Back for another splash

When Total Glass introduced its ‘Urban Splash’ style communal entrance door at last year’s CIH event in Harrogate, combining rugged security with apartment living style, it duly became a star attraction with visitors. So, this year the company is heading back – with a sequel

Inspired by its debut appearance at last year’s CIH exhibition, Total Glass is heading back for more at the forthcoming 2011 event and it’s bringing a brand new product that it hopes will further ‘wow’ the audience.

The Knowsley-based company caused quite a stir with its then new aluminium communal entrance door, specifically designed for the social housing sector. The ‘wow’ factor comes from the aesthetic design of the new door. It deliberately set out to reject the more austere and institutional appearance that has historically benighted the tenure.

“The communal entrance door was originally developed to meet a need for Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH),” said director Julian Wetherall. “They wanted a product that was – to use their phrase – ‘more Urban Splash than social housing’, so we worked on this product and subsequently managed to secure the contract to supply 1,200 of these doors for LMH’s portfolio of properties around M erseyside. Then we exhibited the door at the CIH last year and we have literally never had so much interest in a new product.”

Appearances alone were never going to be enough to make the product such a winner, of course, and it was the underlying strengths inherent in the door’s manufacture that added the decisive weight to the impact it made. Beneath that welcoming aesthetic, Total Glass has incorporated an amalgamation of physical strength and rugged durability that means it is capable of looking good in the toughest environments.

The door is manufactured from heavy-gauge aluminium and features secure electronic solenoid locks linked to phone entry systems. The thermally efficient glazing options allow the door to be tailored to the housing association’s image and convey a light and welcome appearance for residents and visitors alike.

Since showing the door at last year’s CIH event, the interest shown in the door has translated into orders, and Total Glass has consequently taken the door out across the country, installing it in the properties of an increasing number of social landlords’ communal properties. The company has now also added a further design to the communal door range, which it intends to take to Harrogate this year.

The new entrance door uses maglocks instead of solenoid locks. Rather than using bolts, as in the solenoid systems, the maglock makes use of two plates and magnetism to keep the door secure. Like its predecessor, the new door follows very much in the ‘urban splash’ aesthetic, but it is a light-weight option designed for areas where there isn’t such a need for that level of rugged strength.

“It’s still a high security door,” Wetherall added. “It’s not as tough as the door we launched last year, but it still matches or exceeds doors that are currently out there in the marketplace. So it’s still a substantial product in its own right. People have different preferences and different needs, but we’ve now got a product that can meet all requirements.

“If the door we launched last year was our ‘gold package’ door, this one is our ‘silver option’ for less vulnerable areas. If we look at LMH, for example, they’ve got some tough locations around in Liverpool, but they’ve also got areas that don’t warrant the levels of security the previous door gives, so this one is for those less tough environments.”

The company added aluminium products such as curtain walling and entrance screens to its portfolio around five years ago, when it moved into a new purpose-built manufacturing facility at Knowsley Business Park in Merseyside. The family-owned company was founded over 25 years ago by Frank Deary to fabricate uPVC doors and windows, where Total Glass first made its name, later adding composite doors and a host of other products.

As the business and the product range have grown, the company has invested in the latest manufacturing equipment as its presence in the market grew. Indeed, in the last year it has invested around half a million pounds in the latest computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Clearly, this is a company with a confidence every bit as robust as its new entrance doors; confident in its products, in its 140 highly-trained staff, in the market, and in its ability to keep delivering for its clients into the future.

“On the business side of things it’s going from strength to strength,” Wetherall said. “We’ve picked up a number of new contracts on the uPVC side. We’re also manufacturing composite doors. That business has just exploded for us with supply trade and social housing. This looks like it’s going to be a record year for us, given the fact that we’re in a so-called recession.

“We know we can’t rest on our laurels, though. We know that contracts are there to be won – but they are there to be lost as well. So we’ve got to be sure that we’re consistently delivering a quality product and service. We are confident that we produce a good product.”

The environment is also a factor in the company’s products – in the green sense – and to that end the company recycles its uPVC off-cuts and old windows recovered from sites with the material processed into recycled composite material (RCM). It provides an ideal material for reinforcing its new windows, eliminating the need for steel, which helps to boost both the appearance and performance of the windows, whilst also utilising a resource that would otherwise have gone to landfill. It has also helped from a cost perspective too – for both Total Glass and its clients.

“With steel, like any commodity, the prices are up and down like a yo yo so being able to switch to using RCM allows us to have more consistent prices and be able to deliver best value for our social housing clients,” Wetherall said.

Total Glass offers A-Rated windows as standard for its social housing clients. The company has also recently gained its re-accreditation for ISO 14001. It demonstrates not only a commitment to providing top-quality products, but to also help itself – and its clients – meet their commitments to the environment.

It’s this kind of attention to detail, and its willingness to innovate, that has kept Total Glass at the forefront of the industry.

The company’s success is a testament to the hard work and dedication of its staff and its management. But while things are going from strength to strength on the business side of things, on the personal side it has been a very different story. Everyone at Total Glass has had to deal with the tragic loss of managing director Paul Ierston, who passed away in March after a two-and-ahalf year battle with cancer.

He had been with the company since the start, having joined from leaving school to work his way up and was appointed MD from his previous role as operations director in January 2008. Paying tribute, group managing director Frank Deary said: “Paul was a great man and a pure gentleman, as well as a true friend... The bravery and courage that he showed over the last two and a half years was a real measure of the man – he was an inspiration to us all.”

Perhaps the final tribute comes in the performance of the company he left behind, building on his memory as it goes from strength to strength in the years ahead.