Anybody that knows us as a company will tell you that our approach is completely different to that of 99% of the rest of our industry. We stand firmly against any kind of pressure selling or outdated marketing tactics. The last thing we would ever try to do is make any prospective client think that they were under pressure from us to place an order. However, given the truly exceptional times we are living in currently we do feel it necessary to let you know that if you are considering engaging Finesse Windows or any other home improvement specialist to carry out work for you then you should please consider placing your order now rather than waiting any longer.

Finesse Windows Production Manager John Sampson commented, "Traditionally the latter part of the year is always the strongest when it comes to demand for our products and services. Understandably, as soon as the October half-term is over, homeowner attention switches to Christmas and the rush to get projects completed before the Christmas holiday begins. In any normal year this is challenging but mostly achievable. In 2021 this is impossible. 2021 has been a year like no other. The after-effects of the disruption caused by Covid are as prevalent as ever. Most, if not all industries are suffering to some degree and the double glazing industry is no exception. We are in the midst of continual supply shortages and a seemingly never-ending cycle of disruption from enforced isolations of staff, suppliers and customers. Nobody thinks this situation will return to normal for at least another 12 months if not even longer. The bottom line is that (already long) lead times are set to get longer and unfortunately, prices of raw materials continue to soar and this inevitably has to eventually pass on to the end user."

As always, a huge upsurge in demand produces many challenges. The double glazing industry is in the grip of many evolving challenges currently – mostly in relation to the supply chain which feeds the whole process. We have written before about the issues that we have been facing. Over the last month these challenges have become even more pronounced. All of our suppliers are struggling and we sympathise with their current situation as we can all understand their predicament. Construction Week Magazine published an article at the start of the October in which apart from the supply chain issues, average material costs have increased by 23.5% since August 2020, with stainless steel costs increasing by 74.8% in the same period.

In order to highlight how difficult things are currently we have picked out just a few examples of things that have happened over the last few months which help to illustrate the current situation:

To put some of this into perspective. We calculate that since pre-pandemic levels, our manufacturing and purchasing costs have risen by an enormous 57%. We have fought hard at every turn to mitigate the effect of this on our customer base. However we have had to pass some of this cost onwards in order to remain competitive. We believe that the increase in costs from our supply chain will continue to rise sharply over the next few months which makes it extremely difficult to commit to any pricing for longer than 14 days currently.

In summary, our message is clear. If you are looking to place an order for any type of home improvement project from Finesse Windows we would urge you to consider doing this sooner rather than later to avoid waiting too long into 2022 and to ensure that you are able to purchase at today’s prices rather than potentially having to buy at future prices which are unfortunately very unpredictable at the moment.

If you have any questions or require any further information please do not hesitate to contact us on 0121 451 3724 or email us here.