Trade specialist GAP celebrates three decades of serving its customers

Back in 1993, a close-knit team of friends, led by Simon Bird and Charles Greensmith, set up a small business, with big ambitions for the future. General All-purpose Plastics, known as GAP, opened their very first depot in Accrington, Lancashire, selling PVC-U trims, silicones and fixings to local window and door installers. This quickly became the platform for growth which would help the business flourish in the years to come. 

The double-glazing boom was already in full swing in 1993 when GAP was started, with the PVC-U roofline replacement market also growing thick and fast. This led to GAP expanding quickly over the years, to better serve its customers from depots across the country. Over 85 depots are now operated by the business from Inverness to Southampton.  

In addition to a large depot network, the team at GAP have also created some much-loved industry brands such as Rockdoor and HomeLine. GAP also manufactured a range of door panels under the Cosmopolitan brand, that were extremely popular in their time.  

Today, even more products are manufactured inhouse including their own range of aluminium bi folds, GRP composite doors and PVC-U windows. Reflecting on the last thirty years, Joint MD’s Simon Bird and Charles Greensmith, have attributed their success to their fantastic team created over the years and their customers:

“When we started GAP we loved the industry, our customers and our fantastic team. Thirty years on, those same things we loved, still inspire us when heading to work every morning. 

“Of course, a lot has changed in thirty years, as any business operating during these times can testify. We’ve experienced the fantastic highs of natural expansion, acquisitions and new product developments, through to the more difficult periods of recessions, credit crunches and pandemics more recently. So, to be able to mark our thirty years, makes us very proud for what our fantastic team have achieved. We’ve learnt a lot along our journey, through good and bad, which has afforded us the insight to make better decisions along the way.

“The company business model might have changed over the last three decades, however the core values that GAP has achieved such success on, will continue to be instilled over the next 30 years. We look forward to the opportunity of working with our dedicated team to keep encouraging our customers to keep coming back to us time after time, through service, innovation and support.”