In a sign of the times in the mouldings sector, DW Mouldings is discussing purchasing a high output Weinig Powermat 3000. This follows recent installation of a Weinig Cube four-side planer and Hofmann spindle moulder.
Cheshire Mouldings has been investing too, bringing two new Weinig production lines on stream last year. These, said national sales manager Jacquie Capper, have been kept more than occupied ever since.
In short, moulder manufacturers are busy. “With Brexit and the pandemic, we anticipated a pretty dead year,” said DW Mouldings managing director David Howard. “But after the first lockdown, every month’s been a new record.”
Cheshire Mouldings reports a similar experience.
“As the UK’s only manufacturer of small section pine mouldings, we’ve seen a huge surge in demand,” said Ms Capper.
Producers were impacted by the first shock of pandemic as the range of moulder customers, from merchants, to joinery producers and builders, drew down the blinds, or severely curtailed activity.
“We stayed open to do our bit and support customers who continued operating,” said Mr Howard. “What initially kept us going to a significant extent was coffin mouldings, as makers pre-empted rising demand.”
At W Howard, the year started well. “Then Covid hit and we saw a huge decline in April,” said group commercial director Simon Fleet.
SAM also reported a “period of real concern”. “There was huge uncertainty,” said sales director Gerard Wilson. “It was a case of fearing the worst, but hoping for the best.”
As lockdown relaxed, however, manufacturers quite soon saw the market stirring back to life.
“Our route to market for mouldings is through resellers, merchants and DIY outlets, and after the initial challenges due to customer closures, business has been positive, with demand remaining consistent since,” said Archwood head of marketing and business development Craig Holt. W Howard saw the market turning around from April. “After that, the floodgates opened for the rest of the year,” said Mr Fleet.
SAM said it was helped in getting production moving by its customer base coming back on stream in stages.
“Whatever the pressure to increase manufacturing, we were determined to do it in a safe way, and the fact we had this staggered return to activity, rather than facing a sudden tsunami of orders helped,” said Mr Wilson. “First we had the RMI sector and DIY outlets increasingly busy, in-store and online, and needing material. Then from June we saw the resurrection of house building.”
A key factor in the mouldings market turnaround has been the upturn in DIY and home refurbishment and remodelling triggered by lockdown and remote working.
“Consumers clearly have more money to spend on the home as they haven’t been going out or taking holidays. They’re also remodelling to create a living/work space,” said Mr Howard.
“It became clear pretty quickly that people in lockdown were starting to do things around the house,” agreed Mr Wilson. “And we’ve seen our merchant customers adapt to this to take their share of the market, to capture the range of customers, from the white van guys to the couple doing up their living room. While house building is now back, many merchants have been intent on keeping their presence in this market, so they’ve now got a nice spread of business. We’ve focused on helping them in this with marketing support.”
Archwood too has reacted to the evolving market, and helped customers respond to it, with “service innovation”.
“Part of this is helping to communicate how to utilise mouldings better and demonstrate what can be achieved with different products,” said Mr Holt. “We’ve produced ‘How to’ guides to underline the opportunities they provide. Mouldings offer endless possibilities. They can be a starting point for reinvigorating a property.”
One W Howard product which has clearly tapped the surge in DIY has been its new Wall Panelling kit, reported to be a “huge success”. The company has also responded to merchants’ needs in an increasingly diverse market by upping the flexibility of its offer.
“The sector has been particularly buoyant for us since we introduced an even bigger core range in half packs,” said Mr Fleet.
Cheshire Mouldings has also stepped up merchant support.
“It’s been a challenging 12 months for the sector,” said Ms Capper. “[In response], we’ve developed more layers of communication, so customers are kept up to date, with advanced shipping notes to let them know when goods are on the way and a new App we’re ready to launch for making stock orders easier.”
Another effect of the pandemic in the mouldings market has been to accelerate the shift of purchasing online.
Among DW Moulding’s responses has been to develop a new online product library. “It has 5,000 lines, against the 1,700 in our previous library, and it’s easier and quicker to search,” said Mr Howard.
Cheshire Mouldings still advocates merchants making their mouldings box a front of store feature – “it’s the most profitable part of their shop, with one in four of their customers buying mouldings”, said Ms Capper. At the same time, it urges merchants to have an effective online shop window. “We’ve seen those with an online option increasing sales up to 50%,” said Ms Capper.
Archwood has also focused on digital presence. “It’s extremely important, with more people both searching and buying online,” said Mr Holt. “In response we’ve invested in new websites for Richard Burbidge and Atkinson & Kirby to best support customers.”
SAM also actively helps customers present its products to best advantage online.
“Our marketeers act as secret shoppers, making sure that buying a SAM product on a customer’s website is a slick, efficient, pleasant experience,” said Mr Wilson. “We’ll then advise on how they might refresh or renew the way they present SAM products. The response is really positive and it’s a mutually beneficial partnership. The more they sell, the more we manufacture.”
Manufacturers also report the mouldings market becoming more discerning, with consumers’ ability to search and buy online boosting demand for greater choice.
One reaction from SAM has been to develop its Contemporary offer.
“While maintaining our selection of traditional designs, such as torus, ogee and pencil round, our new Stock Range includes a Contemporary collection that’s very 2021; this is characterised by very minimalist designs, such as square-edged styles, perhaps with a small groove or chamfer. And it has had a very positive reaction.”
W Howard reports the house building sector driving demand for its Contemporary range, but also urges merchants to have “good display units of bespoke ranges” such as its ‘Period’ products.
Cheshire Mouldings has seen planed square edged products growing fastest, combined with increased demand for white primed, further underlining, perhaps, customers’ desire for greater choice and having the ultimate say in how mouldings are finished.
DW mouldings, which makes three or four new cutting tools per day, also reports benefiting from the trend to more bespoke products, while SAM says that the wood veneered product remains important, but that the wrapped market is now more a mix of real wood and paper-wrapped ranges. It also says that demand for the SAM Zero fully finished product for the offsite, modular build sector continues to grow apace.
In terms of core material, SAM still sees further “market entry opportunities” for MDF given its defect-free and performance characteristics. At the same time, DW Mouldings reports the timber moulding customer is willing to explore new options, such as Accoya and Lignia.
Manufacturers do report some Brexitrelated supply disruption earlier in 2020. But thanks to a combination of earlier stockbuilding and new port procedures bedding in, these do not seem to have caused significant problems. “Our purchasing team worked with our long standing supply lines in the EU to ensure we had additional stock in place,” said Mr Holt.
More significant since, however, has been soaring global demand for timber, tightening supply and rising prices, with pandemic disruption to international logistics exacerbating the problem.
DW Mouldings reported particular availability issues with its mainstay, 1in US white oak, and also red oak. “Our strategy is to buy in sufficient quantity, say eight months’ stock of white oak, so we can keep prices steady,” said Mr Howard. “Now we’re using the timber more quickly and, due to rising international consumption and disruption to production caused by the pandemic and the harsh US winter, it’s become much harder to source, while prices are rising all the time.”
European oak supply is also tight, he added, while the container rate for shipping meranti sections from Indonesia had jumped from US$2,000 last year to US$14,000.
Manufacturers expect the raw material situation to make life difficult well into 2021.
At the same time, the sector is broadly positive on demand. “There will be challenges, with the key [for stockists] being having the right product mix along with good availability, for which you need the right supply partner,” said Ms Capper. “But we see sales increasing as the spring surge begins for timber-related products.”
Faced with a rising call for trade milling in particular, meanwhile, DW Mouldings is considering increasing raw materials storage to satisfy demand.
