Leading composite door manufacturer Vista Panels is celebrating the 20-year career milestone of Technical Director Pip Anger.
Since 2002, Pip has overseen the Wirral-based company’s procurement of materials and technical changes to its composite door range.
Having worked in the fenestration industry for 41 years, he began his career at Wood Industries, then moved to Premdor for a brief period in Canada, before making the move to Vista.
Keith Sadler, Vista’s Managing Director, comments: “Soon after joining the company, Pip was instrumental in designing Vista’s very own GRP door set, a world away from today’s market leading XtremeDoor.
Technical changes that paved the way for XtremeDoor
“Over the last 20 years, the market has demanded a stronger, more thermally efficient door, and Pip has led the technical changes and procurement of materials to develop the Vista composite door offering and turn it into arguably the market’s highest specified GRP door set under the XtremeDoor brand.”
The XtremeDoor outerframe now has a co-extruded seal with two added brush piles with recycled thermal inserts, while the original two-hook lock has been upgraded to a five hook fitted with a cylinder guard as standard, giving the consumer a 3-star package offering even more security.
The original zinc handles and letterplates have since been replaced with stainless steel versions, offering a 25-year surface finish warranty. In addition, the 2mm GRP skins are now 4mm, meaning they’re 100% thicker than the industry standard with UV-stable cassettes, while the original butt hinge has been replaced with a 3D fully adjustable version, all of which have contributed to Vista staying ahead of its competitors and offering a fit-and-forget door set.
Pip comments: “When I first started at Vista, the original door production was significantly longer, with a lead time of up to 12 weeks. Now, after years of investment in modern machinery and constant improvements to the manufacturing process, we can have door sets out in less than 10 days.
“In addition, our original footprint has doubled in size from 36,000 square feet, with four doubled headed CNC’s, four edge banders and two saw centres.
“We’ve been producing over 1,200 door sets per week continually since the start of last year, and have now successfully reduced our lead times to pre-Covid levels.”
Keith concludes: “We couldn’t have got to where we are today without Pip’s instrumental role in product development and his expertise in sourcing core materials. He is well known and respected throughout the industry, one of the many reasons we have been able to grow to a £30 million turnover company.”
For more information call 0151 608 1423 or visit www.vistapanels.co.uk
