HRV shuts windows business

HRV has closed its double glazing business, but is promising to honour outstanding contracts and guarantees.

Over recent years the company has branched out from home ventilation into water purification, heat pumps and retro-fitted double glazing, and claims on its website to have 170,000 customers.

HRV marketing director Justin Boyes said the company decided to stop selling Insulglaze retro-fitted acrylic windows and Ecolux window film because demand was less than expected.

On Tuesday, HRV Windows’ staff were told their employment was ceasing immediately.

An email from general manager Mike Meekings said Safe Windows, which traded as HRV Windows, had suffered declining business for some time and was ‘‘no longer financially viable’’.

The one-off nature of the product and the lack of other retrofitting providers made it difficult to grow the market, he said.

Boyes said ‘‘several thousand’’ customers had bought the products since HRV started selling them three years ago.

The company would complete outstanding installations for the 30 to 40 who had paid deposits for window treatments, or they could opt for a refund.

He said it would honour the 30-year warranty on the acrylic Insulglaze product, which was imported from Germany and fitted over existing glass windows.

‘‘We plan to be around in 30 years … If there’s an issue customers would contact us and we’d deal with it.’’

Boyes said about 30 staff members and sales contractors worked for the HRV doubleglazing business in Christchurch, Dunedin and Auckland and the company would attempt to redeploy them to other divisions.