrooms throughout Yorkshire.

They bought a mill in Batley during this period and manufactured the window and door frames on the ground floor, and had what my Dad always claimed was ‘The biggest double glazing showroom in the world’ on the first floor.

As teenagers, Andrew and I were forced into child labour, sweeping up in the factory, doing the sandwich run, and being sent to the local hardware shop for a ‘long stand’.

But, growing up as the sons of a guy that runs a double glazing company had its advantages. We always had summer holidays, we went to private school, lived in a nice house, with a Rolls Royce on the drive, and there was regularly piles of cash on the mantle piece. There were down sides as well, mind you, such as being picked up from school in a window fitting van.

Australia

In 1990, after Andrew and I had finished our schooling, we emmigrated to Perth in Western Australia.

Mum and Dad sold Evershield, the mill in Batley, our house, and packed everything up for a new life ‘Down Under’. My Dad fancied trying a different business. He’d made loads of money in double glazing, and thought he could turn his hand to any business venture.

So, we bought a Supermarket.

Andrew was the checkout manager and I ran the fruit and veg section. This involved getting up at 5am and driving to the local fruit and veg market and negotiating the best price for Cauliflowers and Cabbages.

Even though, Perth is a beautiful city and the weather is great, living in Australia was a disaster for us. The supermarket was a major financial disaster, losing around £10,000 a week (and that’s when £10,000 a week was a lot of money). Socially, Andrew and I had a great time and made many friends, but Mum and Dad missed the UK, old friends and going to the local pub.

So after 14 months we sold up and got the hell out of there!

Back to England

We moved back to the same village (Flockton) we’d grown up in, and I went to the University of Bradford to study Business and Management Studies. This was a mistake as I’d been hoping to learn about entrepreneurism and how to run a business, but instead I was learning about how to work within a major company as a manager. I think to be honest, I was fed up with studying and so dropped out in my second year. I also ran out of cash pretty quick, and didn’t like being skint all the time.

In the meantime, my Dad had set up making trade windows and Andrew was working for him in the factory. So after a spell of delivering pizzas and then a week on the dole I joined the new family business. But Dad had come up with a different business idea, and ended up selling the window machinery to my Uncle Jack. So, Andrew and I now worked for our Uncle Jack making Bowater Halo windows in a small factory near Huddersfield. It was a good grounding on how windows are made, and what the industry is all about.

Dad had made the right decision to get out of windows at that time and had set up an insurance backed guarantee company – IPWFI – and did very well out of the business venture before he sold up about three years ago.

Unfortunately, Uncle Jack did not make a great success of running a double glazing manufacturing business and soon went bust.

We start trading

In February 1994, as we were both out of work the obvious thing for us was to set up our own business. At the time we’d both been earning £100 per week, so we put our last week’s wages into a bank account and set up a company with the clever name of….wait for it….Windows’R'Us. I know what you’re thinking, but Andrew was only 19 and I was only 21 – we didn’t know any better.

Anyway, with our £200 investment we placed an advert in the Pontefract and Castleford Express.

Six Windows (any Size) for £1199 inc.vat. Call Windows’R'Us.

Surprisingly, we got a lead, and as we were both a bit young we asked our Dad to sit the lead. He sold it, and remarkably, the customer offered to pay cash with order. This allowed us to go buy our windows from Apollo Windows in Batley, and Andrew and I fitted them.

And that’s how we started up.

For the first few months, our Dad did the selling and surveying but soon we ended up employing Uncle Jack on the sales side, and our mother did all the book keeping and generally ran the office. We also opened up a small showroom in Middlestown in Wakefield.

It soon became clear that the name ‘Windows’R'Us’ might be holding up our growth plans. The name along with our six windows for £1195 advertising combined were ensuring that we were battling away at the cheap end of the market. So as part of our strategy to get into the quality end of the market we decided to change our name to West Yorkshire Windows. At the time our competitors were telling people we’d gone bust and set up again, but the truth is we just changed the trading name. So, if you’re reading this and B&P Windows in Wakefield have given you a quote, don’t believe a word the lying toe-rag has to say. Justin Grafton-Holt – get a life – we changed our name 14 years ago, so think it’s about time you stopped telling everyone about it!!

Anyway, we gradually built up the business through the 1990’s, buying frames from various trade fabricators such as Apollo Windows and Alphaglaze in the early days, and then from Coastal (Heywood Williams) in Huddersfield during the late 1990s. We actually became Coastal authorised dealers and made a big deal out of the support they gave us with marketing etc.

In 1999 we moved to larger premises in Wakefield, and created a small indoor conservatory showroom, offices and large warehouse. The warehouse had to be large because we were going to need loads of space for all the windows and conservatories we would be selling. We were focussed upon expanding our business to be as big as possible.

