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Picture above: Adrian Barraclough, Chairman, Quickslide
NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION…
So says Adrian Barraclough, Chairman of Brighouse based fabricator Quickslide to Glass News’ Editor, Chris Champion, as he reveals the ups and downs of Covid-19, including how it has revolutionised service calls, shown who their friends are and how social media can turn even the best of intentions sour.
We’re only just getting back to work but you are already talking about how this epidemic has changed your work practises. What do you mean by that?
Adrian Barraclough: At Quickslide we closed down all manufacturing but left the service department operational. We didn’t want to let any customers down and decided that we needed to have a service available for any issues of customer care in the home, posting out of stock items, and having a service engineer available.
As it happens, it provided a 24/7 service and many customers took advantage of it by ordering spare parts and we could service the requests without sending a van out. However, what really came out of this experience was the use of video and Zoom technology and how we could talk people through issues and help them through technology without the need to send a man and a van out to sort things out. Just as found out during other crises such as World War 11, necessity is the mother of invention! Customers like the instantaneous reaction to a problem and the fact that they could, with a little help from our end, sort the issue themselves – and very quickly.
Just as you have interviewed me over Zoom and saved time, mileage and my supplies
of coffee, we are saving valuable time for everyone and, as we all know, time is money. This has to be the way forward.
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How many of your customers locked down completely? Of those that kept open, what level of service did they offer during that time?
Adrian Barraclough: I think the majority of customers shut down their normal operations but it was surprising how many needed odd items to be sent out. Obviously, the manufacturing of windows and doors had halted and I believe, like us, some customers were providing an emergency service as opposed to a full-on programme of fitting.
Did you continue to receive supplies from your various suppliers during lockdown?
Adrian Barraclough: No, supply was non-existent and, to be fair, we didn’t expect any deliveries. We keep a large amount of stock on the shelves at any time so that re-starting isn’t a problem, initially. In fact, the bigger problem is having £600K worth of product that remained undelivered.
When the lockdown happened, we had to turn round 6 x 17.5 tonners and bring them back to base, simply because the product couldn’t be delivered.
You offer a wide range of product. PVCu frames , composite doors and aluminium and distribute it to installers nationwide. Do you anticipate that some customers may have gone during lockdown and you may have to ramp up sales?
Adrian Barraclough: That’s really an unknown at the moment but we aim to work with our customers through these hard times. The more interesting side is from the supply side. We appreciate that cashflow for everyone is a problem but it is interesting how it is, generally, the very large companies that have made the demands to be paid in full and, on the nail.
We have one supplier with whom we spend around £120K per month on a rolling order who furloughed all their staff, including the MD, with the exception of a credit controller simply tasked with getting cash in. It didn’t matter what your payment record or longevity of relationship was, they wanted the cash, now. So I paid what we owed and we shall never order from them again. That has happened with two large suppliers but, the good news is that we shall now source product from other suppliers who I’m sure will appreciate the business.
We have £1 million of stock, effectively 2 months of production, and a fleet of lorries ready to deliver products out to our customers. The service we provide is very important and we have always tried to have spare machinery or vehicles
Will there be an increase in the amount of product purchased from Europe and less dependence on overseas suppliers or will logistics and world trade return to how it was before coronavirus?
Adrian Barraclough: It’s an interesting one. I would like to think everyone would be encouraged to ‘Buy British’ but, inevitably, price will come into it. At Quickslide we are very pro UK and, even more, pro Yorkshire! As time has gone on we have become more and more self-contained with glass, foiling, fabricating vertical sliders, aluminium and hardware, all in-house.
We have a £20m turnover now and what we don’t want to see is a drop in prices. If that happens then the industry will spiral downwards at an alarming speed. What we want to see is organic growth for the business. What, of course, we don’t know is other people’s views on purchasing. I suspect that money rather than politics will rule opinions.
What have been the key difficulties with returning to work? What exceptional arrangements have you made in terms of staff and customer protection?
Adrian Barraclough: As I am sure every other fabricator has had to do, providing a safe environment for our work force to return to work has been essential. Social distancing, wiping down of surfaces and machinery and providing the facilities to maintain a germ-free environment has taken some doing. It has taken time and investment. Additionally, the whole shift pattern has had to change. Whereas we had 140 people on a shift, that has reduced to just 16, and what was an 8-hour shift has now changed so that we have three shifts with an hour in between to allow for wiping down and preparing for the next influx of people.
