April/May 2021

Warm Edge
GLASS PROCESSING & SEALED UNITS
THE SUPPLIER WITH THE EDGE?
Tony Palmer, Edgetech’s head of sales, argues that while products are important, it takes
excellence across the board to make a truly great spacer supplier.
For 30 years, Edgetech has been at the
forefront of spacer technology.
We’ve been continually investing, evolving
and striving to push the boundaries of what highperformance
IGUs can achieve.
It’s a legacy we’re extremely proud of. Today,
a third of British IGUs are made with Edgetech
products and over two million miles of Edgetech
spacer have been fitted around the world.
But despite those achievements, we’ve always
known that great products alone aren’t enough to
make an exceptional spacer supplier.
They’re obviously extremely important – and we
have one of the most versatile and extensive ranges
in the world, comprising rigid and flexible spacers
suitable for anything from everyday residential
projects to the most ambitious commercial
developments. We also offer a wealth of ancillaries
like hot melt, edge keys, PIB and more.
But just as much as the outstanding products,
we think that it’s our constant commitment to
improving customer service that sees leading
IGU manufacturers continue to work with us year
after year.
Customers at the centre
For years now, putting customers at the centre
hasn’t just been an airy aspiration, but a central
part of our strategy as a business – and one of
the key measures we use to judge our success.
In the last couple of years, that’s seen us
comprehensively restructure our customerfacing
teams, as we take a new, more joined-up
approach to meeting and exceeding our
customers’ expectations.
That’s resulted in a unified Customer Fulfilment
team, which brings together expertise from right
across the business to ensure we’re offering
outstanding service, from order right through to
final delivery.
“We’ve always known
that great products
alone aren’t enough to
make an exceptional
spacer supplier”
Every quarter, our Voice of the Customer survey
goes out to a randomly selected cross-section
of the businesses who work with us, and asks
them what’s working, what isn’t, and how we can
improve.
That regular feedback is a vital way of making
sure we’re meeting our customers’ ever-changing
needs, and often provides the inspiration for new
developments in products and service.
At the height of the first national coronavirus
lockdown last year, for example, we asked our
customers how they wanted us to keep in touch
– did they want socially-distanced meetings,
telephone calls, Zoom meetings, or another
approach entirely?
Their responses indicated they were happy to
switch to more remote forms of communication
during the pandemic – which led to us developing
a number of digital tools to help support them
from afar, like instructional videos to assist with
product testing, for instance.
A safe pair of hands
When we ask our customers why they work with
Edgetech, one very common answer is that they
see us as a ‘safe pair of hands’.
We’ve been around for decades. Our products have
been extensively tried and tested all over the world
– and that means they have a level of confidence
in us that they don’t have in other suppliers.
They also cite the stability that comes from
us being part of the global building product
powerhouse Quanex – the hugely respected
billion-dollar group that’s listed on the New York
Stock Exchange.
The Quanex relationship doesn’t just bring
financial security – it gives us access to
incredible expertise from all over the world,
including from Ohio’s University of Akron, which
is renowned for its polymer research and has
close, long-standing links with the group.
In uncertain times like these, being part of
Quanex also allows us to guarantee continuity of
supply. We benefit from not one but three worldclass
manufacturing facilities – in Coventry,
Ohio and Heinsberg, Germany – meaning that
disruption in one area doesn’t affect our ability to
keep serving our customers.
Challenging the norm
But despite all this, we’re not complacent. We’re
constantly on the lookout for ways to improve our
products, and help our customers ramp up their
businesses.
We’re passionate about production efficiency,
process simplification, best performance and
value for money – and we’ll never stop looking
for ways to give our customers an edge over the
competition.
Contact Edgetech:
02476 639931
www.edgetechig.co.uk
@EdgetechUK
50 T F APRIL/MAY 2021 CONNECTING THE WINDOW, DOOR & ROOF FABRICATION SUPPLY CHAIN