Betterhomes

We did grow the business successfully from these premises. We started developing our website presence and this resulted in a phone call from ITV’s Carol Vordermann’s ‘BetterHomes’ where they asked us to put a conservatory on a house in Solihull. The exposure we received from this was fantastic and we ended up doing 3 more conservatories on the programme in the next couple of years, and also a conservatory for the BBC’s ‘DIY SOS’ show.

By 2002 we were turning over around £1.8m and fitting a couple of conservatories per week, and a few window jobs. The business was going well, and as Andrew and I had recently both got married to beautiful wives and had kids, West Yorkshire Windows was giving us both a decent living.

And we were still buying in all our products. Our main frame supplier was Rion Ltd from Rotherham, sealed units came from various suppliers such as Oakland, and roofs came from Ultraframe.

Planet

Then out of the blue we got a flyer through the post about the new Planet franchise concept. It all looked very exciting so we went over to Leyland and met up with the guys there and were really impressed with how they were operating. At the time they were selling around 30 conservatories per week and had a pilot franchise in Haydock that was doing good business. For us it was a real kick up the arse. What were we messing about at?

However we decided that we didn’t like the idea of paying a franchise fee, changing our name to ‘Planet West Yorkshire’ and generally have people interfering with how we were running our business.

But we did like the large showroom (Open 7 Days), heavy advertising, negotiating hard with suppliers and basically getting ourselves properly organised as a large installation company.

Conservatory Showroom

So, we moved premises in 2003 to a 10,000 sq.ft unit and created a 7,000 sq.ft indoor conservatory showroom. We put the blue carpet down, just in case the guys at Planet wanted to come and buy us out. The remaining 3,000 sq.ft was for storage and offices for managing installations.

The showroom cost a small fortune to build even after receiving free products from suppliers, including free frames from Rion Ltd in Rotherham. I don’t know if it was our show models that did it, but as soon as we had completed the showroom Rion Ltd went bust!! This was a big problem at the time and a key moment in our development.

We had around 3 weeks work ordered with Rion and suddenly the supply of frames to us had stopped. How were we going to keep fitting? So, Andrew and I went out for a pint with our Dad for his advice, and he suggested that at 100 frames a week (which is approximately what we’d been buying) it might be worth starting manufacturing. Making frames had never been on our radar as we were so focussed upon retail, but we decided to buy some basic machines in (a nodding donkey, 3 head welder etc) and set up a deal with Status Systems for supply. As Rion hadn’t paid their staff for a couple of weeks, and were in the middle of trying to resurrect themselves, we went down and took 4 of their best staff and we were up and running.

Our service engineer (Colin McCabe) at the time advised us that he used to run Walkers Windows factory in Dewsbury, so we made him Production Manager. Basically, the factory ran extremely well. It was nice getting frames when we needed them with all the right hardware fitted and of the right quality. We still bought in conservatory roofs from Ultraframe and sealed units from Glasscraft in Leeds.

As an installation company we really went for it! We started advertising on the radio and newspapers inviting people down to the showroom. We were selling 15-20 conservatories per week at our peak in 2004 – 2006 all installed around the Yorkshire region. Our main competition was Coral Windows and Planet Wakefield (a franchise set up by Martin Ibbeson and Phil Naylor who had previously worked as our installation managers). We were also selling our fair share of double glazing and took our turnover to around the £5-£6m level. We were still doing very little trade, other than the odd builder who called in the showroom with his details on the back of a fag packet.

During this period of time we switched from manufacturing Status to Synseal Shield. Status had been a great supplier to us, but Nick Dutton was very persuasive and the package he put in place was something we couldn’t really turn down. Andrew and I have a lot of faith in Nick as we believe he identified potential in our company and treated us accordingly.

To begin with we were manufacturing Shield frames and sticking an Ultraframe roof on top. Again, Mr Dutton showed us the error of our ways and pointed out the fact that the roof didn’t match the colour of the frames. We’d never noticed this before, but suddenly it became the most important thing a customer needed to know when choosing a conservatory.

For the record, Andrew and I had always really believed in the Ultraframe product, and always found the service excellent. People have often talked about the old ‘arrogant’ Ultraframe which to some extent I understand with the pricing, but I must stress the product and service was always excellent, even back then. I do feel that the three main roof systems on the market are all of a similar quality, and it’s all about getting the right deal and service.

Gleneagles

Because we were installing a lot of conservatories we were being courted by a couple of other roof suppliers, and when K2 offered to fly us up to Gleneagles for a conference we couldn’t really say no. Again, we were impressed with the roof system K2 had on offer, but the deal wasn’t quite as good as Synseal.