It is all about reducing the number of people in an area at any given time. Other changes have included delivery patterns and we have had to introduce a delivery charge to customers within the M25. While we furloughed a lot of staff we kept on around 30 to provide a service and that has had to be financed out of my pocket to the tune of £750K.
We have also been helping by using our vans to provide a service to old and infirm people in the Brighouse area, taking provisions from Morrison’s to their homes. But even helping people backfires! Suddenly there was social media saying that Quickslide was breaking the lockdown and profiteering from still making windows! Of course, however much you reply and tell them you were delivering food, the damage is done. Social media can be dangerous.
Relationships are bound to change following the pandemic, particularly if you have had customers who have been slow or reluctant to pay what they owe you. Has that been an issue for Quickslide and, if so, is there a way to repair the damaged relationship?
Adrian Barraclough: If anything, I think it will have strengthened relationships particularly with those with whom we have conversed and kept a communications channel open and active. I have already mentioned the converse where demands have been made by big companies. At the end of the day, we shall all have long memories and will discard those who haven’t played fair and have stronger relationships with those who have.
Do you think we are talking about months or, perhaps years, before Quickslide can say that you have returned to the same financial position as you were prior to December 2019?
Adrian Barraclough: Being realistic, it will probably take two years. Part of the problem will be volumes. Many of us have invested in machining centres that are highly efficient and are great at producing 400 frames per day. What they are not that great at is producing just 70 frames! We will be operating at around 70% to 80% capacity and we have always kept an additional 10% of spare capacity, so we shall be underworked, for certain. The other side is that we have always kept spare machinery in all areas so that if maintenance is required or there is a breakdown, production is not affected. Therefore, we are going to have plenty of capacity for a considerable time. That also goes for transport, too. Apart from the normal fleet we have always kept an additional factory based 17.5 tonner that is available for urgent deliveries.
What is your vision for the future? Will Quickslide have changed substantially? Can it be as successful as it once was? And do you think the market will return as it was and, if so, how long do you think that will take?
Adrian Barraclough: The market will return and good companies will survive. Will they be as successful? I think that depends on a lot of factors and is mostly connected with buyer confidence. That confidence, in turn, is reliant on the worldwide economy generally and the UK economy, specifically. I’m not sure anyone can estimate the timescale for this but we may well find that home improvement will do well while overseas travel declines. At this point it is anyone’s guess.
You have talked quite openly on social media during the lockdown, about the return to work and the issues that surround that return. Do you feel that there has been a better communication between companies within the industry as a result of the lockdown? Can that continue after the pandemic is over? Will people be nicer to each other?
Adrian Barraclough: What a nice thought! I think the answer is yes…the good ones will maintain the communication they have always had. There is a caucus of people and companies who have been competitors and friends over many years and I believe that will continue.
It feels as if the industry has been slightly rudderless over this time and that there is the need for a Trade Association, as there is in most other industries…
Adrian Barraclough: That’s true. There is no leader and so we all chat together and the result of that can be chaos. Various organisations have put out guidelines but not rules. Who do you listen to? At the end of day, we need our own guidelines for the industry, along the lines of:
- Protect the industry,
- Don’t self-destruct,
- 80% should be fun and enjoyable, and
- Don’t get greedy.
Issue 153
Sliding forward
Quickslide is constantly striving to streamline its products and reinvent itself, as the windows and doors manufacturer recognises the need to be flexible in an ever-changing marketplace
More than 500,000 PVCu sliding sash windows have come out of Quickslide’s manufacturing facilities in the 14 years since the West Yorkshire-based company came into being. “It was us who brought this type of window to the market’s attention,” Sales & Marketing Director, Tom Swallow highlights. “Before we introduced the option to manufacture sash windows in PVCu, they were typically made of timber, but we came up with a more cost-effective and low-maintenance proposition.
“Today, we are mainly known for the PVCu sliding sash windows, but we have developed a lot of other products over the years, in response to market demands. For example, we added casement windows to our portfolio. The reason we did that, was because our customers started showing interest in buying a complete range of products from us,” Tom explains. Quickslide has also made advances in manufacturing its products in aluminium in the last three or four years, again reacting to shifting market demands, with its bi-folding doors having proven especially popular with its customers.
