When Kevin Cubbage steps down as director of the British Woodworking Federation next spring, he’ll have clocked up over six years in the post. He chuckles at the fact that he’s been there so long and that so much has happened at the organisation in the interim. After all, he only planned to do the job as a stand-in for four months, and it took some persuading to get him to do even that!
He’d been a member of the BWF for years and in the mid-90s became vice-president under the then president Richard Fawcett. But he was considering a new direction. He’d been managing director of joinery manufacturer Crosby Sarek for six years and had just helped oversee its sale to Spring Ram. It was time for a change and he was preparing to take a breather while he decided what it would be.
‘But then Richard Fawcett asked if I would step in as director – I think his words were, “why don’t you just pop in to sort it out?”‘ he said. ‘Eventually I agreed to do two days a week for four months while they found somebody else. The rest, as they say, is history. Two days became three and more, as required, and four months became six years!’
While he needed some arm-twisting at the outset, however, Kevin rapidly got the BWF bit between his teeth. And the energy that he and his team have thrown into their work since – backed by the ‘enthusiastic support’ of four presidents, Mr Fawcett, Clyve Perkin, Roy Wakeman, and recently appointed Ron Cohen of STP Joinery – has helped literally to transform the organisation. Following the early 90s recession, membership had slumped to just 283 and income to £216,000. Today the BWF has 479 members and annual revenues are nudging £1m.
In Kevin’s words, when he took over the federation was in a ‘pretty parlous state’. ‘The decline in membership and revenue was clearly reflected in the organisation itself,’ he said. ‘I was appalled to see the facilities the staff had in the old premises. They’d done a great job in the circumstances, but morale was understandably low.’
One way to resolve the BWF’s problems might have been to pare it down so it represented just the bigger joinery operations. But for Kevin that was anathema.
‘Making it a smaller organisation would have been throwing in the towel and, being very competitive and a bad loser, I couldn’t do that,’ he said. ‘It had to be the body representing all UK joinery and woodworking interests. Excluding the self-employed individual craftsperson, that gave us potential membership of around 2,500.’
To stem its decline, the BWF clearly had to make membership more attractive and, above all, commercially so.
‘People don’t have the time for trade associations these days unless they’re definitely going to get something out of it,’ said Kevin. ‘Of course, the federation’s work in shaping standards and representing the industry to government and so on is still vital. But the difference now is that we believe our main function is helping members become more profitable. They have to be able to use the BWF in their business and get value out of membership. In fact, it has to be so valuable that not being a member is not an option.’
At the same time it was vital that, in its eagerness to recruit, the BWF did not relax membership criteria.
‘If companies just want to sit back and wait for the benefits of belonging to the BWF, we steer them away. We work on the basis that, if it’s difficult to get into, its worth being a member.’
Undoubtedly the key initiatives launched by Kevin and his team to make BWF membership indispensable, have been the Timber Window and BWF-CERTIFIRE Fire Door Accreditation schemes. Both were designed to give joiners third party performance and quality accreditation of their manufacturing and products. This, in turn, would give specifiers, end users and consumers greater confidence in choosing timber windows and doors.
‘Before, in the windows market in particular, all we seemed to do was cry on one another’s shoulders about loss of market share to rival materials, notably PVCu,’ said Kevin. ‘We wanted to create tools to help us fight back, that would make members’ products more attractive to buyers and create a culture of excellence in the industry.’
Virtuous circle
It was hoped the initiatives would also underpin prices.
‘Most people would at least consider paying more if the benefits of high performance timber windows were explained,’ said Kevin. ‘The aim was a virtuous circle; help promote a quality product, for which consumers would pay a fair price which, in turn, would help manufacturers maintain standards.’
The schemes also have their aggressive aspect.
‘The aim was to pull up the drawbridge behind us,’ said Kevin. ‘In fire doors, we wanted to make it impossible to sell products that weren’t third party certified and fit for purpose. After all, fire door performance is literally a matter of life and death.’
Under the timber window scheme, manufacturers must have their products third party tested and components warrantied. Factories and quality management systems are checked and each window design separately accredited before being allowed to carry the ‘permanent, tamper-evident, easily understood and fully traceable’ BWF label. To raise awareness of the latter, the whole initiative has been backed with comprehensive marketing – including TV advertising – plus membership directories.
‘We now have 10 companies in the scheme representing 50% of UK timber window production,’ said Kevin. ‘There are also 13 approved suppliers providing the all-important coatings, hardware and glazing systems. And recently UPM-Kymmene, Boxon-Norträ and SCA became the first timber companies to join.’
For the fire door scheme, the BWF teamed up with the fire-test specialist CERTIFIRE. In market share terms, this initiative has been even more successful than the window scheme, with 66 member companies accounting for over 90% of UK production. It also includes component suppliers and involves the finished product carrying labelling which, again, is permanent, tamper evident, fully traceable and very clear. In addition, the BWF and FIRA developed a registered installer scheme to ensure that the finished door set is fitted as well as it’s made.
The two initiatives have made a major contribution to turning round the BWF’s finances. Companies pay to belong and, in addition, firms have joined the BWF to participate – including Travis Perkins and Marlows, which are in the fire door scheme. By law, the initiatives must be open to non members, but they pay a premium.
Another key BWF strategy in the past few years has been to increase co-operation with other trade organisations in related fields. It is part of the Construction Confederation and now has modern offices in the latter’s London headquarters.
‘This means members have ready access to Construction Confederation policy departments for advice on legal matters, employment tribunals and so on,’ said Kevin. ‘We can also easily liaise on issues of mutual interest with other associations in the Confederation.’
The BWF has also formed ‘strategic alliances’ with other trade bodies, including the Timber Trade Federation, Guild of Architectural Ironmongers and Builders Merchants Federation.
‘Our members are constantly rubbing shoulders with members of these organisations. It makes sense to have a close relationship,’ said Kevin.
Market awareness
In line with the BWF’s greater commercial bent, its active technical department has also become more market-oriented, producing more technical guides to help the industry maintain and raise product standards, as well as ensure compliance with Building Regulations. The latest is a video on on-site glazing.
The Federation has also overhauled its 19,000-hit-per-month website and reinvented its annual general meeting, restyling it the BWF Members’ Day. The AGM itself is kept very concise and the rest of the day comprises workshops on key industry issues.
Given members ‘apparently unquenchable thirst’ for technical and regulatory advice, the BWF is now recruiting a new technical officer, taking the team up to nine. It will also soon have a new code of conduct which is intended to drive up industry standards further. Beyond that Kevin believes there’s great scope for still more development. ‘In three years membership could be 750 companies, accounting for 80% of the UK’s £1.85bn annual joinery market,’ he predicts. But reaching those heights, will be the job of Kevin’s successor. While he still relishes the job, he feels the federation, like any organisation, needs injections of new blood. He also feels personally the time is right for a new challenge. After all, he only planned to stay four months…
