Feb/March 2020

Out and About: Anglo European
A FRIEND IN NEED IS A FRIEND INDEED
From Brexit to recruitment struggles, conditions are challenging for window and door
manufacturers. Total Fabricator visited Anglo European to explore some of the issues and
reports on how the steel reinforcement supplier is helping its customers thrive in tough times.
fabricator’s friend’ is how
Manchester-based rolled steel
‘The
reinforcement specialist, Anglo European,
describes itself and by all accounts, even the
most successful factions of the British window
and door manufacturing sector could do with a
friend right now.
Market conditions for fabricators were discussed at a recent
roundtable event organised by Anglo European.
Despite optimism for the new year, challenges
abound. Jim Moody, Anglo customer and
managing director of Cambridgeshire-based
window and door fabricator, Tradelink, blames
the political backdrop for many of the difficulties
experienced in recent months.
Jim is discussing trading conditions as part of a
roundtable event, recently organised by Anglo. The
second half of 2019 was “just full of interruption”,
he says; “the on and off switch, Brexit; then the
general election in December...” This, Jim argues,
made trade supply and the home improvement
sector challenging throughout the year.
But it’s not just Brexit making life difficult.
With high-value products, new colour options
and materials such as aluminium gaining
traction in the modern marketplace, the need to
accommodate consumer demands pose further
hurdles for manufacturers of all sizes, not least the
smaller organisations operating from a single site.
“Every year you have to kind of reinvent yourself,”
says Mike Parczuk, MD of Lincoln-based fabricator,
Sternfenster, another Anglo customer. “That’s
what our industry’s always been about, whether
it’s coming from espags to shoot bolts, to smart
technology, we’re constantly having to evolve our
product range and our services to offer something
better, different colour, quicker, faster, smarter...”
Elsewhere, staffing issues are increasingly
challenging for some fabricators. Anglo customer
“We’re constantly
having to evolve to
offer something better”
Mike Parczuk, Sternfenster
and MD of Bolton-based Keyframe, Jim Whittles,
states he struggles to find local labour, with most
school-leavers uninterested in factory work.
“You can take on, maybe, 40 people to retain
one,” he says. “When we first got into the industry,
you’d maybe take three on and keep one but
now, the quality of people and their attitudes and
expectations… it’s just a different culture…
“People come in and you think, ‘yes, great’ and
after two, three, four months, they don’t turn up.”
Challenges facing fabricators
With so many challenges facing fabricators like
Tradelink, Sternfenster and Keyframe, Anglo
believes its cut-to-size reinforcement options
provide a rare opportunity for manufacturers of
all sizes to make significant cost savings that
could make a real difference to their business
overheads and according to Mike Parczuk, the
Anglo offer is a no-brainer.
While Mike remains optimistic, he admits that
times are getting tougher and therefore “you have
to be smarter at what you do”.
“You have to find new markets,” he says. “You
have to work harder; look at your margins, which is
why fabricators should be looking at Anglo.”
Since it was founded in 1989, Anglo has
supplied more than 250 million metres of
steel reinforcement to its customers, growing
rapidly through a combination of innovation and
acquisition. Managing director Paul Sullivan
joined the business in 1995, completing an MBO
in 2006. Anglo’s cut-to-size service was launched
the same year and has proved to be an invaluable
asset to the company’s offering.
According to Anglo’s commercial director, Lee
Marriott, the process of switching to buy cut-tosize
steel reinforcement direct from Anglo can
result in “huge savings” for those fabricators
still buying steel from their systems houses, “on
average around 30% as a general rule of thumb”.
18 T F FEB/MAR 2020 CONNECTING THE WINDOW, DOOR & ROOF FABRICATION SUPPLY CHAIN