Gerda doors at the Fit Show: It''s Personal (stand P31)

Pioneer’s Danny Williams is showing Gerda Doors at the FIT Show after stumbling across the brand when searching for a conventional composite door alternative.

Approaching the suspension in time that was the Covid pandemic, Danny Williams was becoming increasingly incensed about the influence that a handful of brands were having on the composite residential door market: whilst having to respond to the whims of his installer customers to provide products produced by these companies, he believed that their product quality was becoming poorer and of increasing concern. However, as the need for recourse and support became more intense, so customer service tanked.

“We were faced with increasing numbers of our installer customers calling from site to say that the resi door that we had supplied from these popular door brands, was faulty, or mismeasured and they had a customer with a hole in their house that they couldn’t fill. And what were we going to do about it?” said Danny, who as head of Pioneer Trading has supplied retail installers for three decades with PVC-U and aluminium windows and doors. “We would then contact the supplier, who may or may not respond within a few days, to then insist that a new door would be supplied and the old one should be returned, even when a replacement panel or component supplied overnight, would allow us to make the installation good. There was zero flexibility or understanding of our position.”

Danny began looking around for alternatives, but his research confirmed how little product differential there was: “Everything was ‘me too’, remembered Danny, “nothing really stood out.”

The answer came unexpectedly: “We had this Polish-door fitter, Kamil, working for us at the time,” said Danny, “who kept on about this product that he had fitted dozens of, he said, and people loved them, and they were always perfect, and so on. And then our Operations Director Ray [Sinclair] chipped in that he knew the people at Gerda in Poland…and so I got in touch.”

Despite Covid doing its best to derail meaningful discussions and the simplest task of actually examining the products, Gerda Residential Doors was launched at last year’s FIT Show, an event that confirmed Danny was not alone in his frustrations: “We were mobbed,” remembers Danny, “and we took more than 250 leads from people that were willing to give us their inside leg measurements to get Gerda Doors for their customers. They wanted something different from the standard composite door, and it is immediately obvious that a Gerda Door is different.”

That Gerda Doors are faced with steel or aluminium is the most obvious differential: the weight and feel are quite extraordinary, with the sheer heft offering confidence. The class leading Gerda Altus door being offered by Pioneer for example boasts an 88mm depth, three chamber reinforced aluminium internal construction with PU cores, with FUHR multi point security lock and hardware located into reinforced aluminium outer frames. Such features are typical across the range. These doors are engineered, with aluminium sub-frames, with an emphasis on security − Gerda is one of mainland Europe’s leading brands of locks and security hardware.

Thermal performance is also in the realms of that now being anticipated as a minimum requirement of the Future Homes Standard that will define English and Welsh Building standards from 2025: Both steel and aluminium doors offer thermal transmittance as low as 0.74 W/m2K for solid doors and 0.81 W/m2K for glazed versions.

Gerda Doors are not a mainstream, mass market ‘silver bullet’, but are providing a clear alternative choice: “Gerda Doors are best sold in showrooms,” suggests Danny, “simply because the minute you operate them you can tell the difference. But rather than the price being out of reach of homeowners looking for a ‘normal’ front entrance door, our experience over the past year is that most are prepared to pay what they see as a reasonable increase for something that is so obviously superior.”

Something, says Danny, that retail installers will have the chance to find out themselves at this year’s FIT Show: “We have the benefit of a year with Gerda Residential Doors being installed in British homes. From that we have been able to refine the styles and features and also to introduce some UK-specific doors. And we still have a number of areas for which we are looking for retail partners,” he explains. “Come and see us on stand P31 and try Gerda Doors for yourself. And I promise that service will be superb,” confirmed Danny.