Fenestration in 2026
Fenestration in 2026
2026 IS HERE. AND AS THE NEW YEAR GETS INTO FULL SWING, WHAT CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES LIE AHEAD FOR MAJOR BUYERS OF FENESTRATION SOLUTIONS SUCH AS MAIN CONTRACTORS, DEVELOPERS AND OTHER ORGANISATIONS INVOLVED IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF BTR DEVELOPMENTS, PBSA AND NEW HOMES.
AS ONE OF THE UK’S LEADING FABRICATORS OF WINDOWS, DOORS AND CURTAIN WALLING FOR COMMERCIAL AND LARGE SCALE PROJECTS, UNIQUE WINDOW SYSTEMS OFFERS ITS EXPERT OPINION.
With the Government’s plans to increase the UK’s housing stock by 300,000 new homes annually and to build 1.5 million high quality homes by the end of the current Parliament (2029), demand for building products and services is understandably high.
Supply chain constraints, alongside issues like skilled labour shortages, BSA delays and planning bottlenecks, are all adding to the challenges of meeting these ambitious targets.
“To help alleviate the pressure and facilitate the success of our customers, Unique is continuing to invest into our operations, increasing both their efficiency and their capacity.”
To help alleviate the pressure and facilitate the success of our customers, Unique is continuing to invest into our operations, increasing both their efficiency and their capacity.
In 2025, we acquired the assets of AluFold Direct boosting our infrastructure and geographical footprint, ensuring we are better placed than ever to serve clients across the UK. This development followed a similar and equally major investment in 2024 into a new 65,000 sq. ft., state-of-the-art UPVC windows and doors production facility.
In 2026, we will continue this track record.
We are focused on strengthening our presence in the north and on building on our already considerable success in the trade, new build, multi-room and industrial sectors.
Ongoing investment will help us to fulfil these goals and will ensure we continue to offer the depth and breadth of resource to meet the needs of even the largest construction or development project.
On top of that, we also continue to offer customers the benefit of a ‘one-stop shop’ solution for their fenestration needs.
This ensures greater consistency, more streamlined supply arrangements with less margin for miscommunication and errors, and reduced admin with one point of contract, one delivery and one invoice for everything.
Throughout 2025, building materials and services saw ongoing price rises as a result of numerous factors.
This includes global supply chain issues, inflation, an increase in both taxation and the minimum wage, and strong demand from not only the construction industry but also the infrastructure sector.
To maintain margins, seeking the lowest cost fenestration products can seem like an obvious solution but all too often this ‘cost above all’ approach can mean cutting back on quality and performance. Thankfully, there is another alternative.
“At Unique, we are helping our customers to mitigate current cost pressures by focusing on innovation.”
At Unique, we are helping our customers to mitigate current cost pressures by focusing on innovation. In particular, we continue to employ value engineering to eliminate unnecessary expense whilst maintaining or improving product quality.
We also continue to invest into our operations and the latest fabrication technology.
This helps to maximise output and quality as well as resource utilisation. We are then able to pass some of the cost savings this offers us to our growing nationwide customer base of housebuilders, developers and main contractors.
Following on from the above, the rising cost of building materials and services has led some fabricators to become embroiled in a ‘race to the bottom’. This focus on cutting prices to compete is a strategy that offers short-term gain – but often with long-term pain.
The continual lowering of customer value and prices is not sustainable and has led to the demise of numerous businesses involved in the supply of both UPVC and aluminium fenestration. This in turn has left their customers in a difficult position in terms of unfulfilled commitments and after-sales support.
“Unique continues to focus on best value rather than best cost.”
To ensure our longevity and ability to support the success of main contractors, developers, housebuilders and other clients long into the future, Unique continues to focus on best value rather than best cost.
We are motivated less by quick wins and more by the prospect of building enduring partnerships that are both lasting and mutually beneficial to all involved.
