Shower manufacturer Ellbee has relaunched its Profile Showers brand with a bid to get the name further into the independent showroom. Andrew Davies met sales and marketing director John Armstrong...

How well do you know the name Ellbee? Almost certainly not as well as those running the company would like you to is the truthful answer, but as a substantial manufacturer of enclosures it has the capacity to change all that with the relaunch of its dedicated shower brand - Profile.

Ellbee has an impressive heritage, established in 1949 it operates from three manufacturing sites in Leeds and employs over 200 people and like so many UK manufacturers, it is actually part of a larger global outfit - Euramax International Inc, a $1.5bn building and leisure products groups based in Atlanta, USA.

In the UK, however, showers are only 20% of what it does, the principle businesses being uPVC doors and windows and a range of similar products for the caravan and motorhome market. Its shower enclosure pedigree has been based mainly around OEM work for other suppliers with some own-branded work to complement it, but now, with the relaunch of Profile, sales and marketing director John Armstrong (pictured) has his sights set firmly on the independent retail market.

The Profile portfolio is split into three distinct lines - Profile Concept aimed at the specification and contract market; the core Profile Plus mid-market range; and the frameless contemporary mid-top ranges from Profile Design. It is a distinct and calculated move away from the mass-market bi-folds and quads that have been its bulk offer until now, but despite some nice products, it is still trying to get a foot in the door of one of the most saturated areas in the market, so where does Armstrong even start...

Q: How do you break into such a busy independent retail market as enclosures?

A: We need to start spreading the word slowly but surely among more independent guys as the ones we already have like our product a lot. Within an hours drive of our factory we have a 30% share of the market and they'd all say 'oh yeah, Profile Showers, good product'. But once you go into the south east, or head north, it's more like 'didn't we do some stuff from them a few years ago, are they still going?' So that's what this year is about, we're taking a pause on the product development to really work on getting the message out there - we'll deliver on time, in full and you'll make more money from us.

Q: What have well known brands like Manhattan done that you haven't?

A: It's all about marketing, we've spent more in the last year and a half on trade marketing and awareness to the industry than probably the previous ten years put together. We want to establish a coordinated plan so that we can get recognised alongside the likes of Roman, Coram or Aqualux - I'm not looking to become that kind of size straight away, but I'm confident that if we get our sales guys in front of people and they see the package, we'll get more business.

Q: You're also coming in at a time when there may be dissatisfaction with established brands because of cuts they've had to make.

A: That's right, it's a really good time to do it. There's an opportunity to establish a brand that's backed up by an already established company. If you step back and look at Ellbee as a whole it's suffered in a similar way right across the business. We didn't invest enough in the relationships, but we've spent £4 million on infrastructure in the last three years. The reward we get from that is the protection of our market share and now the opportunity to open up new markets. That's the type of model we want to build around our shower business, it needs to be twice the size.

Q: The enclosures are made in England, do customers care?

A: I think they care about the service, whether they care about 'Made in England' depends on the customer. The plumber is quite keen because of the back up, he knows he can ring the factory if there's a problem. We have to sell that story more. It's easy to sell a shower door until something goes wrong. We do very well at the lower end of the market with the installers who fit ten doors a month because they know it works and they buy it again and again because of the consistency. By selling that one-by-one to showrooms over the course of two years we've got over 300 displays, which is great, but I need the industry as a whole to see the benefits of it. I need someone like, for example, Ripples to say 'that's great, I'll talk to those guys'.

Q: Are you also hitting the contract and specification market?

A: The product range hits every price point, from the exclusive regional developers in leafy Berkshire through to a David Wilson site that's got 20% social housing. We actually do better in that market than you would think through third parties, we supply a lot of the offsite bathroom pod companies, like RB Farquhar in Scotland, so we're in all the Travelodges and Holiday Inn Express, we've got 1,400 bifolds in Leeds Metropolitan University for example. But we're a big enough business to accept a challenge if we're offered one and say no if we think it's not right - and I've got a reputation for doing that I think.

Q: Many are keen to get Olympic contracts, but they could be difficult?

A: Exactly, we've picked up a bit of Olympic work on the periphery through third parties but I did a little sniff around and came to the conclusion 'why on earth would we want to do that?' We'd have to service that door for 20 years through an annual service contract, we make it for £50 and we're going to sell it to them for £70 and they want us to send an engineer out to service it? It's stuff like that, when we're coming out of recession, that will get people into trouble for chasing volume. We're fortunate that we don't have to go at everything like a bull at a gate just to gain market share, we just want to establish brand value. We want to try and get the retail showroom to think that, if they've got a choice, then they'll go with Profile because they've had no problems in the past, or if they did we put it right straight away.

Q: What makes a good Profile retailer?

A: Someone that understands the product, and gets exactly what their customer is looking and asking for. I've previously worked in retail and the big mistake is that they get a bonus for selling particular brands or products, so no matter what the customer wants, they're going to steer them towards that. I guess we're looking for a bit of loyalty too, and it goes both ways of course. But most of the time, you know when you walk in the door who the best retailers are.