Out of sight and out of mind, the bleak 1980s
gave way to a prosperous Celtic Tiger in the
1990s. By the dotcom crash in 2000/1, the
Irish economy was transformed. Its core of
international businesses centred on finance,
pharmaceuticals, IT and software was strong
enough to sail through with the fastest growth
rate in Europe. A century or more of net
emigration reversed into net immigration as
a highly educated workforce returned to find
well paid jobs and somewhere to live.

A big new build housing market

At its peak in 2006 the new house build
market, excluding Northern Ireland, was just
over 93,400. That's about half that of the UK
for a population one twelfth of the UK's.
Some of the froth was blown off the housing
market in 2007, but still 78,000 new units
were built. House prices fell 7.3% in 2007,
and activity is much weaker currently.

Some are forecasting just 35,000 units for 2008. It's a big drop, but that is still more
than twice the rate per person we build in the UK. The market is expected to pick up
in the second half of 2008.

Despite current market weakness, construction is a more important part of the
economy than in the UK. Apartments, houses, offices, business parks, warehouses,
roads and flyovers are being built everywhere. Irish building related firms have
prospered in Ireland and expanded in the UK and Europe.

National Profiles builds to keep customers growing

I met Paul O'Sullivan, Managing Director of National Profiles Ltd, Ireland's leading
profile distributor to see for myself how the market has changed and to hear how he
expects it to develop. National Profiles distributes profile for System 10, Ultraframe
and Smart Systems and has recently taken on the distribution for Spectus, North
and South of the Border. We met as a smart new business park, distribution centre
and offices was being built across the road from the existing premises to ensure the
company could continue its record of substantial growth.
The impressive development is in Mallow, County Cork. For efficiency, traffic is
one-way through the new centre to simplify and speed up loading of its articulated
trucks. The new premises will also help to future-proof the distributor by providing
the facilities and space to handle the fast changing profile and product mix.

"Northern Ireland took longer to respond to the Peace Dividend," Paul O'Sullivan
explains, "but its growth has been faster than the rest of the UK in the last ten years.
The biggest barrier now is the Irish Sea, which we do have to take account of -
poor weather disrupts sea crossings. Because of disruptions to supply, we carry
a lot of stock so our customers can fabricate whatever the weather.
We carry large volumes of profile for other reasons too.

"Colour is a high proportion of a fabricator's business with around 50% of total frames
supplied, North and South, in a wide variety of colours, including red, blue, green,
grey, black and brown, as well woodgrains and more subtle shades. If we supply 12
or more colours in addition to white, we have to carry all the associated profiles and
components for the different types of windows and doors in each colour. That's a lot!

Colour could grow from 50% to 70%!

"The swing to colour is continuing. Many think it could hit 70% quite quickly.
Five years ago it was 20%, similar to Scotland, but people got tired of white for
everything, and installers realised that homeowners would pay more for colour if
they were given a choice, so it's a big opportunity."

Colour is growing quickly in the UK, although it is some way behind Ireland,
but for the same reasons I believe it is likely to go the same way.

"Our service and support has to be as good as a systems company's,"
Paul continued. "We are expected to trouble shoot as well as support them in
winning new business and specifications across Ireland.
Our support is what a fabricator would expect from a premium systems company.

Reversibles and vertical sliders growing too

"Increasingly Ireland is becoming a single market, with benefits all around.
Many of our customers are in the North. Through them for example we are a major
supplier of two reversible windows to the Northern Ireland Housing Executive.
The window market is not the same as in the UK, although the Scottish market is
also different, but the markets are converging in many respects.
Vertical sliders are growing and may also be a relatively bigger market than in the UK.

"We calculate that around 70,000 windows and doors a week were manufactured
and imported into Ireland during 2006. This dropped back to 60,000 units a week in
2007, although we have not yet finalised the figures. Nearly 80% is PVC-U, 12-15%
aluminium and the rest is timber and aluminium-wood composites.
The figures exclude curtain walling and shop fronts, which are nearly all aluminium.

~ Paul drives the company forward ~

A market with lots of scope to grow

"The North accounts for around 25% of windows and doors installed, but it produces
perhaps 35% of total frames made by large fabricators such as Camden, Superseal
and Dessian. Ireland is not big compared to the British window and door market, but
it has considerable scope for growth. Saturation is relatively low at around 50%,
compared with the 85% or so for the UK.

On the way to No.1

"Our calculations show that National Profiles had about 12% market share in 2007
based on tonnage to manufacture windows and doors. We expect this to have
increased to over 15% by the end of 2008 with growth from Spectus and System 10.
That would put us in third position by tonnage alongside Camden and Munster Joinery,
although as both of them are manufacturers that would make us the No.1 distributor
in Ireland."

For further information contact Paul O'Sullivan - Tel: 00353 225 0100