Here at HPP we don't rest on our laurels; 2016 was one of our busiest and most successful years to date, and we're expecting and planning for 2017 to continue that trend.
I'm pleased to say the year ahead looks like it will certainly appeal to a lot of you, thanks to some exciting new developments, range extensions and new product lines that are sure to delight and excite new and existing trade customers, whilst helping extend your own customer offering significantly too.
If you've been following HPP on Facebook or Twitter , you'll be aware that we've now super-sized our production facilities, bringing in state-of-the-art machinery and developing our warehousing infrastructure This means our new production lines are now working 24/7 to produce some of the highest quality doors within the KBB industry. It's an investment we're extremely proud of, and customer feedback has been outstanding too.
And then there's Avanti, our popular stock doors range that now has its own dedicated warehouse. Last year we doubled the number of available decors and this range was extremely popular. Demand keeps getting stronger, so we're expecting to see this area of the business to keep getting bigger, and our customers continuing to benefit from this outstanding next-day range.
Issue 2 of our trade catalogue will be published later this year. It's proved to be a very popular resource, even in the current climate of substantial internet use. Trade customers have the catalogue to hand and can refer to the website for the more information and online content (videos, downloadable brochures, swatches etc.) It's great to see the fusion between the printed catalogue and the website; two different forms of media providing our established and up-and-coming trade customers with the information they need. It's no mean feat to create a catalogue of our entire range: we estimate it will be around 500+ pages!
On a more consumer focused angle, our 'A Unique Choice' brand is also due to be launched this year, with a new website and comprehensive kitchen and bedroom brochures which will bring all of our door ranges together for the first time. The A Unique Choice brand will also see the addition of new sales cases which will include literature, samples and useful tools to assist you during the sales process. All of which is designed to help create a more tailored consumer focused marketing platform for our trade customers to benefit from.
But as you know, it's not all about doors at HPP.
Texture has been an increasing element within the industry over the last couple of years, and we've not stopped looking for innovative new products in this area that our customers can benefit from. Our addition of textured worktops has been one of our most successful product launches ever, and is likely to pick up further pace through 2017 as the range becomes more established and understood. We will also be introducing the latest and most advanced decors from all the major chipboard manufactures such as Egger, Kronospan & XyloCleaf. In fact, Egger's new Decorative Collection 2017-2019 has recently been unveiled, and we'll be looking to introduce new decors from this range over the coming months. Click here to see the Egger range at HPP.
And then there's the question of bespoke. Well that's something we're doing a lot more of for our customers who don't have their own manufacturing facilities, but need support in this area.
Our bespoke offering represents over £1m in investment, and provides our customers short lead time, made-to-measure component work, all backed with an assurance of HPP quality and attention to detail.
We can do anything from strip work, component work, shaped components, face and side edge drilling, grooving and slots, edging, painted components and vinyl foil wrapped components to name but a few. Feel free to speak to your area sales manager to see if we could help you in this area.
All of this, and we're still not done with developments. Together with ad-hoc new products and suppliers coming on board throughout the year, who knows what exciting and innovative additional ranges we'll bring to our trade customer base?
I could most probably talk all day about what we have planned, but with the new developments, product launches and range extensions planned for the year ahead, I'd ask that you keep abreast of the latest offerings from HPP by signing up to our newsletter below.
To all of our existing customers, we thank you for your continued support, and hope you benefit from our extended offering making 2017 a very prosperous one for you indeed.
Keith Wardrope, Managing Director