Mileage in mouldings

Summary
• The RMI market has kept the mouldings sector busy.
• Skirtings and architraves continue to be best-selling products.
• MDF mouldings have become a significant part of business.
• Oak mouldings are gaining in popularity.

The mouldings market hasn’t been immune to the recession but, thanks to having fingers in so many different pies – renovation and refurbishment projects as well as new build construction; and DIY/domestic as well as professional/commercial – it has had ups as well as downs in the past 12 months.

There is a sense now, however, that those ups may be starting to predominate. While many mouldings producers cited a 20-25% fall over 2008’s volumes at the beginning of the year, recent figures quoted by some now show a smaller drop of 5-15% – and some are actually reporting increases.

Cheshire Mouldings is one such company: “We’re three months into a new financial year and sales figures show we are 9% up compared to this time last year,” said managing director John Carney. “We think people are beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel and are starting to spend money on improving their homes.”

Mouldings producers within the Donaldson Group of companies also report rising volumes, with hardwood and bespoke moulding specialist Parker Kislingbury seeing an increase over last year and James Donaldson Timber Ltd and Alfred Hulme Ltd putting a figure of a 15% rise over the same period in 2008. “Although it should be noted that last year was one of our lowest volumes for over five years,” said Ian Torrance, managing director of James Donaldson Timber.

Improve not move

The “improve, not move” philosophy and the repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) business it brought with it has been a buoyancy aid for many producers. “RMI continues to be extremely profitable for us,” said John Carney, while Gary Carter, head of marketing at Richard Burbidge Ltd, attributes his company’s 5-10% increase in sales in October/November to RMI projects.

“The DIY/domestic sector has held its own well and RMI has certainly held sales up,” agreed Tom Tong, marketing director for Finnforest. “This has somewhat eased the fall in trade sales to the merchant sector.

“From our own research the rate of volume decline from the commercial or trade sector is twice that of the domestic or DIY sector,” he added. “It’s worth pointing out that the DIY trend was born out of previous recessions and it has remained reasonably resilient through this current recession.”

Certainly, from a merchant’s point of view, “refurbishment is going to be the market going forward,” said T Brewer director Keith Fryer. Brewers is increasingly being asked to “pattern match” existing mouldings, for school extensions, for example, resulting in small batch runs of bespoke product, he said.

Skirtings and architraves continue to be the best-selling products – dados are less fashionable – with quadrants, Scotias, torus and ogee profiles high in the popularity stakes. Where changes do seem to be occurring is in substrates and finishes. Softwood still accounts for the lion’s share of production, but hardwoods and MDF are rising up the ranks.

Significant MDF business

“MDF mouldings have become a significant part of our business as ex-stock or back-to-back items,” said Keith Fryer. “There’s no question we’re seeing an increase and I’d guess that’s likely to grow because the price of Scandinavian joinery softwood is climbing rapidly and the price difference between the two will close or maybe even cross over. As MDF is manufactured in the UK, it’s not subject to the same price pressures.”

“Softwood costs are soaring,” agreed David McDonnell, sales director of Primer Mould producer W Howard Ltd, which committed solely to MDF mouldings in 1995. “Joinery softwood has gone up by approximately 40-50% in the year to date.”

This is almost certainly a factor in MDF’s gain of market share, particularly as “its defect-free nature also makes it more cost-effective,” he continued.

It’s not all down to cost, of course. Pre-finished MDF mouldings are seen as a fast-fix, hassle-free option, which makes them favourite in new build construction and popular for DIYers.

However, MDF doesn’t have it all its own way and some people will continue to specify softwood precisely because it doesn’t look as “perfect”. That might sound odd, but it’s a real consideration in projects that involve matching or recreating traditional mouldings. “One of the reasons our customers like softwood mouldings is because they want to recreate what was there before and are looking for the ‘grain’ finish that you get with brush-applied paint,” said Keith Fryer.

Pine still remains a key and best-selling species in the mouldings market for both Richard Burbidge and Cheshire Mouldings, but both have seen a swing towards hardwood – specifically oak.

