Price pressure

Summary
• The BWF is worried by the increase in doors sold apertured but unglazed.
• Just over 43,500 timber fire doors were sold in the last quarter by the survey’s respondents.
• Doors with 30min fire resistance continue to account for the majority of sales.
• Only a small percentage are sold as door kits.

Timber fire door prices are continuing their downward spiral as demand diminishes.

“If there’s one sure sign of a market under pressure, it’s falling prices as manufacturers battle to stay competitive,” said BWF chief executive Richard Lambert. “The prices for fire door leafs and fire doorsets have been consistently lower in the past four quarters than in the first quarter of 2008. We know from other indicators, such as our own sales of the labels which are stuck on every BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme certificated fire door, that the market has fallen away dramatically. This hits all the harder when it follows five years of such strong growth.

“The fall in the proportion of doorsets sold in comparison with door leafs suggests that contractors may be looking to reduce costs by using their own labour to make the assembly. I’m still worried by the creeping increase in the proportion of doors sold apertured, but unglazed. Our advice is always that vision panels should be cut and glazed by a certificated joinery manufacturer or licensed door converter, never on site.”

This quarter’s report is based on interviewing 45 joinery companies in April 2009, sampled by company size (in volume and number of employees) and region to ensure a balanced spread.

The sample is made up of joinery companies carrying out further work on manufactured timber fire rated doors without affecting the performance, for example, fitting vision panels or making frames to suit. It is made up to include companies certificated for these processes by the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door & Doorset Scheme, companies certificated by other certification schemes, and companies whose alterations to fire doors are not covered by any certification scheme. The sample does not include prime fire door manufacturers. The charts shown here and at www.ttjonline.com show joinery companies’ volume sales of timber fire doors and sales by door type, rating and customer base.

Just over 43,500 timber fire rated doors were sold in January to March 2009 by the sample of companies interviewed. This compares with around 35,200 between October to December 2008 – and almost 26,500 in January to March last year. The table shows the percentage of total volume sales by company size and the total number of timber fire rated doors sold each quarter. Volumes vary each quarter depending on the mix of companies interviewed.

The top chart shows the percentage breakdown of timber fire doors that are bought-in by joinery companies as completed fire doors or door blanks and shows that the latter has risen to 58% from 51% in the previous quarter (and from 43% in the quarter before that).

The second chart shows the percentage breakdown of sales by fire door rating and shows that timber doors with a 30-minute fire resistance continue to account for the majority of all timber fire door sales. A very small number of doors with 120-minute resistance were sold but not enough to register on the chart.

As for door type, 54% of timber fire doors are sold with a filled aperture, which includes vision panels, air vents and letter plates. This is somewhat higher than recorded in previous surveys (up from 38%) and exceeds those having no aperture (36%) for the first time. Almost 10% are sold with an unfilled aperture, which is higher than seen in recent quarters.

Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs (50%) or doorsets (43%), with only a small proportion are sold as door kits (7%). The average price for the door leafs, doorsets and door kits in April were £111, £316 and £236 respectively. In 2008 the surveys showed the average price of a door leaf drifting downwards but it increased marginally this quarter (up from £103 in January).

By customer, joinery companies mainly sell to building contractors – with over two-thirds of their sales going to this group. The remaining sales go mainly to installers, with small numbers to merchants, other joinery businesses or other companies.

Thirty-seven out of the 45 joinery companies interviewed this quarter (82%) reported selling timber fire-rated frames. From this sample over 19,900 timber fire-rated frames were sold in January to March 2009, with sales ranging from two to 12,000 timber fire rated frames.

Of those selling timber fire rated frames, 91% were manufactured in-house and the remaining 9% were bought-in from an external supplier.

The Timber Fire Doors Report, a quarterly trends survey, is produced by Rigby Research and sponsored by the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door and Doorset Scheme in conjunction with TTJ. For survey details or a free copy of the report call Neil Parsonson on 01453 521 621 – or read the full report FREE on the Quarterly Trends page at www.rigby-research.co.uk

© BWF and Rigby Research 2009