If there’s one thing you can say about the UK mouldings market, it’s that it is lively. Whether it’s MDF or solid timber, manufacturers are striving hard to develop their product offer and promote their brands to both new build, and refurbishment and maintenance sectors.

The current uncertain economic situation has meant that, within the residential market, people are tending to stay in their current homes for longer. Rather than spending large amounts to move up the property ladder, they are looking to improve their existing homes, and what better way to do that than with new mouldings, whether it’s skirting boards, architrave, dados, picture rails and other trims and decorative fittings?

Most manufacturers we spoke to were positively bullish about their mouldings businesses – whether they’re in MDF or solid timber.

“The MDF mouldings sector is definitely growing,” said Jonathan Grant, managing director of W Howard Ltd. “We deal solely in MDF mouldings which have seen a definite increase, taking the place of timber in the new build market, as well as in the refurbishment market.”

But equally, Richard Burbidge Ltd, supplying solid hardwood and softwood mouldings, is also experiencing growth. “Sales have been growing because of the increases we have made in the range and thanks to our acquisiton of West Dowels and Mouldings in 2001,” said product manager Sue Peebles. “Signs are encouraging. “

New build market

It is clear that both MDF and solid timber mouldings manufacturers rely, to different extents, on new build and the refurbishment markets. MDF manufacturers, particularly, cite the importance of new build, as housebuilders look to buy machined items in larger quantities and want “uniformity and predictable performance”.

“For us, the new housebuilder is the dominant market, but with the repair, refurb and maintenance sector growing steadily as it also recognises the benefits of using quality MDF mouldings,” said Alan Fillingham, manufacturing director at Palgrave Brown (UK) Ltd’s which supplies the Silktrim range of pre-primed MDF mouldings.

One of the advantages of MDF mouldings manufacturers cite is the fact that the products are free from defects such as knots and warping.

“This means less wastage on site as there is no need to order extra lengths,” said Mr Fillingham. “We’ve found that, particularly in the new build sector, there has been a lot of substitution of the traditional softwood mouldings for MDF as customers have realised the benefits and potential cost savings to be made.”

Mr Grant agrees that when it comes to speed of fixing and minimising certain defects, MDF has its advantages over solid timber. “Where you might be staining for aesthetic purposes, and you want the grain, then timber has its purpose,” he conceded. “But undoubtedly new housebuilders have sought MDF products because of time savings and lack of defects, which are the selling points over timber.”

But as Keith Fryer, TTJ consultant and co-director of London-based timber importer and merchant, T Brewer & Co, said there is definitely room in the market for both MDF and softwood/hardwood mouldings, especially as these ‘defects’ are actually a selling point for solid timber.

“In our bespoke area of the market, MDF is a very small percentage of the total mix, less than 5%, because our customers want something different from everybody else,” he explained. “People like MDF’s ‘clean-ness’; but some customers want the antithesis of that, they want knots and hand-finishing, which you can only get with solid timber.”

&#8220MDF manufacturers, particularly, cite the importance of new build as housebuilders look to buy machined items in larger quantities and want ‘uniformity and predicatable performance’”

At FW Masons & Sons Ltd, although the company’s business is a mixture of new build and refurbishment, Pauline Morrison said it fares better in the repair and maintenance/DIY sector.

“It is the replacement market which seems busier for us,” she said.

On the retail side, Masons finds that the DIY market still seems to favour solid timber, but in new build it is also seeing MDF making its mark.

The biggest selling products within MDF mouldings are primed, said Mr Grant. And while in timber, the best performers are still unfinished or unpainted, he maintained, more and more people are also choosing painted, because of the cost benefits of avoiding site finishing. “The more work that is done ‘in-house’ the better for the site operator, because it means less labour for them. And it’s also a benefit for us because it means added-value,” he said. “We much prefer to machine a primed, moisture resistant skirting board than we would machine an unprimed, standard grade MDF stairtread, because there is no added-value.”

Flooring influence

Masons also reports increasing diversity in the timber mouldings market.”Although pine continues to be the most popular product, light hardwoods such as beech and maples are taking some share. People are buying mouldings which match the fashion for timber flooring,” said Ms Morrison.

Masons continues to see keen demand for unfinished products in solid timber, thanks, perhaps to the availability of more advanced stains and finishes. But in MDF it too reports healthy sales of hardwood veneer and foil-wrapped ranges, thanks, it also believes, to consumers matching mouldings with flooring. “There is a continuance of unfinished, but the growth is in veneered mouldings, which have a price advantage,” said Ms Morrison.

The influence of the flooring market on mouldings is something Richard Burbidge is also watching closely. “At the moment, we still sell good volumes of solid unfinished timber,” said Ms Peebles. “But the flooring range of pre-finished mouldings is also selling in large quantities. We keep our eye on trends, so if it is selling to the flooring trade, obviously we need to look at stained and finished mouldings in other areas.”

Decorative profiles

Traditional mouldings shapes are still selling well, particularly in solid timber. But in the past couple of years, Richard Burbidge has been putting more decorative profiles onto traditional products. “We now do a fluted dowel and reeded dowel, and these have been received well,” said Ms Peebles. “We are also looking to put more decorative profiles onto other standard items and at new areas where we can sell something different, such as our hollow conduit mouldings.”

In such a competitive market, is it worthwhile for the individual merchant to set up their own production, especially for the bespoke market? With new advances and developments in technology, rather than having to set up whole production plants, there are machines which cater for shorter, ‘special’ runs. But at the same time Ms Morrison feels the big specialist producers will retain the bulk of the market because of their ability to supply a broader range of product cost-effectively. “When it comes to offering a wide variety of trim mouldings, the investment in setting up in tooling is restrictive, and merchants will continue [to source from] large distributors,” she said.

The future of the mouldings market looks secure as manufacturers look to capitalise on new developments and trends for profiles and finishes. As Sue Peebles, at Richard Burbidge, commented: “We have a development department which is constantly looking at new ideas. We are always looking at ways different timber mouldings can be sold.”