Double Glazing Business

paddyrg

The margins are pretty huge on double glazing which is exactly why 'double glazing salesmen' are as popular as estate agents, solar panel cold callers, etc - the 'easy money' factor attracts sharks and chancers.

There is certainly money to be made in it, but you have to convince people to trust you are not installing some Chinese knock-offs, etc. Also, do your sums carefully - £50 for delivery of a fragile item across Europe sounds extremely cheap. I can't get a fragile item across London for that price, so that may be based on a MOQ, and packaging may be a real cost, too.

Elisecas

diesel01 wrote: »

Good evening,

A friend of mine changed her double glazing windows and came to around £2600 for 4 windows, when I said to her that I could of got her the windows for around £1000 she almost wanted to take the phone to call the guy to take his windows back.

My business intention: I can get good quality 5/6 rooms (not sure if it's the right term) double glazing for really cheap price from a EU country.

I will take a quote from someone who posted here:

Window 1 - 2350mm x 1250mm (two side openers and one middle top) - £870

I can get that quote for 300 euro, (£220),windows opening wide and in a V(not sure if it makes sense) transport to uk will be £50 (even less per window), so I have a full window in the uk for £270 (this is just a normal quote, i'm sure I can get the price down If i buy 100 windows a month), I would be very happy If i could sell that to someone for £500 or even less, have a profit of £200-250 per window without Installation.

Now my question is: Where and would I be possible to find clients and sell them the double glazing without installation? At the beginning I'm happy to give a builder the project and charge for the installation, all windows will have a genuine 5 year's warranty.

I look forward to hearing you opinions.

If the price includes installation, clear up, insurance, a guarantee and a profit, then it's perfectly reasonable that the net price shoots up.


So it depends what people want to pay for. I'd rather pay the greater amount and have the assurance and the comeback, because I feel it's a better economy over the long term for me.


But each to their own.

Savvy_Sue

Elisecas wrote: »

So it depends what people want to pay for. I'd rather pay the greater amount and have the assurance and the comeback, because I feel it's a better economy over the long term for me.

So would I. Otherwise you've got a problem, and the installer says it was the the windows which were at fault, and the supplier says it's the installer, and you go back and forth between the two.

diesel01

I'm also thinking of offering 10 years warranty on the windows, nothing will go wrong with them as long as they are from a well knows factory (Rehau). Someone just told me today that he installed some Gealan windows 9 years ago and 1 year after he put a cheap double glazing window, nothing has gone wrong with them since, and they have seen temperatures like -40 & + 40 during summer. I have seen lots of rip of companies in London and people pay the price thinking it's better quality when it's not.

Currently i'm trying to find a part time unpaid job as a window fitter, then I will see how it goes from there.

Mistral001

diesel01 wrote: »

Currently i'm trying to find a part time unpaid job as a window fitter, then I will see how it goes from there.

That is a good idea. It might be difficult to keep your long-term plans to set up on your own as a supplier to yourself while working for an installer but you must of course.

motorguy

paddyrg wrote: »

The margins are pretty huge on double glazing which is exactly why 'double glazing salesmen' are as popular as estate agents, solar panel cold callers, etc - the 'easy money' factor attracts sharks and chancers.

I think the "double glazing salesman" model is what it is is because there is a relatively low success ratio, particularly relative to the effort that may be required. That is to say, its relatively labour intensive without any guarantee of a sale. Hence the salesmen are paid a very small base (if any) and a relatively high commission.

Also, by virtue of needing to measure the windows, etc, etc, its very much a requirement that the salesman goes to the persons house, rather than the customer come to a showroom.

Thus i this the sales model is the way it is because it needs to be to succeed, rather than theres that much money at it that its "easy money" for everybody.

Mistral001

The double glazing salesman model has such a poor reputation because of the tactics some commissioned salesmen have used to sell double-glazing. Tactics which can end up with people paying way over the odds for a product. Nowadays things might have changed and it might mean that the double-glazing salesman on commission will have to visit a lot of informed potential customers before they can find someone who is, lets say, uninformed.

John_Lilburne

Any warranty claim would be with the OP as he/she would be the seller unless the warranty is an insurance backed warranty and imo I wouldn't be wanting to have to phone Lithuania/Estonia etc to make a claim for failed Double glazing units. I would be very wary of buying from a newly set up company ,here today and gone tomorrow.