New figures released by specialist extruder of gaskets, Extrudaseal, reveal that despite increases in overall volumes, black remains by far and away the dominant gasket colour.
According to its analysis, there was little change in the supply of gasket in the last two years, with black accounting for 92% of all window and door gasket it supplied in 2016 and 2017.
White was the next biggest seller accounting for 4.5% of sales in 2016 with a slight drop in popularity to 4.2% of the total last year.
Grey gasket remained the next strongest performer, accounting for approximately 2% of sales in 2016 and 2017, while brown accounted for approximately 1%. Metallic gasket accounted for 0.2% of sales in 2016 and 0.1% in 2017, with the remainder in both years, (0.3 to 0.7%) made up by special orders.
Paul James, sales director, Extrudaseal, said: “Perhaps slightly disappointingly, demand for colour gasket stood still last year, despite an overall increase in volumes. Of the colour gaskets we supply anthracite grey is singularly the most popular – which is a direct reflection of popularity the colour is enjoying across the board.
“But fundamentally, the opportunity to upsell aluminium product overall by colour matching gaskets to frames by both fabricators and installers, isn’t being exploited.”
Extrudaseal became a standalone business from parent and now sister company, Euroseal, in 2012, giving new and dedicated focus to the then Euroseal flexible extrusion business.
Manufacturing gaskets for a wealth of systems, including Smart, ALUK, Metaltech, Senior and Ikon, amongst others, Extrudaseal’s range is reportedly available in more than 1,000 RAL colours.
“The irony is that product differentiation in window and door manufacture and retail is very difficult to come by,” continued Paul. “We know colour gasket works for those customers who are using it because they’re telling us. Matching gasket into the frame colour, whether that’s grey, white or something else, delivers an effect which lowers the sightline so that it disappears into the frame creating a genuine point of differentiation for very marginal cost.”
This includes its RAL 9007 metallic silver gasket, designed to provide a match to contemporary silver powder coated installations, which accounted for approximately 0.1% of sales last year.
“The figures are clear – black remains what most of our customers buy from us. This also means that there is an opportunity that’s going untapped. We have the capability to manufacture in more than 1,000 RAL colours, which add a tangible point of differentiation at the point of retail,” said Paul.
“That’s a very real USP in a crowded market place.”
