Five-year anniversaries are traditionally celebrated with a gift of wood, but aluminium would be a much more appropriate choice for AluK and Fentrade as they mark five years in partnership together.
Fentrade chose AluK as its aluminium systems supplier during its early months of start-up fabrication and, after exceeding its first year target by 15%, it has gone from strength to strength ever since. It has built a reputation for precision manufacturing, reliable deliveries and helpful and intelligent customer support and, as a result, has a growing customer base, an expanding workforce, and a well-equipped, extended factory.
Based in Newport, trade manufacturer Fentrade supplies retail and commercial installers with all their aluminium needs. From the outset, it has fabricated windows and doors in AluK’s much loved and hugely versatile 58BW and 58BD systems, alongside BSF70 bifolds and BSC94 inline and lift and slide patios. Latterly, these ranges have been extended with the thermally efficient HI range of profiles.
It has recently added the new SL52 curtain walling system to its offering and is gearing up for the new AluK S140 Lift and Slide patio door and the very clever Quik Clip™ clip in bead.
However, while the power of the AluK brand and the strength and breadth of the product range has certainly helped Fentrade grow over the past five years, it is the service and support that AluK provides which has really underpinned the partnership.
Chris Reeks, Fentrade’s founder and Managing Director commented: “The customer service and technical teams at AluK are particularly helpful to us. We get great communication from the customer service team so we can always keep our customers informed and up to date, and the technical team provide a fantastic resource for answers to any design and manufacturing queries.
“Over the past couple of years, we’ve worked more closely with AluK’s projects team as well, and they have helped us secure some significant new contracts and supported our move into commercial work.”
Russell Yates, AluK’s Managing Director added: “Fentrade is a great example of how a fabricator can leverage maximum benefit from their partnership with us. From free training for their fabrication team to access to our design studio to demonstrate AluK products to their customers, they have made full use of the resources we offer.
“In marketing terms, they have also aligned themselves firmly with AluK and that has helped them win business from installers who like and trust our products.”
Chris Reeks added: “From an installer’s perspective, Fentrade is an easy company to do business with. For instance, we check every single order and query anything that doesn’t look right before it becomes a problem, we deliver on time and in full and we keep customers informed every step of the way. The support we get from AluK helps to make that possible and we have the confidence of knowing that they will go on supporting us as we continue to grow.”
