Gerda’s managing director Danny Williams looks back at the composite door failures that led him to taking on the Gerda brand in the UK, and the importance of selling with confidence.
Do it properly or not at all – wise words from a man who has spent more than 35 years observing the best, and worst, players in the market place. Words, however, that many in the residential composite door market sector choose not to hear.
For too long this frustrated Danny Williams, managing director of Pioneer Trading and Gerda Doors in the UK. Danny’s experience of product quality and service by a number of well known door brands led him on a journey to find an alternative supply source. That journey’s destination ended up being in Poland, at a manufacturing site not far out of Warsaw – Gerda Doors.
“As soon as I saw the build and quality of these doors, I knew there was an expansive potential UK market hungry for the benefits offered by the Gerda brand,” said Danny. “It was never my intention to turn supplier, but with Gerda I knew I could do it properly!”
The natural market level for Gerda is the upper middle price point, including the burgeoning 70mm sector, with a performance that Danny believes is still superior to most GRP and PVC-U faced products currently available. “We offer formats from 60mm to 88mm, with thermal efficiency across the range between 0.79 W/m2K to 1.3 W/m2K. But the manufactured quality is in a different league, with a three chamber reinforced aluminium internal construction with PU cores, located into reinforced aluminium outer frames utilised across all doors”.
To this day, the quality of the Gerda door range is something that Danny is rightly proud of. His team at Pioneer has worked closely with the Polish manufacturer’s technical team, bringing the range’s spec in line with UK expectations, and ensuring that they put the doors through British certification.
“In all honesty, with the amount of knowledge we now have on an industry wide basis, there is no excuse for poor product quality. Unfortunately, when margins are squeezed and profits must be maintained no matter what, the sacrifice of quality when you have a large market share is a cheap price to pay. It’s people like me who are left to pick up the pieces with frequent and expensive call backs.”
These call backs can be a significant drain on a smaller installation company’s trading. Fixing the problem for the customer, and trying to communicate the problems with a supplier who sees no value in helping to remedy the situation no matter how many people are shouting and screaming is damaging both financially and, in the long term, psychologically. “You lose all sense of faith and confidence in the supplier,” said Danny. “How can you be expected to go out and sell a product that you don’t believe in?”
Danny’s belief and confidence in Gerda oozes out of every pore. He originally went out looking for a mass market alternative, but found a door that is superior in every way. When installed in showrooms where buyers can try and test the products for themselves, comparisons between Gerda and composites highlight the stark differences between the two. Gerda retailers are enjoying upsells, because the increase in performance and the sheer ‘feel’ of Gerda doors is exemplary.
“Our retailers have had their faith restored in resi doors, as they make decent money even from standalone installations. And with no callbacks, their profit margins are protected,” said Danny Williams. Gerda doors have been designed and engineered to perfection, and the shift in perception has meant that many Gerda dealers are seeing healthier margins with less effort.
“I’ll say it again – do it properly or not at all,” concluded Danny. “Fit a Gerda, and you’ll never hear about it again. Fit a cheap, composite alternative, and you’ll be running around in circles trying to fix it. I know which one makes better business sense.”
ISSUE: SEPTEMBER 2024
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