48 | Sector Focus: Wood Plastic Composites
◄ Ecodek is also working to enter the WPC fencing and cladding market, as well as experimenting with harder-to-recycle polymer products like coffee cups to further improve its environmental credentials.
Composite Prime has remodelled its range for 2024. “We have remodelled our range for 2024,” said Matthew Spedding. “We’ve cut out a lot of the lower priced stuff and raised the bar again, introduced some new colours and introduced a new brushed woodgrain – our HD 3D+ board.
“HD 3D was our biggest seller in 2023 and we’ve evolved that to make the product sexier. “The 3D+ has a new woodgrain and is now outselling anything we have and that is at a higher price point.” It also features a capping.
“It’s not our lower end products, but the higher value products that grew in 2023. That is where we see the growth.” Composite Prime has also observed a consumer move away from the grooved and ribbed look. “We’re now seeing the market wanting purely woodgrain, so we developed a dual woodgrain instead of a woodgrain one side and a groove the other side. I think people associated the ribs with lower value. “And we are seeing brown coming back.
We’re focusing more on product evolution, new colours, new woodgrains and new capping. The consumer is becoming a lot more switched on to having a capped board, as opposed to an uncapped board.”
The colour fastness, prolonged UV stability, stain resistance, ease of cleaning and longer warranties of capped boards are the reason for this, he added.
“Consumers are much more aware of composite boards now and what they want from them.”
2024 MARKET PROSPECTS One thing which is key to market performance in the outdoor product sector is the weather. As TTJ was going to press, we were approaching the all-important Easter season, typically a time when the days are getting lighter and warmer, with people looking to get out in the garden more. February saw the wettest on record for many UK regions. “It’s that time of year now, if the sun comes out and stays out for a weekend we hope for a significant increase in sales,” said Phil Marris. “We have been relatively conservative for our budget this year, but we are budgeting for growth, some will come as organic like- for-like growth and some due to product innovation.
“I think the market will be different shaped. Last year we saw interest rates and the cost of living bearing down on demand through the year. It is election year in 2024. I think we will see an increase in demand.
“What we have seen so far this year is more early demand, with web traffic and enquiries up.”
Ecodek believes its position as a UK manufacturer positions it to supply bespoke commercial or public sector projects with
non-standard deck board lengths. A local authority contract in Hornsea, Yorkshire in 2023, featured the company supplying 2.1m long boards to identically replace the existing product in boardwalks.
Mr Marris referenced the issue of some low quality Far Eastern hollow-core imported products coming into the market and believes the sector may see reports of some more product failures as a result.
He differentiated these products to some of the well-established UK importers supplying Far Eastern product supported by warranties.
Composite Prime’s Matthew Spedding agreed that some white label “pile it high and sell it cheap” products were still in the market, with some suppliers just looking to offer the lowest price option.
He reported a very strong order book going into Q1 2024. “We see 2024 as better than 2023. We have had some tremendous sales in Q1, and were happy for that,
“This year our primary investment focus is installers. We are now going very hard and investing in the installation industry for us to influence the product decisions made on a domestic and commercial level.” Composite Prime has scrapped its old pro installer scheme and established a new Lantra accredited training academy called Build with Prime, whereby installers are required to complete a two-day training course to be an accredited Composite Prime installer. “One of our largest growth areas is our cladding products. HD Clad Pro is booming in the modular buildings and garden office sector. The composite fence market has grown as well – we’re in the process of launching a phase two fencing product. We have seen a monstrous increase in our enquiry rates for composite fencing this year.
“There are people out there with money, you just have to market for that individual and find them. It’s not all doom and gloom, we are selling a luxury product.” It also has high hopes from its new distributor Global Stone Paving. Arbor is hopeful for 2024 prospects for
Trex.
“The market is still very much saturated with lower quality products and, given the downturn in demand, it is going to take some time to filter through this inventory,” said Lee Heitzman.
“Consumers are becoming wise to the risk with these products and social media is littered with examples of product failures on an almost daily basis. This would indicate that, hopefully, the market will start to clean itself up.
Above: Lighter and brown colours are trending. Ecodek Evolution in Hazelnut Brown TTJ | March/April 2024 |
www.ttjonline.com
“On the horizon, we should start to see some of these suppliers moving away to newer, emerging global markets where their products are untested. ■
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