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This article originally appeared in Project Scotland and is copyright of Peebles Media Group

Doors By Design Open For Expansion

Doors By Design, Scotland’s leading manufacturer of high quality veneered and laminated doorsets, has announced ambitious plans for expansion this coming Autumn.

A £200k inward investment programme will allow the Company to move from it’s existing 6000sq ft premises in Inchinnan Business Park, near Glasgow airport, to a much larger facility nearby. The Scottish Executive is supporting Doors By Design’s growth with a £120k RSA grant which will see the company increase it’s workforce to 40 staff.
Commercial Director, Barbara Fraser explains – “Doors By Design has enjoyed steady growth since setting up in 1998. We’ve outgrown our current manufacturing facility and it’s now time for Doors by Design to move onwards and upwards. We will be recruiting further over the next few weeks and months at all levels from shop floor workers to senior managers. As part of our factory move, we will be replacing and upgrading much of our machinery thereby increasing capability and capacity to meet growing demand for our products”. The deal on the new premises is currently being finalised and further information on the expansion plans will be made public shortly.

FOR many years, the market in Scotland for high quality doors was dominated by a few major players based in England. It was, for some customers a situation plagued by slow delivery and poor support. In 1998, however, Tom Johnstone and daughter Barbara Fraser had the idea to manufacture and supply veneered, laminated and paint finish doors with matching panels and other ancillary products and to support the operation with flexible scheduling and fast order turnarounds.

“To begin with, it was small jobs here and there but it soon built up,” recalls Tom. “Today, we're supplying our products to offices, hotels, airports, schools, and town halls to name just a few of the kinds of jobs we do.” A cursory scan of the company promotional material reveals a client list that reads like a who's who of leading brands - Coca Cola, ASDA, BT, Standard Life, The Hilton, Safeway, UDV. Doors by Design (DBD) is a family-run business; Barbara, with a background in fashion and furniture design is managing director while her father is chairman. Tom explains: “Our family has a joinery and shopfitting tradition stretching back to 1868 but today we are focused solely on the future.” As well as sharing business interests, both father and daughter have been President of the Scottish Master Wrights and Builders Association, continuing a presidential chain of events started by Tom's father. DBD, which operates from Inchinnan Business Park, close near Glasgow Airport, employs more than 30 people and a particular source of satisfaction is its high standards of service. Staff advise architects, contractors and local authorities in areas such as materials selection, design details and fire certification. And it likes to work closely with its customers, for example tailoring deliveries to tie in with installation schedules. All doors are machined and ready for ironmongery placement.

The firm's success has been built on three core selling points: unique products, high quality in manufacturing and flexibility of service. Lead times are matched to suit clients and support is always available during a contract. Tom says that before DBD entered the fray, many architects complained at the level of support offered by other suppliers, illustrated by firms who showed no interest in dealing with design changes during a project. The architects who come to DBD range from sole practitioners through to the recognisable names of design-led studios and international players with a global presence.

The firm innovates too: It has developed its own paint application technique; it batch produces ancillary products for doors to save time and labour costs which would normally be wasted on site; and it has even ditched old packaging techniques in a drive to save money and improve service. That third change came about when Barbara realised that much time could be saved by creating a box into which the doors were placed for delivery purposes; previously doors were shrink-wrapped, a standard but very time-consuming technique. The box has an easy-to-remove lid that features the corporate logo and contact details. It also doubles as site protection once the door is hung. Tom says new business has been secured as a result of this ‘incidental advertising’. As well as investing heavily in new machinery, DBD has also created its own estimating software. Designed in-house and professionally programmed, it's easy to use for both staff and client. Intuitive and simple to navigate, it provides crystal clear estimates that leaves nobody confused. Clarity, it seems, is a defining characteristic of DBD.

A conversion at Murrayfield

TOM Johnstone recalls how certain contracts have ‘stretched’ the company and helped it grow. One example was at Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh. “After the stadium flooded in 2002 we were asked to supply more than 300 doors for the refit. It was a real challenge and stretched our capabilities. But it gave us the confidence to tackle larger orders.”

That same year it landed an even bigger contract, for more than 700 door sets for the Malmaison Hotel in Birmingham, many of which were to be in plyboo (“hundreds of wee strips of bamboo bonded together” resulting in a luxurious finish). It remains the firm's biggest project to date and Tom says: “That order opened up new horizons for the firm and gave us a reputation as a plyboo specialist as well!” Another major order came from Esk Furniture but it wasn't for doors. DBD was asked to manufacture and supply 700-plus desktops that would be used in a mobile phone call centre in Maidenhead, Berkshire. “They were quite complex and quite big, full of recesses and inserts to accommodate IT services. And they were walnut veneered, very upmarket for a call centre.” Initially DBD dealt solely with doors; now it's nearly all door sets that are on the order books. But veneered products such as wall panels are also often requested.

The business has also created some unusual bespoke door designs: fast food outlet doors with ‘sputnik-shaped’ vision panels; dimpled aluminium-faced doors; acoustic sliding doors for performance venues; even a large scale sliding door with a carpet on the back. (Tom jokes that before it was installed it had to be vacuumed!) DBD's biggest one-off design challenge, however, was provided by BT which requested a curved sliding door (among others) to enclose a circular room. It can be found in the client's Edinburgh HQ.

Another area of expertise is supplying doors for buildings and listed structures where Historic Scotland has a say. It was involved in the conversion of Erskine Hospital into a hotel and golf club and also 18th century Orchard House in Leven.