Gateshead glaziers set to expand

Dec 21 2009 By Andrew Mernin, The Journal

A SPECIALIST glass supplier is gearing up to grow its revenue by one third to £6m next year and create up to 20 jobs after winning two six-figure contracts.

At the start of the economic downturn, Gateshead-based Fendor was faced with the decline of its primary industry – commercial property – and so invested in new equipment to allow it to tap into the relatively recession-proof healthcare industry.

The move, which involved £400,000 of investment, has certainly paid off as the company has enjoyed huge demand from hospital bosses for its products which include security and fireproof glass and even glass which has anti-self harm properties.

It now has contracts either completed or pending with the four largest high-security psychiatric hospitals in the country – Broadmoor, Ashworth, Rampton and Carstairs.

The most recent deal is a £2m contract at Carstairs in Scotland which will be completed next summer, while it is also expecting to pick up a £1.7m contract at Ashworth on Merseyside. It has also landed a £1m deal to supply glass to the expansion of the famous Dorchester Hotel in London.

Managing director Chris Duffy, who led a management buyout of the 30-year-old firm three years ago this month, said: "We are in the middle of the worst recession in living memory in the construction industry.

"We have tried to target specialist markets to guide our way through it. A lot of what we did in the past was the commercial office sector which has completely died. The company now would be a third the size of what it is if we hadn’t invested in new equipment to target the healthcare industry."

Fendor displayed a number of new patented products at the recent Healthcare Estates Exhibition & Conference in Harrogate including the micro-motor – a motorised sliding door mechanism which is safely concealed within the window frame.

Meanwhile, the slipper clutch, which is designed to prevent the forcing of a window mechanism, is also among the products for which Fendor has seen overwhelming demand following the conference.

Fendor employs 40 people at its base in Felling and started life in 1982 as Fenlock Door Systems before being bought and eventually sold by Danish firm HansenGroup.