Innovative manufacturer of paninnovative manufacturer of panel and composite doors building bridges for doors

A familiar name at trade fairs for several years now, New World Developments has become known for its range of door panels and more recently, composite doors. Founded by Austin McGilllian and based in picturesque Ballymena, County Antrim, New World Developments grew out of sister company Ace Fixings and just keeps on expanding. Ireland's biggest door manufacturer is notable for its wide range of in-house processes, and its representatives are keen to stress that it is within easy reach of the UK mainland, making daily deliveries in fact.

The story begins with the launch of the Heritage door panel in 1995 after Ace Fixings was unsatisfied with the quality of the panels it was buying in. As the door range grew into a collection of 14 styles, manufacturing and sales operations were bolstered. Following extensive research, composite doors were launched in 2004 with the Apeer doorset, followed by a mid-priced single rebate model, Monno. Doors are available through a network of fabricator customers throughout the UK and Ireland, as well as direct to local authorities and developers on larger projects.

Awards for innovation

Along the way, this forward-thinking company has collected many business awards. Perhaps most notable is Ireland's E-business award 2004 for the innovative PanelSpec software. PanelSpec allows customers to view the range before placing an order. On or offline, it is possible to select styles, colours, glass designs and accessories to build an ideal door on-screen. Web trading has become an important business tool for New World and its website www.nwd.uk.com now averages 90,000 hits per month for the ordering service and product catalogue.

While the industry gets excited about composite doors, door panels remain a significant market and are perfectly good for many applications, including the buy-to-let market. New World's choice of reinforcing options, from foam core to mixed and solid ply, is particularly impressive. The Vintage Collection, with inverted mouldings for high use projects, joined the Heritage range in 2003.

Committed to composites

New World hasn't looked back since winning its first major composite door contract in 2004 for 240 Apeer doorsets from the North West's Sefton Borough Council.

‘Composite door’ can mean many things. In the case of Apeer it is a colour-embedded thermoset GRP skin, a robust aluminium sub-frame, rigid polyurethane core, multipoint locking, and a patented triple glazed cassette that has no unsightly join on the door face. Monno has many of the same features, but uses an engineered timber sub-frame. The high grain definition of the composite doors is well complemented by the crisp glass designs made in the modern in-house glass shop.

Doors are compliant with Part L and M of the Building Regulations, and Apeer has PAS 23 and 24 and Secured by Design standards.

New World's modern 62,000 sq. ft facility leaves ample room for growth as the door sales and contracts increase. Future plans include a fire-rated Apeer doorset. On the marketing side, an important task remains to convince prospective customers that it’s just a short stretch of water that separates Ireland's biggest door manufacturer from the UK mainland.