Editors Comment
Reaching for the summit
This year’s Glazing Summit was under pressure to deliver a programme offering hope, inspiration and knowledge that justified attendees’ investment of time and money. I have to admit that the first two sessions were a hard slog. They sought to set out the economic backdrop before examining market trends, challenges and opportunities.
Given the current economic landscape, it is difficult to sugar-coat an economy feeling the strain, with little prospect of improvement in the short or medium term. The opening session somewhat dampened the atmosphere in the room. That feeling was reinforced by the second keynote, which focused too heavily on commercial glazing and gave too little attention to the all-important repair, maintenance and improvement sector. This was disappointing. In previous years, sector-specific data provided by Insight Data had been well received, offering invaluable information and trends for attendees to take away.
What did deliver, however, was the content and discussion from within our industry. Panel discussions and keynote speeches featuring leading sector figures offered insight, debate and, crucially, reasons for hope. This is what people expect from an industry summit or conference. There is always room for improvement, but the panel debates I attended flowed with purpose and insight.
It is often difficult to glean shared wisdom from social media posts about the event, with many contributors celebrating their attendance rather than sharing meaningful insights. It would do the event and its panellists a disservice if I did not share summaries of two particularly worthwhile discussions.
A panel on lead generation brought together three perspectives from across the value chain: Deceuninck UK marketing manager Gaby Handy, Ultraframe marketing director Alex Hewitt and Chris Tahmasaby, founder of AI-first agency ICAAL Digital Marketing. Their shared verdict was that AI is no silver bullet, but it is already changing how brands are found, how leads are handled and how salespeople perform.
Handy described a systems house now speaking directly to homeowners, who reach the enquiry stage having already weighed up websites, reviews and social media feeds. Deceuninck’s energy savings calculator translates U-values into potential savings on household bills, building brand preference through usefulness rather than specification sheets.
Hewitt focused on the fragile gap between enquiry and appointment. Ultraframe has replaced national advertising with hyperlocal campaigns, introduced booking services staffed by experts and is trialling instant WhatsApp follow-ups. Where appointment services are used, she reported, conversion from lead to booking rises from 5% to 35%.
Tahmasaby urged the industry to see opportunities for early movers in a difficult post-boom market: start small, start now and bring staff along. Attendees identified insufficient in-house skills as their biggest barrier to adoption.
Two warnings stood out. Content must be readable by AI agents that increasingly influence which brands homeowners discover, while excessive automation risks generic “AI slop” that erodes trust. For high-value purchases, the panel agreed, people still buy from people. The coming divide is between salespeople who use AI effectively and those who do not.
A second panel took aim at the industry’s race to the bottom on price. Manufacturers, systems houses and machinery suppliers agreed that competing on headline cost alone is eroding balance sheets, undermining quality and rewarding the market’s worst behaviour.
Jamie Newall, chief executive of Atlas Aluminium, argued that margins should drive prices, rather than the other way round, and dismissed per-leaf bifold pricing as economically incoherent. He was blunter about pre-pack administrations and phoenix companies, arguing that they can leave HMRC as the biggest creditor and the rest of us with the bill.
Jade Engineering’s Shaun Mackey offered a simple remedy: stop buying from such businesses and ensure procurement reflects the values the sector promotes, including quality, safety, apprenticeships and sustainability. Business failures also carry wider costs. Dave Cahill of Flat Glass Solutions warned that an influx of second-hand machinery depresses demand for newer, more efficient equipment and slows innovation.
On compliance, Newall recalled buying a rival’s bifold rated Uw 1.2 and finding the foam missing. Effective enforcement, the panel argued, creates commercial value for firms that follow the rules, but buyers must verify certification at purchase rather than wait for regulators.
Deceuninck’s Peter Dyer urged a shift from price to demand creation, citing research that only 14% of retail consumers are satisfied with the sales process. Stop treating products as commodities, connect the supply chain and educate customers, he said. Better conversion then follows without racing to the bottom.
This level of discussion gave the Glazing Summit real value. The most insightful and positive contributions came from within our industry, illustrating the determination of a sector unwilling to let downbeat forecasts define its future.
