Quickslide pro pro#

At Quickslide we are very pro UK and, even more, pro Yorkshire! As time has gone on we have become more and more self-contained with glass, foiling, fabricating vertical sliders, aluminium and hardware, all in-house. I would like to think everyone would be encouraged to ‘Buy British’ but, inevitably, price will come into it. Will there be an increase in the amount of product purchased from Europe and less dependence on overseas suppliers or will logistics and world trade return to how it was before coronavirus?Īdrian Barraclough: It’s an interesting one. The service we provide is very important and we have always tried to have spare machinery or vehicles We have £1 million of stock, effectively 2 months of production, and a fleet of lorries ready to deliver products out to our customers. That has happened with two large suppliers but, the good news is that we shall now source product from other suppliers who I’m sure will appreciate the business. So I paid what we owed and we shall never order from them again. It didn’t matter what your payment record or longevity of relationship was, they wanted the cash, now. We have one supplier with whom we spend around £120K per month on a rolling order who furloughed all their staff, including the MD, with the exception of a credit controller simply tasked with getting cash in.

Quickslide pro full#

We appreciate that cashflow for everyone is a problem but it is interesting how it is, generally, the very large companies that have made the demands to be paid in full and, on the nail. The more interesting side is from the supply side. Do you anticipate that some customers may have gone during lockdown and you may have to ramp up sales?Īdrian Barraclough: That’s really an unknown at the moment but we aim to work with our customers through these hard times. PVCu frames, composite doors and aluminium and distribute it to installers nationwide. When the lockdown happened, we had to turn round 6 x 17.5 tonners and bring them back to base, simply because the product couldn’t be delivered. In fact, the bigger problem is having £600K worth of product that remained undelivered. We keep a large amount of stock on the shelves at any time so that re-starting isn’t a problem, initially.

Quickslide pro windows#

Obviously, the manufacturing of windows and doors had halted and I believe, like us, some customers were providing an emergency service as opposed to a full-on programme of fitting.ĭid you continue to receive supplies from your various suppliers during lockdown?Īdrian Barraclough: No, supply was non-existent and, to be fair, we didn’t expect any deliveries.

How many of your customers locked down completely? Of those that kept open, what level of service did they offer during that time?Īdrian Barraclough: I think the majority of customers shut down their normal operations but it was surprising how many needed odd items to be sent out. Of coffee, we are saving valuable time for everyone and, as we all know, time is money. Just as you have interviewed me over Zoom and saved time, mileage and my supplies Just as found out during other crises such as World War 11, necessity is the mother of invention! Customers like the instantaneous reaction to a problem and the fact that they could, with a little help from our end, sort the issue themselves – and very quickly. However, what really came out of this experience was the use of video and Zoom technology and how we could talk people through issues and help them through technology without the need to send a man and a van out to sort things out. We didn’t want to let any customers down and decided that we needed to have a service available for any issues of customer care in the home, posting out of stock items, and having a service engineer available.Īs it happens, it provided a 24/7 service and many customers took advantage of it by ordering spare parts and we could service the requests without sending a van out. What do you mean by that?Īdrian Barraclough: At Quickslide we closed down all manufacturing but left the service department operational.

We’re only just getting back to work but you are already talking about how this epidemic has changed your work practises.

So says Adrian Barraclough, Chairman of Brighouse based fabricator Quickslide to Glass News’ Editor, Chris Champion, as he reveals the ups and downs of Covid-19, including how it has revolutionised service calls, shown who their friends are and how social media can turn even the best of intentions sour. Picture above: Adrian Barraclough, Chairman, Quickslide