“Homeowners are increasingly asking for greater timber choice, often to co-ordinate with flooring or furniture,” said Burbidge’s Gary Carter. “Consequently, there are opportunities to trade customers up to higher value timbers that reflect wider interior trends, such as white oak, which continues to grow in popularity.”

Parker Kislingbury Ltd’s managing director Rob Wilbore shared the view that “top-end products” are where the growth is. “We have found that there has been a particularly high demand for our bespoke hardwood profiles,” he said. “People are keen to add their own ‘stamp’ to their home and are prepared to spend a little more for the excellent finish you get from hardwood. Our best-selling products are oak mouldings, skirtings and architraves.”

Oak is in vogue

“Oak is very in vogue,” agreed John Carney. “There’s been a rise in demand for oak flooring in particular and small decorative [oak] mouldings complement and finish a room to a high standard and that’s what homeowners want to achieve even in these challenging times.”

Robbins Timber managing director Richard Bagnall believes that changing tastes in furniture have also influenced the mouldings market and favoured hardwoods and, he added, changing fashions mean that the mouldings market, while mature, will never stagnate.

“Our main market is manufacturers and joinery companies who want their own patterns so they can make furniture that is unique to them,” he said, “so it’s a market that’s changing all the time. We have customers who change from ash to oak or walnut, for example. And one of our bespoke manufacturer customers is going to produce a trade range of kitchen units and so we will machine a different range of mouldings for that.”

Product development in a mature market is a challenge, but not an impossible one. Cheshire Mouldings, for example, has developed Klad, an oak staircase cladding system. “It’s an easy way to totally transform a staircase and we developed it as part of our mouldings range,” said Mr Carney.

“It is simply installed over an existing staircase and there is no need for nails or screws. It’s proving incredibly popular with customers who have installed oak floors and want to complete the look with an oak staircase. We’re now also producing oak skirting and architrave to keep up with customer demand.”

Contemporary designs

Finnforest is exploring new contemporary designs for specific regional markets and, according to Tom Tong, is also looking at innovative cavity-backed solutions for cabling and pipework with discreet fixing technologies.

Meanwhile, Richard Burbidge is introducing a new Trade Classics range to its architectural collection from January. “The profiles are supplied fully finished in a high quality satin white paint to save time on site and are dual faced to allow customers to buy the same product but with the choice of two different finishes,” said Gary Carter. “This provides greater design choice, while saving shelf and display space for stockists.

“Traditionally we didn’t supply pre-finished mouldings but, to stimulate sales in tough conditions, it’s vital that suppliers can offer customers new products that respond to current trends.”

On the MDF front, James Donaldson Timber has added more than 50 new white primed Silktrim lines since February and W Howard has extended its Primer Mould +Plus Veneered range.

The veneered range enables W Howard to capitalise on the trend for matching mouldings to hardwood flooring and furniture. “Since the launch of our Primer Mould +Plus Veneered range in September 2008 we’ve seen a dramatic growth in veneered exceeding predicted sales,” said David McDonnell. “The initial offering was in American white oak, and we’ve now extended that into American black walnut.

“We also have a range of shrink-wrapped adjustable head door linings in primed [MDF] and a veneered lining which is adjustable in both the head and the width,” he added. “This is an excellent product for merchants as it means they don’t need to hold a variety of widths in stock as one lining fits nine different door sizes.”

Colours and finishes

Fellow MDF mouldings specialist, Northern Ireland-based SAM Mouldings is rapidly expanding its range of colours and finishes within its wrapped MDF mouldings and recently launched a dual purpose primed MDF skirting.

The dual purpose skirting offers merchants the opportunity to reduce stockholding, while still essentially providing the same product range. The product was the result of eight months’ research and development, ensuring the cutting and painting techniques were perfected, said sales and marketing manager Gerard Wilson. “Our objective is to create new opportunities for our customers to sell more of our products, which benefits both parties.”

There is, without a doubt, a lot of mileage left in the mouldings market. “As long as architects demand something different for their developments and first-time buyers continue to make their own mark on their properties, wood-based mouldings will continue to represent a significant core product category,” said Tom Tong.

“Mouldings are incredibly versatile and make a huge difference to the finish of a room,” added John Carney. “As long as people want to refurbish and improve their homes there’ll always be a demand for mouldings.”