ADS Window Films

ADS Windows

Welcome to a world of window film.

For many of us when it comes to thinking about privacy around people peering into our house, soft furnishings such as curtains and blinds are the go-to default.

However, this week we interviewed BBX Client Gary Chapman of ADS Window Films who provides an alternative solution.

Can you tell us a bit about ADS Windows and what it is the company does?

ADS Window Films is a company that provides various window films. These can be frosted films, opaque, tinted etc. There are a number of different options and styles with different benefits also available.

When you say different benefits, can you please explain a bit further?

Window film technology has progressed significantly throughout the years. Now it’s not just a case of films that can provide you with privacy, there are also other benefits around health and safety as well as convenience and aesthetics.

Privacy

The privacy aspect is fairly well-known. It’s quite popular in offices where a lot of offices have glass walls or large glass windows into the main room. It allows you to have a fairly open aspect, yet still, maintain privacy for any confidential meetings.

Although popular in offices, that doesn’t preclude its use in the domestic home; you could use it on bathroom windows or downstairs living spaces where you may want to keep others from looking in.?

Blocking UV rays

For aesthetics, it may be that you have a conservatory and want to keep not only your privacy but to block excessive UV rays , window films are an ideal product for these requirements. Most of our films cuts out 99% of UV light from the sun. The benefits to yourself would be that it prevents your conservatory from being overly hot and also protects any soft furnishings such as conservatory seating from sun damage. An added benefit is that it helps by reducing glare as most of our films reduce 80%+ of solar glare.

Security and safety

If you own a retail premise having a film applied to your window is an added security and stock protection. As with conservatory furniture, any stock displayed in your window will suffer from sun damage. Certain films allow customers to see the display yet still block out damaging UV rays.

From a security aspect, we once had a customer that contacted us following a break in to his shop. Someone had tried to smash the window in to gain access to the premise and his goods. The window was smashed to pieces, yet as it had film applied to it the pieces instead of falling and flying into the shop, held the entire window together thus blocking the individual from entering. An added benefit to holding all the various shards and pieces intact meant that his stock integrity was preserved. If there had been no film the shards would have flown inwards and compromised his stock.

Another area where these films are used are in locations where explosions are likely to occur. Granted this may not apply to many of us, however for military locations or for industries where explosions are likely to occur with regular frequency, these windows can potentially be lifesaving.

How long has the company been running for?

The company’s been going for quite some time now. We first started back in 1999. We’ve had the usual challenges you’d expect from running your own business such as staffing issues, customer issues etc., however you deal with them as best you can.

It’s a family run business as I head it up and my son works as one of my key fitters/installers.

It sounds as if you have a very broad range of customers, would you say that’s the case?

Yes definitely, as mentioned we have contracts with the military, with commercial properties, domestic customers and also customers such as children’s nurseries.

We currently have a contract with a large national children’s nursery. They came to us after an incident involving a young child getting caught up in the blinds they had installed for privacy. Following the accident (the child was safe and unharmed) the company did a risk assessment and decided to replace all blinds with window films. The films created the privacy needed without any risk of children becoming entangled and potentially causing injury to themselves.

When we started out 20 years ago, we weren’t sure about whom to target, marketing was an unknown thing for us and so we essentially became a very customer-led business.

If a customer who came to us required our services, we then took that on board and searched for similar customers who may have the same need. Customers would tell us what they wanted and we grew the company from there.

From using this process, we’ve worked with some pretty prestigious and well-known football clubs such as Aston Villa, Liverpool and other sporting venues like Royal Liverpool golf club.

What have you found to be one of your most prevalent challenges?

To be honest, the thing we’ve struggled with has been trying to explain what the benefits are of our products.

Having a window film installed doesn’t just have one benefit, there are multiple benefits. It’s incredibly hard to explain and difficult to put into print.

The other challenge is managing people’s expectations. With it being a difficult thing to explain all the features of, it’s essential that we go through what the customers’ requirements are, what their expectations are to ensure that we provide what they need.

We also need to explain that if they choose to apply the film themselves, it won’t be done as well as if done by a professional team who know how to handle and install the films.

As a BBX Client, what has your experience been like?

We’ve been a BBX client since almost the beginning and have been a client for 10 years.

What I like about BBX is that it utilises your spare capacity. Whilst we may not always be able to fulfil a customer’s needs instantly (although sometimes it is possible), at some point we will have spare capacity and BBX is ideal for this purpose.

For example as we travel all over the country for installations, we’ve had customers in London want to use us. There are companies that are closer, however, the customers come to us and are prepared to wait because they can pay using BBX.

I find that a lot of people join BBX as they want things for their business and they want to purchase items or services without using their cash flow. I use BBX for hotel stays for staff that are further afield and away on work and also for office items such as stationery, printing or even staff uniforms and embroidery.

The main area I use BBX for though is to drive sales. It’s far simpler to be a customer and look for things to spend money on. The difficult part in business is persuading people to purchase your products. With BBX, I really don’t find it a problem. I have customers referred to me through the BBX platform or people approach me directly and all sales help!

How do you feel the business is placed at the moment?

The business is at the point where it’s in a good place but we would like to expand it a little further.

We’re in a steady position and whilst I don’t want to set the world on fire, it’s always good to progress and grow.

We’ve used BBX to speak with various coaches and business consultants and what I need now is an additional person within the business to implement those ideas.

Although Gary is coming up to retirement age in a few years, he can’t see himself stopping anytime soon. Even after retirement, he’ll probably still keep his hand in the business as he wants to keep himself active.

There’s the potential of his son taking over some of his roles. A slight obstacle with this is that his son is a fitter. Having him take over the more commercial and operational roles will mean training and a steep learning curve for him. Aside from that, with his son stepping into that role, it leaves them with a vacancy for a fitter. This is more challenging than it seems. There aren’t that many qualified fitters out there for this role and it’s an essential part of the business.

Area of focus

For now, the company is happy to continue much in the same way they have been with growth plans bubbling in the background.

They want to focus on the car window tinting side of the business, particularly for BBX.

So if you’re thinking of having your car windows tinted either for the look or for privacy reasons, Gary and his team are happy to find out what you require.