Row upon row of custom-made doors, windows and frames lines the finished goods area of West Port’s 175,000 square foot factory premises near Maryport.
Every corner of the sprawling site is busy – in one warehouse, teams of carpenters are meticulously applying the finishing details to newly made doors of all shapes and sizes; in another, a team of painters keep the automated paint plant fed with a range of products, from door blades to window and door frames receiving their primer or top coat.
Elsewhere, specialist fire-stopping technology is being added to each fire door in the manufacturing area, while outside stacks of materials and finished orders wait to be loaded in or out of the company’s enormous purpose-designed factory.
“This is pretty typical for us,” explains West Port’s marketing manager, Mark Metcalf.
“We can have anywhere up to 100 people working on site at a time – from manufacturing products to the design and testing of new configurations, we have to work like a well-oiled machine to keep on top of the orders.
“A lot of our orders require multiple sets of doors or windows, each with their own specifications, different locks, fixtures and fittings required; so attention to detail is a vital part of everyone’s job here at West Port,” he adds.
The specialist knowledge and understanding of their clients’ needs is just as important as the expertise of the staff carrying out the manufacturing process.
“What sets us apart is that we have the technical know-how as well as the highest quality of engineering. We have adjusted our business model with the changing needs of both commercial and domestic customers – that means our business is now roughly 80% doors and 20% windows. It used to be the other way around,” said Mark.
Recent changes in legislation following the Grenfell Tower tragedy have seen a much greater emphasis on the fire safety technology built into fire doors. It’s an area that West Port were already experienced in, and during the last five years the firm has invested in upskilling their staff to become one of the UK’s top suppliers of timber fire doorsets.
West Port holds a large catalogue of Primary Test Evidence ensuring that their products meet British Safety Standards.
They work with other partners that provide distribution and installation services which means that West Port can concentrate solely on the task of manufacturing.
“When it comes to taking on more business, the one thing we pride ourselves on is reputation, so we won’t exaggerate how quickly we can do a job just to get the orders in, every single item that leaves this factory must be perfect, so we’re always very open about turn-around expectations with our clients,” explains Warren Wood, operations director.
The company was established in 1998 and over the last 25 years has become one of the country’s largest suppliers of bespoke timber windows, doors and fire doorsets.
The factory boasts one of only two high-tech electrostatic paint plants in the UK – the other is owned by global car giant Jaguar. The system can apply 10 – 12 coats of paint in a single pass, and any overspray is recycled into the paint system, making savings that can be passed on to the customer.
West Port has also expanded into other areas of the industry, focusing on the fire door management technology that has become an intrinsic element of the lifecycle of each fire door, setting up sister business Contactless Check Solutions (CCS) in 2018.
CCS offers a digital asset management system that allows new and existing fire doors to be managed in large quantities. The asset management system utilises a fire door data pin – installed into every fire doorset produced at West Port – which allows detailed manufacturing and product information to be recorded in every door that leaves the factory. This enables inspectors to have a thorough knowledge and understanding of each fire doorset, long after they have left the production line.
Contactless Check Solutions main product is a mobile app and desktop management system for manufacturers, installers, inspectors and customers needing to track, monitor and identify any issues with fire doorsets after they have been installed. Each fire doorset is given a unique address that the system then manages digitally adhering to fire door inspections in line with UK government regulations.
West Port has contracts with housing associations and property developers all over the UK, so this kind of system is hugely beneficial.
“We have inadvertently created a solution to a problem that nobody ever knew how to fix – this system allows installers to document the installation process and inspectors to document their detailed checks that indicate any issues the fire door may have,” explains Mark.
“This leads to quicker decisions being made about repair or replacement, and that remedial work can then be carried out extremely quickly ensuring the relevant information is recorded digitally for each individual fire door.”
“We often have orders for thousands of units at a time, for example if a hotel chain is opening a new site or renovating an old one, as fire door data pins can also be retro fitted.
“With so many doors to be installed for each client, having a system for checking them all that identifies any problems immediately is hugely beneficial.”
With clients ranging from five-star London hotels to affordable housing schemes, university halls of residence, council property schemes, new school buildings, all the way to individual residential customers, one of West Port’s key strengths is in its diversity.
“West Port products are truly bespoke and manufactured to meet the requirements of each customer,” said Mark.
The conversation keeps coming back to that most important of business performance indicators: customer service. It is the passion for exceeding their customers expectations that has propelled the firm to now turnover in excess of £10 million a year.
“We focus on building close relationships so we have an understanding of our customers’ requirements and can offer a bespoke product, helping find solutions in all aspects of the process from sales through to production and delivery,” adds Warren, spinning around in his chair to study another set of eye-watering sales projections for the weeks ahead.
The constant buzz of heavy machinery and the smell of fresh timber and paint has created a parallel universe – walking out into a bright and warm Cumbrian summer’s afternoon, it feels like another world has been left behind.
It may well be, but it’s a world with the safest and most technically advanced doors and windows you can imagine.
