On 1st January 2020, one of Hazlemere Commercial’s Directors, Mark Austin became President and Chairman of the Glass and Glazing Federation (GGF). His election to this voluntary position is for a two year tenure until 31st December 2021.
For those who don’t know Mark, he started his own made to order community/church hall chairs and tables business in 1986, and after 5 years on year on year growth, he sold it in 1991. He then worked for 14 years in the professional football industry on the commercial side, before in 2007 agreeing to join family owned and run independent double-glazing manufacturers and installers Hazlemere Window Company Ltd, as Marketing Director, where he has worked for the last 12 years at their 56,000 square foot head office, factory and showroom on Cressex Business Park in High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
In addition to the GGF, Mark as Group President also oversees the 5 commercial businesses the GGF owns, each of which makes a vital contribution to the GGF Group, including its IT Company, Borough IT who you may not have heard of. In terms of the other 4 businesses GGF Members, you are more likely to have heard of these include Install Sure, BFRC, RISA and FENSA. InstallSure (formerly GGFi) offers GGF Members and non-GGF Members insurance-backed guarantees. InstallSure are one of the largest IBG providers in the Double Glazing industry. They have a proven track record in claims handling, offering a range of other insurance products tailored to the industry.
BFRC is the largest and most recognised licence scheme in the industry, and currently has 5,200 live licences. BFRC works with the whole supply chain and is used for compliance by installers for Approved Document L. RISA carry out assessments, inspections and audits, in fact RISA inspectors carry out around 14,000 assessments per year, and between them the assessors 400 years combined industry experience. They work with businesses to use failures as a training opportunity, and undertake pre-installations evaluations as well as post installation assessments.
FENSA continues to go from strength to strength having seen 14 million FENSA window and door installations since 2002. Every working hour, about 1,060 windows and 168 doors are installed under the FENSA scheme. Today more than 6,000 windows and 1,000 doors will be installed by FENSA Approved Installers. 570,000 FENSA installations notified in 2019. All in all this equates to 62 million individual window and door products installed by FENSA registered installers since 2002. Quite staggering numbers everyone associated with the GGF Group can be rightly proud.
The Glass and Glazing Federation as the leading industry’s leading trade organisation was commissioned by the Government to inform and help guide companies who manufacture, supply and install glass and glazing products to deal with Brexit. In-fact the GGF secured a £50,000 grant to help GGF Members and the industry get ready for the impact Brexit will have. The GGF have set up on their website the Brexit Hub which offers free and authoritative guidance for the glass, glazing and fenestration industry, and though not exhaustive, covers many of the areas that could affect businesses in the sector.
Find out more about how Mark got on when he hosted the GGF’s President’s Reception at the Landmark Hotel in London on Tuesday 4th February 2020. In addition to being elected as GGF President, Mark is also the elected Chairman of the GGF’s Membership and Review Committee and sits on the GGF Fund Ltd Board as a Director. Hazlemere Commercial are proud to have one of their Directors as GGF President.
