Some hope for fire door manufacturers

Summary
• Public sector building projects are still holding up.
• More joinery companies are seeking fire door certification.
• Timber fire doors with a 30min fire resistance continue to account for the majority of sales.
• Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs or doorsets.

The latest quarterly review of timber fire door sales, compiled by Rigby Research, appears to show a big rise in sales, but the overall market is not as rosy as those figures may suggest. “It’s easy to look at these figures and wonder what’s going on when they appear to conflict so markedly with other market data,” said Richard Lambert, chief executive of the British Woodworking Federation.

“What’s important to remember is that this is not a trend survey designed to track the movement of the market, so much as a sample survey of sales by a pool of manufacturers working within the BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door & Doorset Scheme. That means that there is always going to be some natural variation depending on the size of the companies interviewed in any one sample.

“Given that the majority of doors are sold direct to contractors, I suspect the figures reflect the work in areas which are still holding up, mainly public sector building projects in health and education sectors.

Increasing enquiries

“Our enquiries from joinery companies seeking certification of their fire doors have increased in recent months. It seems those who have contracts to offer are insisting on certification, and manufacturers see it as a way of differentiating themselves from the competition. If, as we expect, imported doors will try and break into the market by competing on price, it’s worth investing in proving your quality to give the client that extra confidence that they’re getting the value for their money.”

This quarter’s report is based on interviewing 45 joinery companies in October 2008, 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 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 show joinery companies’ volume sales of timber fire doors and sales by door type, rating and customer base.

Fire door sales

Just over 70,000 timber fire-rated doors were sold in July to September 2008 by the joinery companies interviewed. This compares with around 45,000 between April and June 2008 – and in July to September last year. The table above 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 indicates that the proportion of completed fire doors bought in by joinery companies has gradually increased over the past two quarters.

The second chart indicates 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, 63% of timber fire doors are sold with no aperture and this proportion has risen in recent quarters. Thirty-two per cent have a filled aperture which includes vision panels, air vents and letter plates, and only 5% are sold with an unfilled aperture. Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs or doorsets and only a small proportion are sold as door kits.

Average prices

The survey asks for the average price of a doorset, door kit and door leaf and found that in October they were £256, £625 and £139 respectively. Average prices for door kits were higher than previous quarters due to the sample size and mix of companies interviewed.

By customer, over two-thirds of joinery companies’ sales go to building contractors. The remaining sales go mainly to installers, with small numbers to merchants, other joinery businesses or other companies.

Thirty-eight out of the 45 joinery companies interviewed this quarter (84%) reported selling timber fire-rated frames. From this sample, over 24,800 timber fire-rated frames were sold in July to September 2008, with sales ranging from 6 to 7,000 timber fire rated frames.

Of those selling timber fire-rated frames, 73% were manufactured in-house and the remaining 27% were bought-in from an external supplier.