Hurst Plastics has reported another healthy year of trading across all its door product groups. Interestingly, sales of the Hull-based firm’s door panels were up by nearly 4% in 2014, indicating that there is still a market for them, despite the growing popularity of composite doors.
Mark Atkinson, Hurst Plastics’ Sales and Marketing Director, says: “Last year was a great year for us in sales of both panels and composite doors. Composite door sales grew by some 14%, which was extremely encouraging, but we also saw a healthy performance in door panels for the second consecutive year with sales rising by 4% on the previous year. The door panel may indeed be a mature product, but there is still plenty of demand for it.”
Hurst now manufactures on average 2,000 panels a week and believes that customers have increased their panel spend because the company has continued to invest in developing its range to introduce bespoke new styles and colours. Hurst offers an exclusive collection of triple glazed designs and an extensive range of colours – five woodgrains, plus around 12 foiled finishes as standard – including Anthracite Grey and Chartwell Green, which are growing in popularity.
Mark adds: “Regardless of product group, it’s vital to offer variety and exclusivity to help installers differentiate themselves from their competitors. Hurst, for instance, is the only door panel supplier to offer a digital glass printing service so installers can create a completely bespoke glass design for a customer’s front door. Sales of these units have steadily risen as homeowners realise that they’re no longer restricted to the standard glass designs which are widely offered on panel doors. In addition, a totally bespoke range of triple glazed panel options add to that differentiation and mirror the popularity of the triple glazed bevel units seen in composite doors.”
Hurst Plastics supplies one of the widest ranges of door panels in the industry and has also seen rapid growth for its Modern Collection of contemporary styled door panels, which can be personalised to suit individual requirements. Hurst recently supplied five sets of double doors from the Modern Collection to a customer in the North West. The doors were created to the customer’s own particular specification and incorporated a bespoke flat panel design with a modern stainless steel trim and glass units, hand crafted in Hurst’s glass workshop.
Hurst’s collection of door panels features in its recently revamped 24 page brochure – The Definitive Collection. The brochure is available to download from Hurst Plastics’ new website – www.hurst-plastics.co.uk.
