Time To Reframe The Fabricator Model

3^rd March 2025

In a year when the overall market was estimated to be down by as much as 20%, the turnover of the Euroglaze group in 2024 was up by almost the same amount. Clearly, we’re doing something right. Our relentless focus on lean manufacturing processes over the past two decades has certainly put us in a very strong position in terms of efficiency and cost control and has enabled us to build an outstanding reputation for quality and consistency.

But I would argue that, following the demise of so many big industry names over the past couple of years, the business model for a successful fabricator – certainly in PVC-U – has changed dramatically, and it is businesses like ours that are the ones now benefiting.

The volume white casement market is diminishing fast. Margins are vanishingly thin all the way down the supply chain, and fabricators who are just chasing that business are running out of road. Instead, the opportunities and the growth are coming in the mid volume market, and more specifically in what were long considered to be niche market products, but where demand is now growing fast, and margins are fairly robust.

Euroglaze can justifiably claim to be a ‘One Stop Shop’ for Rehau products, and our range includes everything from the Rauferno fire rated window to the Slinova patio. We fabricate the Rehau Heritage vertical slider, the Rehau Rio flush window and door range, and both fully reversibles and pivot windows in Rehau Total 70 – products which many of our competitors overlook.

We also offer Liniar frames, including the patio and bifold and the Resurgence double rebated flush window. And over and above that, we have a sister company called Ecotec Windows which supplies high end windows and doors from the likes of Internorm, Solarlux, Rationel and Velfac.

The received wisdom used to be that low volume, niche products disrupted your production, clogged up your factory and warehouse, and distracted your sales team, but Euroglaze’s ongoing success has turned that on its head.

We have a supremely efficient manufacturing and logistical operation which means we can offer a three day turnaround using our customer focused Windows on the Web ordering system and stock sizes of fire rated windows in just five days, without sacrificing margins.

The bulk of our new business enquiries come from customers who recognise the opportunities that exist to sell niche products into the higher end of the market, but whose existing trade fabricator’s business model isn’t allowing them to take advantage of those.

Unsurprisingly perhaps, we don't just supply installers and third party stockists with these kinds of products, we supply other trade fabricators as well – and we are more than happy to continue doing so.

The Ecotec side of our business gives us an incredibly useful insight into where the window and door market is heading. We know that trends from the top end of the market gradually filter down to the mainstream, and Ecotec enables Euroglaze to stay ahead of those trends as we identify the next opportunities.

For instance, we could see the growing popularity of the sliding patio vs the bifold well in advance – hence our decision to start fabricating the Rehau Slinova patio door before anybody else.

The boundaries between high end and mainstream are arguably becoming more blurred as well, and we’re starting to see some cross selling between our two businesses – we certainly don't lose sales because we don’t have a product to offer at the right specification or the right price point.

Euroglaze was once considered an outlier in the trade market with our determination to offer as wide a product range as possible – but we are already seeing other fabricators following our lead, and I have no doubt that the proven success of this business model we will see many more follow during the course of 2025. 

#Euroglaze #WindowFabrication #DoorFabrication #PVCU

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