Neil MacWatters has been appointed by Anglo as a key account manager, tasked with building and maintaining relationships with systems houses and fabricators who buy steel reinforcement, while exploring new market opportunities for Anglo’s roll-formed metal products.
“I’ve been working in the window industry for about eight years now, working closely with fabricators on behalf of a large systems company,” Neil said. “I’ve also got experience working with steel reinforcement suppliers, and I understand how the market has changed in recent years.
“For example, systems houses used to maintain a sole source supply of steel reinforcement for their customers, but that has changed. Today, they look at dual sourcing, or sometimes having three sources of supply. This is because the market has changed, with some metal forming companies reducing their focus on the fenestration market or, in some cases, withdrawing completely.
“These systems houses, along with fabricators, require a secure supply of high-quality steel reinforcement at a competitive price, which is what Anglo provides.”
Neil explained that it was the role of Anglo to build those strong relationships in the supply chain, with both fabricators and systems companies. The focus is on providing the best products, and the best price, with the best customer service.
“My relationship with my customers is very important to me,” Neil said. “I spend a lot of time building those relationships so that they can trust what I say.
“In terms of the technical support we offer, we can work collaboratively with customers to engineer solutions that will meet their needs. So, that might be a punched slot in a different location, it could be a different size, it might be a different gauge of material. We can do pretty much anything that they ask us to do.”
David Evans, Anglo’s Managing Director, said: “Neil MacWatters is a great addition to the team. He has a great knowledge of the window and door industry, and he brings that expertise to Anglo to help us build even stronger relationships with our customers.”
Anglo supplies galvanised window and door steel reinforcement in full bar length or cut-to-size. Investment and the evolution of its offer now means that orders are delivered in three days, with many of its customers receiving twice weekly drops.
Recent investment includes its new double-sided roll-forming line, the most advanced roll-forming line in the UK. It features 24 forming stations, allowing Anglo to roll complex sections – in gauges ranging from about 0.8mm up to 2mm.
The line also rolls directly from the coil, punching and cutting ‘on-the-fly’ as part of a continuous process, delivering significant efficiency gains, while investment in dedicated toolsets for each product brings increased precision to manufacture.