But, the main benefit we gained from our trip to Gleneagles was meeting Paul and Stuart who run Orion Windows in York. We knew of Orion and were aware that they had a great name in North Yorkshire and were probably the biggest installer in that area, but had never met them before. They were a similar size to West Yorkshire Windows, but because we didn’t really compete with each other (Orion worked the North Yorkshire region, and we worked the West Yorkshire region) we were able to have a really good chat, and swap ideas. After the Gleneagles event, we continued to meet up with them for informal chats about installations, sales, marketing etc. I like to think our meetings were mutually beneficial.

Then West Yorkshire Windows started advertising on Yorkshire TV with an advert pushing people to visit our indoor conservatory showroom in Wakefield. The problem was that we were picking up leads in North Yorkshire and were suddenly competing against our mates at Orion. So we set up a deal with the guys where we jointly advertise on Yorkshire TV and push three showrooms in Wakefield, Harrogate and York. As part of the deal we would manufacture the frames for Orion and have ever since. This was the start of Conservatory Outlet.

Conservatory Outlet

Over the last three years we’ve gradually been expanding the number of Conservatory Outlet dealers to our network, and at the point of writing we have showrooms dotted around the North of England and Wales. In simple terms Conservatory Outlet is the product we all sell, but each dealer runs his own business independently (a bit like a car dealership). We supply the frames, but also help with websites, point of sale literature, marketing, general business support and we try supply a few leads to each dealer as well!

It’s not been all plain sailing taking on dealers, and now we are being very choosy about which companies can join. Dealers need to be well established, financially sound, with a decent showroom(s), well managed sales and installation departments, and the desire to grow their business. I find most of the time I end up turning companies down, because they don’t meet many of the strict criteria. We’re only now interested in taking on the best of the best within the Conservatory Outlet fold.

As West Yorkshire Windows still trades as an independent installation company, we decided around 3 years ago to turn our trade side into its own limited company – Conservatory Outlet Ltd. I tend to run Conservatory Outlet these days, while Andrew runs West Yorkshire Windows.

Heal

I’m also proud to be the Head of Fundraising for a small charity which supports orphaned and destitute children in India – Heal. I got involved initially by contacting the trustees as we had decided to hold a West Yorkshire Windows / Conservatory Outlet charity ball. We raised £12,800 for Heal, and added £2,200 of our own money and donated it to the charity. As Heal is run by volunteers entirely, we were impressed that they used the money to build a Boy’s Hostel at the Heal Children’s Village. This building now houses 50 young boys as a result of us having a good night out a few years ago – amazing! I started coming up with other fundraising ideas for the trustees at Heal, so they invited me onto the board.

Last year we had our biggest ever fundraising event – a charity bike ride through India and raised £100,000. And, I’m in the middle of organising Cycle India 2010, so if anyone fancies cycling through the beautiful countryside of Karnataka with me next January please get in touch.

Renegade Conservatory Guy

A few people have asked me how I ever dreamt up the idea of the Renegade Conservatory Guy. Well, I didn’t really – Barry dunlop did! He came up with the name (I prefered Renegade Double Glazing Bloke) and he set up the Wordpress blog part, and all I had to do was start writing.

To begin with I remained anonymous, but then I realised anyone could do a whois search and find out that RCG was me. So I had to be more careful with what I was writing, unfortunately.

The site has been great fun for me so far, although I genuinely don’t deliberately try to offend people. People often ask how I manage to find the time, but I have my bedroom all set up now – ready to go!

I’ve also made some great contacts through this site who I would not have made under normal circumstances.

2009 and the future

The position today is as follows:

I’m trying to navigate Conservatory Outlet through the current recession as best I can. I’ve got a great team of staff including Mick Giscombe in the factory, and Darren Pollard looking after the office. We’re doing quite well considering all the doom and gloom. Last year we were around 20% up on 2007, and so far January is ahead of 2008.

We’ve had a few companies go bust on us, which has taken the gloss off things, but I think it’s to be expected in the current climate. As I suggested previously the focus now is on choosing only the very best dealers in the future, and getting growth through existing dealers. I do feel we’re in a better position to progress over the coming years than many of our competitors, because we’re not frightened about trying different things to generate leads and sales.

Andrew is skilfully managing West Yorkshire Windows and with a marketing strategy targeting internet marketing, TV advertising and growth through recommends and existing customers.

As for the Renegade Conservatory Guy – I assume he’s just going to carry on speaking his mind on industry related topics. Most of the time he’ll be sensible, but every now and then he’ll go off on one!

I’m keen to get the tree planting organisation set up and looking forward to tomorrow’s initial meeting with those who have offered to get involved.

In the long term, who knows what the future holds. I was going to retire when I was 30, but I had to put that back to 40. I’m 36 now, and might have to put back my retirement to 50 now. In the back of my mind I quite fancy the idea of donating all my time to good causes, such as Heal and tree planting, but unless someone comes along and writes me a big cheque, I’ll have to keep plugging away at selling windows, doors and conservatories.