Learning When To Take On Work And When To Turn It Down

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Commercial installer, The Window Company (Contracts), has warned against taking on too much work without enough manpower as the industry continues to battle with a shortage of skilled fitters.

Chair David Thornton says: “For the first time ever, we have turned down the opportunity to tender for some of the CIF funded work available in schools over the summer because we don’t believe it will benefit our business in the short to medium term.

“We pride ourselves on being a good company to work for and our rates of pay and benefits package are amongst the best in the industry, yet we would still find it challenging to find enough resource to cope with significant extra volumes at this point.

“All our existing teams are fully occupied with ongoing contracts and pre-planned schools work, and we won’t jeopardise existing work just for the sake of additional volume.”

Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity

Thornton continues: “It’s the old adage, ‘turnover is vanity, profit is sanity’ and while it goes against every entrepreneurial instinct to turn down work, we think it’s the right decision for our business. Time and again we see good companies fail simply because they overstretch themselves. While there is insufficient skilled labour in the market, that could become a very real danger for some.”

Selective

“We are arguably at just about the optimal size for an installation business, with a tightly knit senior team that can still oversee every project individually. We still have capacity for growth, primarily because we have invested in tech solutions which make us operationally efficient, yet we are realistic about current state of the labour market and we are increasingly selective about the additional work we take on.”

Picture:  David Thornton of The Window Company (Contracts) says he has turned down schools work this summer as his firm hasn’t got spare capacity because of skilled labour shortages.

www.thewinco.co.uk

Article written by Cathryn Ellis
12th July 2023

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