For Tom, offering premium end products has helped the business occupy a niche in the marketplace that allows Quickslide to add true value with its windows and doors. “Timber has ultimately been the highest end product in our industry, but while people still want the look it gives to the window, they do not want the cost and the maintenance that are associated with it. At the same time, they do not want to compromise the aesthetics of the building. These considerations drove us to develop our premium end products, where we would add a woodgrain effect to the PVC and offer a seamless weld to enhance the aesthetics and make the window look as if it is timber.”
Quickslide Windows
Having access to advanced machinery has thus been a top priority for Quickslide and the company is in the middle of a major investment in new equipment. Tom sheds light on the latest additions to the factory. “We spent £350,000 on a seamless welder, designed and built our own state-of-the-art colour bonding facility, and also invested £50,000 on our own arching machine, so that we can do curved frames ourselves. We have now directed our attention to bringing in a new glass line, worth about £500,000 and a new cutting centre worth another £300,000.”
As Quickslide’s activities have been met with success, the company has incrementally expanded its manufacturing site, which now spans 100,000 square feet across four units in the Heaton Industrial Estate in Brighouse. “We started with one production facility only, but as the companies from the neighbouring factories moved out, we took this additional space, so now, we have got the whole industrial estate to ourselves. The scale of our operations is large, but not to an extent that we cannot cope with it,” Tom certifies.
“One thing that we pride ourselves on, is the ability to retain control of as many aspects of the production process as possible,” he comments, detailing some of the factors that have played a leading role in Quickslide’s success. “Alongside bespoke colouring of the windows, we also apply the woodgrain effect using our own laminating line. We have our own delivery fleet, as well, which consists of six 18-tonne lorries. It is very important for us to operate the delivery process ourselves, instead of relying on courier services. We always insist on adding a personal touch to everything we do, hence our preference to take care of all the goods right to the final point of delivery.”
Tom is also keen to emphasise that Quickslide is proud of its origins and believes that the labels ‘British-made’ and ‘Made in Yorkshire’ carry a lot of weight in the customers’ eyes. “British manufacturers are generally widely respected,” he points out. “Unfortunately, the window industry has historically had a certain stigma attached to it, which we have tried hard to overcome. Our firm belief is that we need to focus on doing things right, rather than be purely results-focused and risk doing things wrong, in order simply to achieve results.”
Www.quickslide.com
This mentality has won Quickslide multiple contracts all over the UK, and Tom admits that it is hard to single out one or two projects, in particular. “We have completed a wide range of works. For example, we recently manufactured 55 bespoke-coloured, mechanical, woodgrain windows, tailor-made for a customer’s country mansion. We have also worked on the former Hob Green Hotel in Harrogate and we have delivered bi-fold doors to Chelsea Football Club, too. Another significant initiative we got involved with, was the renovation of the old bank in Pateley Bridge’s High Street, where we supplied the PVC windows. The High Street even won the ‘Great British High Street’ award in 2016,” he points out.
Quickslide Software
Following a succession of years of rapid growth that let the company scoop a number of industry awards, including ‘Fabricator of the Year’ in 2012 and ‘Training & Development Company of the Year’ and ‘Best Window of the Year’ in 2015, Quickslide had a year of sustainment and groundworking in 2017. “Last year, we were focused heavily on restructuring certain departments of the business. For example, we reorganised our sales department to improve the overall customer experience, along with the aforementioned extension of our production capacity. The key thing for us was not to try growing too fast. It was more about getting all our ducks in a row and making sure that everything we offer is at the very best that it could be,” Tom clarifies.
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“For the rest of 2018, we have got our eye on developing certain market sectors and we are working very closely with builders and construction companies to increase the awareness of the kind of high-end PVC products that we can offer. As with any business, we have to be dynamic and able to react to changes, in order to keep up with market conditions. Brexit will probably continue to have an impact on us, as material costs increase, but we have to do what it takes to be prepared. Only by focusing on our specific targets, will we be able to get to where we want to be,” he concludes, outlining what the future holds for Quickslide.
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Quickslide
Services: Windows and doors