Aluminium the foundation of sustained growth for door specialist
Sliders UK has said that sales grew by 34% year-on-year, with demand for aluminium products driving increased volume. The announcement comes a year-on from a management buy-in and launch of a new growth strategy, which has been underpinned by a series of new product launches. Steve Mines, Sales Director, Sliders UK, said: “We’ve been manufacturing the ALUK bi-fold for approaching a decade and introduced a second aluminium bi-fold, the Ultimate Evolution in 2016. Demand for those products has simply snowballed in the last 24-months. That drove the expansion of our aluminium offer last year and continues to inform our strategy for this year, with the further expansion of our range to offer a complete collection of aluminium products.”
The Ultimate Evolution has been a key addition to Sliders UK’s offer. It features a highly innovative fully adjustable jamb option, which fitted to both sides of the door, makes squaring and setting faster – cutting installation time to as little as 45 minutes. Its consequential popularity with installers means that it now accounts for sales of more than 100 frames per week. With a maximum sash height and width of 3000mm x 1200mm, colour-matched handles and magnetic door holders, a low threshold option and 30mm polyamide thermal break for increased thermal values, it is also fully tested to PAS 2, Part Q approved and BS6375 Part 1 Weather Tested. Another significant development in the last six-months has been Sliders UK’s launch of an aluminium window. Manufactured in ALUK’s proven 70mm Optio system, the Ultimate Aluminium Window is defined by clean and flexible sightlines, making it suitable for traditional and contemporary applications. It accommodates double and triple-glazed insulated units of 24mm to 40mm, employing a unique polyamide thermal break design to achieve u-values as low as 1.2W/m2K. It’s also fully tested to PAS24 and is part Q compliant. Available in white or anthracite grey as standard, plus dual colour options and any RAL colour as special order, the Ultimate Aluminium Window comes in a range of fully anodized finishes, also carrying a 10-year guarantee.
“We’ve seen an opportunity to add value to our customer offer”, said Mines. “We had numerous customers asking for them because they couldn’t get the quality and reliability elsewhere. If you’re doing an orangery or an extension ordering in a handful of windows with your bi-fold order makes a lot sense.” Sliders UK has also added ALUK’s new Veranda to its range. The contemporary modular system has been designed to make installation easy, while generating high margin opportunities. “It’s not just about aluminium. We’ve launched a new composite door offer this year in the Ultimate Composite Door, which features intelligent timber inserts, so it achieves PAS24 including cut through-testing. Ultimately it’s about trying to extract additional value from what we do for our customers. We’re committed to offering the highest levels of service. That goes beyond OTIF to wider support including first-time assisted fit. All of this taken as a whole and we have something which is very competitive.”
