LET’S TURN “SILLY SEASON” INTO “SENSIBLE SEASON”.
If you have worked in UK construction for a few years, you are probably familiar with the phrase “silly season”.
What is “silly season?”
PRONOUNCED \ SIL-ee-SEE-zun\ noun
Silly Season is the time around late July/August when the newspapers are full of unimportant or silly news stories because there is not much political news to report.
[British English]
Well not at the A1S Group. “Silly season” for us, is when nearly every main UK contractor and most of our 250 trade partners are screaming for their fire curtains, smoke curtains, fire shutters and insulated shutters to come out of production from mid-July through to late August and even early September so that their school, college, and university projects can be completed during the summer holiday. The increased demand spike within the educational sector during such a small window effectively disrupts the entire construction industry, It is the time when our factory is absolutely flat out and when we have unprecedented demand for our installation teams. It is the time when clients are ringing and throwing accelerated payments around to try and obtain an impossible turnaround on packages because they are so up against practical completion.
And it never changes. Over the years we have tried limiting holidays (where possible), provisioned overtime, and put on additional shifts. And July to August is always hectic. Last year, we further invested in a CNC punch system to produce millimetre perfect head boxes, guides, end plates, joining strips and bracketry in a fraction of the usual time, and helped to keep fire and smoke curtain lead times around the three-to-four-week timeframe; but the truth is there are no guarantees. Lead times are always contingent on demand, but there are 2 things you can do which will definitely help us to maintain the best possible service for you and your project team.
1) Get your project on our radar as soon as possible, by emailing by return that our quote is of interest.
2) Let us know if you anticipate a production requirement of fire and smoke curtains, fire shutters and industrial shutters for July August or early September, thus allowing us to better plan.
Of course, we will always do our utmost to maintain what we think are the UK’s best lead times, and if you get truly stuck, we are here to be as accommodating as possible, but with your help and a little planning, we might well be able to look back in September 2023 and complement ourselves on how well “Sensible season” went.
To discuss forthcoming orders and installations for July/August/September 2023
FOR UK TRADE SALES CONTACT DAMIAN LAWSON
damianlawson@a1sgroup.com 01204 383839 ext 110
FOR UK SUPPLY AND INSTALLATION SALES CONTACT ANDY MARTIN
andy@a1sgroup.com 01204 383839 ext 104