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NOVEMBER 2013 PRO INSTALLER
PRO BUSINESS
www.proinstaller.co.uk
What does it take
to outperform
two recessions?
PRO Installer caught up with CDW’s Managing
Director, Jerry Webb, to discuss how the company
has manoeuvred relatively unscathed through two
recessions, focusing on how they reacted post 2008…
“When you’re busy
running a business that
employs over 70 people
across the whole group,
like we do at CDW Systems in Gloucester, you
can easily get lost in
the day to day operations and not focus on
the vision of the company and how to react
to economic conditions
that are essentially out
of your control.
Essentially, in this cyclical
format, we’re all going be
affected so it becomes about
how you react and adapt to
the conditions.
By the end 2008, in the
UK, manufacturing output
declined by 7 per cent and
despite some recent positive
signs it’s been a long hard
slog.
History has taught us recession is a reality, from the
post Napoleonic depression
to the current day economic
struggles, we haven’t yet
found a way to escape the
schizophrenic highs and
lows in our economy.
Which is why when
Gordon Brown said he’d
abolished boom and bust I
was sceptical; and burying
your head in the sand is not
an option.
In our industry this
equalled lots of change.
Many companies folded;
some phoenixed and there
were mergers and acquisitions as things re-aligned.
Here, at CDW Systems, we
have experienced relative
success during these difficult times. And it’s not been
by chance that during the
recession, in February this
year to be exact, we posted
record trading figures, with
Adapting and
changing
turnover reaching £600k
during this month alone.
Throughout the recession
things have been good,
spurred on by a buoyant
aluminium sector we’ve
experienced demand right
across our product range.
Low-interest rates
So what’s been the secret?
Because relying on the
growing aluminium sector
isn’t enough. You still have
to recognise and adapt to
growth markets. At the
lower end of the market the
saturation of cheap credit
saw mass markets such
as standard white PVCu
windows diminish, whereas low-interest rates and a
sluggish housing market has
seen more wealthy homeowners stay put and invest
in their homes with added
value products.
We’ve had a bi-folding
door boom, aluminium has
emerged as a growth market
and high-end products have
captured the attention of the
market.
Successful companies
recognised this early and
aligned there businesses
accordingly, providing not
just products but support,
intelligence and information regarding these growth
areas to ensure installers
were familiar with what
products are in demand and
how to tackle these growth
markets.
Innovation
Innovation and investment
is also key to outperforming
a recessionary climate. Recession ensures every part
of a business is scrutinised,
so it’s vital to be constantly
improving and evolving, doing what the other guy isn’t
and being a purple cow, in
order to stay competitive
and get noticed.
For an installer this means
looking for the growth areas
and for fabricators it means
bringing new products to
market that are relevant and
can help installers distinguish themselves ahead of
their competition.
As a matter of course we
launch one new product
each year, our most recent
being the high-performance,
thermally insulated Confort
160 (C160).
Investment
The very latest machinery
and technology is of course
vital but equally so is investing in people, because they
are the ambassadors and
agents of the future for your
company.
At CDW Systems all staff
go through an intensive pe-
riod of on-going training to
ensure they are multi-disciplined and equipped across
all product lines.
This allows the team to
react to peaks and troughs
and become active and
streamlined rather than
re-active and cumbersome.
Make it easy
The old principle of keep
it simple stupid also rings
true and fabricators and
installers that are providing
their customers with key
information and adding
value to their sales processes and communications will
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