PARTNERING WITH BUILDERS

Built to last: delivering value through long-term, local partnerships

A&L windows is proudly built on long-standing relationships with local builders.

For us, there’s no better measure of success than long-term partnerships with your customers.

Our history is testament to the value we place on supporting Australian builders. Our present-day is no different: today, we maintain many customer partnerships of 20- and 30-years.

Here’s how we’ve built and maintain strong connections with the Australian building community.

Hear firsthand from our valued partners

‘Henley Homes partners with A&L due to the trust established over a 30-year relationship. When there are significant code changes, we know we can trust A&L to provide sound advice and good value to keep us market competitive. The ranges they have, as well as advice on which products suit which applications, makes implementation very easy.’ – Simon Gough, General Manager – Procurement, Estimating & Drafting, Henley Homes

‘There’s huge value in A&L’s approach, working collaboratively and not just making decisions on their own. They seek advice from us as their business partners, and then their decisions are made based on what our needs, and our customer’s needs, are.’ – Con Galileos, Group Development Manager, Carlisle Homes

‘[We’ve had] people come in to do training sessions with our draftees and estimators. Sessions with our tender presenters, our sales consultants, our administration team. It was complete support the whole way through—a holistic approach where everyone in the business can rely on getting the support they need, when they need it. The level of service your team has offered and your commitment to integrating yourselves to support us, it’s obvious to say it’s a genuine partnership. It’s not a case of ‘send us a purchase order and we’ll send some windows to the site.’ – Mark Hampshire, Operations Manager, Plantation Homes

Partnership means solving problems: from support and installation to pricing and performance

We’ve worked in close collaboration with Australian builders for over 45 years. In that time, one thing has become clear—the more problems you can solve for more people throughout the organisation, the stronger and more valuable the partnership.

A true partnership is not just selling windows. When we use the term ‘solutions’, that’s exactly what we mean: designing, manufacturing, and implementing products and processes to solve the most pressing problems faced by local builders of all shapes and sizes.

A commitment to making things easy, reliable, and flexible for Australian builders

On any build, you’re typically managing up to 60 different suppliers and services. For larger volume builders, that’s happening many times at scale. Right off the bat, it’s obvious that the more issues we can mitigate, the better. Some of the key ingredients involved in solving problems include:

  • Reliable trade times to help manage supplier interdependency: When you’re dealing with 60 different suppliers, there are intricate interdependencies. Pushing back one supplier will have knock-on effects for all the others, with consequences for the overall build. And your key milestone payments. That’s why reliable 5–10-day lead times are critical. If you buy products overseas, you’re waiting 6-12 weeks, possibly longer depending on a range of factors.
  • Payment flexibility to support steady cash flow: Steady cash flow is the lifeblood of the Australian construction industry. Any disruption can lead to significant challenges like project delays, issues with supplier payments, and in the worst cases, business failure. For our account customers, we offer 30 days credit so you have some room to move when needed. If you buy products overseas, you’ll likely have to pay 100% of the cost up front—often for longer lead times, with less customer or after-sales support available.
  • Doing the R&D work to make life easier on-site: We constantly meet with our partners to understand on-site challenges, design for unique Australian conditions and considerations, and develop new product features to make things easy. For example, we’ve designed a range of flashing packages allowing us to supply flashed windows as a single product, reducing the variables builders have to manage in supply and installation.
  • Support close-by when you need it most: Issues inevitably happen on site. Products get stolen. Another common challenge we see and hear about involves bricklayers using acid to wash down brick work, which can flick onto aluminium and remove the powder coat. It’s not a case of whether these things will happen or not: it’s how easily you—or your window supplier—can respond to the challenge. In these cases, for a small service fee, we can fix or replace windows within 48 hours. With an overseas manufacturer, you’re looking at another 6–12-week lead time to get your issues resolved.

True partnership means you’ll never have to tell us what’s changing in building standards, code, or regulations. We do the work for you, including preparing and educating your team on what the change involves.

  • Monitoring and responding to changes in market, so that you don’t have to: A&L is a volume manufacturer, but we’re highly attuned to market changes. Take the recent energy efficiency updates to the National Construction Code. In response to the 7-star requirements, we worked with builders to develop several products with high energy efficiency performance at different price points, giving customers flexibility and the best value for their needs. You can learn more about the solutions here, including hybrid and thermally broken windows. We also worked hard to offer comprehensive support for our partners throughout the changes. Mark Hampshire, Operations Manager of Plantation Homes, describes the support: ‘The level of service your team offered, making yourselves integrated into our team, and the support you’ve provided has been really valuable. I don’t know that every business offers that level of service and partnership [for builders].’

Our approach to constructing long term, valuable partnerships with Australian builders

Where do these customer insights come from? We know what is crucially valuable to Australian builders because we’re committed to the community. We have been for over 45 years.

As testament to that long-term commitment, A&L has accreditation and membership with the following organisations:

A&L takes the time to listen and connect with builders. We receive ongoing feedback from some of Australia’s largest volume builders and smaller, family-owned businesses alike.

Our approach to long-term partnerships is informed by:

  • Strategic partnership meetings to help with building plans and pave the way for efficient project delivery. We get in at the ground level if builders are doing any kind of construction planning or redesign. This way, our team can proactively identify challenges, provide solutions, and help in meeting code or regulatory obligations.
  • Strong, ongoing customer feedback loops. This relates to quantitative and qualitative feedback for both product and process. We are grateful for regular feedback from our partners, including a Net Promoter Score, input into R&D, anecdotal information, and more.
  • External sales teams to help builders select the right window products based on project needs. This is especially valuable for smaller builders who are often pressed for time. Additionally, as a part of the wider Ventora Group, we can connect smaller builders with sister companies for doors and other products.
  • Ongoing training and commitment to upskilling about products, processes, building codes, and regulations, for everyone in the team. This includes all customer supervisors, design and engineering, and drafting teams. It means all our people have the right information. You can rely on dealing with an expert, every time you deal with A&L.

Again, it’s about being able to provide service and solutions. Not just products.

If you choose an offshore manufacturer, you might get a low price, but that’s it. There’s unlikely to be any service, support, or long-term commitment to accompany that.

A low price may be appealing in the short term. But the risk of broader partnership being completely absent is significant. It could be product only.

If there are quality issues, who do you rely on? If the product does not perform or up to Australian codes or standards, who do you call? If you need a service technician or on-site support, where does that come from?

We pride ourselves on having the answers to these questions—and many more—because we’ve spent over 45 years’ understanding the needs of Australian builders and putting things in place to ensure we can deliver on them.

Looking for a partner who’s committed to solving your problems?

Get in contact with our team today for any enquiries or to take the first step towards partnering with a local Australian manufacturer.