A specialist glassmaker based in north-east England has returned from a health sector exhibition confident of securing orders worth several million pounds as it continues to expand after refocusing th…
A specialist glassmaker based in north-east England has returned from a health sector exhibition confident of securing orders worth several million pounds as it continues to expand after refocusing the business. Fendor, which already has contracts to supply glass to high-security hospitals such as Broadmoor and Rampton, returned from the Healthcare Estates Exhibition & Conference held in Manchester 5-6 October 2010, with almost 50 new project leads. Chris Duffy, managing director of the Felling-based firm, said: We have only done this twice – we went to the event when it was held in Harrogate last year. This year, a lot of people came back and said thanks for listening to what we said. We had excellent feedback from people within the health service who hold the purse strings, saying this is what we want. We had 45 fresh project leads and the value of those projects will be several million pounds. We expect to convert most of those enquiries into orders. The only thing is that, with the Government cutbacks, some projects will be down-scaled. Duffy took over Fendor, which designs, manufactures and installs its products, in a management buy-out four years ago. The company, which used to concentrate on commercial property, also supplied products for Kings Cross station in London and the Baltic in Gateshead. We started in health care very slowly eight or 10 years ago and, for four or five years, we spent a significant amount on R&D on windows, which are very high-profile, said Duffy. We are driven mostly by healthcare – we spent a lot of money on research and development because we had a unique solution for those markets. The business is becoming well-known for its specialist systems such as the unique CleanVent window – a horizontal medium security window which is up for a Building Better Healthcare Award. Fendor set a target of GBP 6 million turnover in 2010 but is now expected to reach GBP 6.5-7 million by in December. Factory staff numbers have gone from 15 to 32 in the last 18 months and recruiting is expected to continue. We are generating more than enough orders to continue the growth, Duffy said. We are extremely busy.