Summary
• The BWF Fire Door and Doorset survey has been restructured.
• Quarter-on-quarter sales of fire doors have fallen.
• The majority of fire doors sales are those with 30-minute fire resistance.
• Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs or doorsets.
This quarter’s survey is based on interviewing 45 joinery companies in January 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.
“This survey shows a quarter-on-quarter fall in sales of fire doors for the first time since the BWF-CERTIFIRE Scheme started monitoring the trends in the market in 2003,” said British Woodworking Federation (BWF) chief executive Richard Lambert. “It’s hardly surprising, given the dramatic fall-off in the market for new private sector housing in the second half of 2007.
Joinery companies
“The restructured survey sample used over the past three quarters shows activity outside the volume prime fire door manufacturers. We know the bulk of their doors are sold and distributed through builders merchants and we wanted to get a clearer idea of the market at the next level down – joinery companies who buy the basic doors from prime manufacturers to process, convert and sell on.
“The surveys show that the main customer group for these companies are builders and contractors, so they will be the first to feel the squeeze as housebuilders reduce their output in response to the slowing demand.
“No-one is under the illusion that this is going to be anything other than a difficult year. The interesting thing for me is the underlying stoicism and the determination not to be panicked into assuming a recession. Almost every BWF member I speak to tells me they still have work but they expect it to fall away at some, as yet unknown, point. What remains to be seen is whether the interest rate cuts control the slowdown or whether the wider impact of the global economy starts to affect employment. If people can afford to pay their mortgages, the housing and construction sector will keep its head above water in the long run.”
The charts below show joinery companies’ volume sales of timber fire doors and sales by door type, rating and customer base. As this is now the third survey of its kind, we can start to show trends and these will become clearer as the report builds momentum.
Based on the sample of joinery companies interviewed, just under 28,000 timber fire-rated doors were sold in October to December 2007. This compares with 45,059 in July to September 2007. The table shows the percentage of total volume sales by company size and the total number sold each quarter.
The percentage breakdown of timber fire doors that is bought-in by joinery companies as door blanks or completed fire doors remains broadly similar to previous quarters’ surveys (see graph).
Timber doors with a 30-minute fire resistance continue to account for the majority of all timber fire door sales (see graph), while 46% of timber fire doors are sold with either a filled aperture or no aperture and 8% are sold with an unfilled aperture. This split remains broadly similar to previous quarters. Most timber fire doors are sold as door leafs (53%) or door sets (41%) and only a small proportion (6%) are sold as door kits.
Building contractors
By customer, joinery companies mainly sell to building contractors, which account for 58% of sales. The remaining sales are split quite evenly among installers, merchants or other joinery companies.
Twenty-eight of the companies interviewed (62%) reported selling timber fire-rated frames. From this sample just under 10,300 timber fire-rated frames were sold in October to December 2007 and sales ranged from 5 to 3,600 timber fire-rated frames. Of those selling timber fire-rated frames, 80% were manufactured in-house; the remaining 20% were bought-in from an external supplier.
Lastly, companies were asked if they were aware of forthcoming changes to Building Regulations (Approved Document B) which may affect fire door sales. Only 10 (22%) were aware; 78% were not.