Glass company looks inwards to boost order book

STOCKPORT-based Cheadle Glass is keeping its order book healthy despite the downturn by focusing on products for inside commercial premises, rather than traditional windows and doors.

The family-owned business, which has been going for more than 40 years, has an annual turnover of around £5m.

Despite the economic slowdown, which has impacted on more traditional orders for windows and doors, Cheadle Glass has seen a 12% increase in the side of the business which supplies and fits glass balustrades, screens, dividing walls and frameless doors for the domestic and commercial market.

Keith Flowers, managing director, said: “I’m pleased to report that this increase is helping us to offset the quieter time we are currently experiencing with windows and doors.”

He added: “About three years ago we saw an explosion in the use of glass for internal applications and I’m pleased to say that its popularity has been sustained..

“Having invested heavily, to the tune of £2m over recent years, in an extension to our factory plus new technology and machinery, we were well placed to take full advantage of the increase in order levels and they keep coming through.”

The company recently provided glass bathrooms and a red glazed wall in the double-storey entrance to Wilson Bowden Development’s Belvedere House on Booth Street, in Manchester.

It also fit the mirrored glass bar at Obsidian; a glazed staircase, wall art and fully glazed champagne cellar at Panacea, and a glass staircase in Ithaca, also in Manchester.