The Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF) Group has produced its first-ever Market Knowledge Report’ for the UK glass and glazing industry. Working alongside two of its commercial entities – the Fenestration Self Assessment Scheme (Fensa) and the British Fenestration Rating Council (BFRC) – the GGF combined resources and data into a 25-page report, marketed as the first narrated industry analysis to be published for more than four years.
The report offers analytical insights and factual installation data about installations completed from January 2018 to June 2021. It aims to present a thorough and accurate representation of industry performance, and precedes the launch of the GGF Group’s on-demand data service, which it hopes to go live with in 2022.
Anda Gregory, the GGF Group’s chief development officer, described the report as containing some of the knowledge, data and insight that “the industry has been crying out for”, adding that it is an “exciting first step into data” for the group. “We listened to our members, customers and the wider industry,” she explained, detailing the group’s motivations for publishing the report. By offering up greater transparency, the group hopes to not only meet an industry need and to further establish the GGF Group as the go-to place for glazing industry information and insight, but to set an example for others to follow.
There is also a hope that, in future, the report’s information may be relevant to installers seeking to gauge their performance against others in their area; the information may also prove useful to manufacturers, who could compare the number and type of products being installed and against a geographical breakdown. The GGF hopes to produce its Glazing Market Knowledge Report twice a year.
“The home improvement sector of the UK window and door market has not seen the publication of any meaningful industry insights since 2017,” explained John Agnew, the GGF Group’s managing director. “Consequently, companies at all levels within the window and door industry are basing key strategic planning initiatives using old data and forecasts, and educated guesses. The GGF Market Knowledge Report and the Fensa Knowledge Hub that will be launched in 2022, not only redress this information vacuum, they provide factual data that has simply never been previously available.”
Insights
Three examples of data revealed in this first report are below. The full report report is available free of charge to GGF members, Fensa-approved installers and BFRC customers. Those who are not members of the GGF Group will soon be able to buy the report, for £250 + VAT, from the GGF Shop.
* Window installations increased by 11.2% in the first quarter of 2021, compared to the same time in 2020. (Fensa)
* The average cost of an installation job is £3,504 (based on Fensa’s installation data from the top 10 performing local authorities).
* 49% of window licences that the BFRC has registered this year are A-rated or higher. The proportion is 15 percentage points lower for door licences.
Process
The report has been designed following extensive discussions with industry partners, which established the project’s key criteria. The consultation shaped what the group hopes to include in future reports, as well as the expansion of the Fensa’s Knowledge Hub, which the group is planning to transform into a subscription service that will provide a gateway for analysing key industry data.
