Sector Focus: Joinery Products | 43


50,000 SHADES OF GREEN


Combining business discipline with advanced technical and environmental performance are key to success in a demanding joinery market, says West Port. Mike Jeffree reports.


According to leading bespoke timber window, door and fire doorset manufacturer West Port, the consequence of today’s challenging economic environment is greater caution across the joinery market. That puts the emphasis more than ever on precisely meeting customers’ requirements first time and hitting project deadlines. For West Port, it also means targeting the right kind of business.


“In the current climate, clients are taking longer to make decisions, assessing risk more carefully and expecting greater certainty from suppliers,” said West Port Commercial Director Mike Clancy. “At the same time, manufacturers are managing cost pressures, labour challenges and supply chain volatility.” These factors combine to make business discipline critical. “For West Port, it means being clear about where we add value and being selective about the work we take on,” said Mr Clancy. “It’s not about chasing volume, it’s about delivering consistent quality, maintaining margin and building long-term relationships with the right clients.” The company, he added, combines this strategy with its inherent strengths as a business. From its 175,000ft2


purpose-designed


factory in Maryport, Cumbria, West Port serves domestic and commercial markets across the country via a network of licensed distributors. The product range covers the spectrum, from traditional to contemporary, to suit all types of British building. Its high-tech facility includes a state-of-the- art electrostatic paint plant which can apply 10-12 coats in a single pass with overspray recycled by the facility, helping keep down costs and prices. The only other system of its type in the UK is operated by Jaguar cars. The factory has a paint mixing facility which uses a spectrometer, enabling it to replicate samples of a desired colour. Doors and windows can be finished in 200 standard RAL colours, and the mixing facility can produce 50,000 colour variations, on top of which, West Port supplies natural wood finishes using a variety of translucent coatings. Its factory-finished products also come in dual colours, with the option of different shades, or a colour and natural


in focus,” said Mr Clancy. “The UK has a significant existing housing stock much of which requires upgrading, compliance improvement and ongoing maintenance. As new build slows, the importance of refurbishment and asset management programmes increases.”


Pre-paint process at the West Port factory


wood finish, inside and out. West Port acknowledges that the public sector is a demanding place currently, operating under significant financial pressure that is ‘inevitably impacting project delivery’. “We’re seeing greater scrutiny on spend, increased value engineering and longer procurement cycles,” said Mr Clancy. “But at the same time, there are areas where compromise simply isn’t an option. Building safety, fire compliance and regulatory requirements are non-negotiable – in fact, the level of scrutiny in these areas is only increasing.”


This, he added, creates a clear divide in the market between projects where cost is the primary driver and those where risk, compliance and performance take precedence. “For manufacturers the challenge – and the opportunity – is to position themselves firmly in the latter market,” he said. “At West Port, our focus is on supporting clients where the priority is getting it right first time, not just achieving the lowest upfront cost.” The slow pace of new housing delivery is also having a widespread effect in the joinery sector, particularly, says West Port, for businesses that rely heavily on volume- driven new build activity. “However, this is also driving a shift


Such projects, he added, tend to be more complex, technically demanding and more sensitive to compliance and performance. The company also sees its focus on timber as a strength, in fact increasingly so. A defining trend in the joinery sector in the last decade, said Mr Clancy, has been the growth of composite products. They have been marketed effectively around consistency, reduced maintenance and ease of installation, appealing to both developers and parts of the public sector. “What we’re seeing now is a more informed and balanced conversation,” said Mr Clancy. “As the industry becomes more focused on whole-life performance, sustainability and compliance, the limitations of a purely ‘fit-and-forget’ approach are becoming clearer. In many applications, particularly in refurbishment and social housing, considerations such as repairability, lifecycle cost and long-term performance are becoming far more important.” Backing this, the company cites research into timber window technical and environmental performance by Heriot-Watt University. It calculated the average lifespan of timber windows trialled at 56-65 years, as against 23-35 years for the equivalent products in uPVC. “At West Port, we’re seeing a shift away from


blanket product preferences to a more pragmatic approach – selecting the right material for the right application,” said Mr Clancy. “In that context, high-performance timber solutions are very well placed, particularly where quality and compliance are critical.” More broadly, he concluded, that while the joinery market may remain challenging, the underlying drivers are still strong. “Businesses that will succeed in this market are those that that remain focused, adapt to changing conditions and consistently deliver on their commitments. That’s where our focus is at West Port.”


www.ttjonline.com | Summer 2026 | TTJ


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