Hurst Plastics has sealed its position as the UK’s largest door panel manufacturer with the announcement that it has increased production by 50% to 3,000 panels a week.
The latest year-end figures from Hurst reveal that the company has ramped up output of door panels to record levels and grown its customer base by 20% with more than 300 active new customers coming on board in the last six months.
Hurst has also reported a healthy rise in demand from within the commercial sector with the business supplying its composite doors and third party accredited composite fire doors to a growing number of local authorities and social housing contractors.
This strong period of growth follows a £650,000 investment in new machinery, people and delivery vehicles at Hurst to increase its capabilities and provide customers with industry-leading levels of quality, service and value. Hurst is set to embark on a new round of investment in the first quarter of its new financial year, which will see the company implement a new warehouse management system a, introduce a next generation online ordering and account management system and double its CNC machining capacity by taking delivery of two new, state of the art CNC machines to keep pace with increasing demand.
Mark Atkinson, Sales Director at Hurst Plastics, explains: “We’re delighted both with our performance over the last 12 months and our record for maintaining consistently high levels of service. With door panels, we really are bucking the trend in a mature market. Admittedly, as the product enters into the declining stages of its life cycle, more businesses exit the market and this perpetuates growth for those that remain. However, our figures do prove that there is still demand for door panels and we will continue to invest in them whilst the need is still there. Despite this record growth, we are really proud to have maintained our impressive OTIF levels of above 99%, which is in no small part down to the investments we’ve made and our continuous commitment to customers.
“We are fast becoming the ‘go to’ supplier for panels and our eminence has opened up some additional opportunities for us across all market sectors. With nearly £2 million of new business on board in the last year alone and the investment and capability to help our customers achieve growth, our new financial year is already gearing up to be very exciting indeed. But whilst we are focused on sustained growth, we are dedicated to continuous service improvement too. This is fundamental in helping us to maintain the excellent product consistency and service levels we’ve become known for.
“Our customers are at the heart of everything so we certainly won’t be standing still this year. That’s why we will continue to invest and innovate to build on a very strong year and create further exciting opportunities for our customers.”
Hurst Plastics has invested substantially over the last three years to increase the production capabilities of its two dedicated factories in Kingston-upon-Hull. The firm maintains a large external sales team and has developed a number of IT systems to provide a greater online presence for customers and make the process of ordering and buying doors simple. The company operates its own 15-strong fleet of vehicles and has the flexibility to immediately bring additional vehicles on board to serve increased volumes. Hurst continuously introduces new door styles, colours and glazing to inspire the market and satisfy demand for greater choice.
