Rolling to success
THE very much familyoriented business, Turners Roller Doors Ltd, focuses on all types of farm and agricultural buildings as well as catering for the industrial sector.
Turners Roller Doors specialises in both industrial and domestic roller shutters, folding doors, hinged steel, insulated and non-insulated roller doors, and sectional panel overhead doors plus it also provides servicing and repairs.
Having been in business since 1970, the company was founded by the late William Turner, with his son, Colin Turner, taking over three years ago, when he sadly passed away.
Running with a team of eight full-time employees based at East Kilbride, the skilled staff are trained in all aspects of modern door manufacturing and installation processes. There’s also a dedicated service and repair team who are on call 24 hours a day.
“We wouldn’t be where we are today without our team, there are a lot of longstanding employees all of whom are a great asset to the company,” said Colin.
“With everything manufactured by ourselves we need a good team – it makes us stand out from our competitors being a strong family business.
“Business is busy at the moment, fortunately steel prices have settled a bit after fluctuating so much after Covid, which is perhaps why people are keen to get sheds up,” added Colin, who aims for a two to four-week lead time in installing roller doors.
Discounts are available for all NFU members with the firm travelling throughout all areas of Scotland.
Having recently installed five roller shutter doors for Alan Wilson’s A and J Wilson sheds in Lockerbie. The 135ft long x 60ft wide agricultural building is fitted with three fire exit doors powder coated to match all industrial juniper green insulated roller doors.
The industrial insulated doors are filled with the latest energy-saving polyurethane foam infill ensuring they minimise energy waste and reduce noise significantly. All doors are custom manufactured to fit any opening and are available in galvanised steel finish, polyester powder coated, or plastisol coated in a range of colours to suit all modern building architecture.
“The roller shutter doors are easier to maintain and manufacture – they are a lot more economical than alternatives now,” added Colin, explaining that four of these are fully insulated doors that were also manufactured at the facility in East Kilbride.
“The doors have 20mm of insulation which is good for keeping sheds that bit warmer. It also helps for the carbon footprint which is becoming a primary focus in our business,” added Colin.
Shed builder Alan Wilson has been in business for 12 years now, running a team of five employees, and has worked with Turner Rollers Doors for more than a decade.
“They are a very reliable company and will always come out and help us if a repair is required.
“We have a good working relationship with them now and they always make a firstclass job for our customers,” said Alan, who with his team will build three to four large sheds a year.
“We can offer the full package of installing sheds now, from planning to building to structural steel,” he added. Alan works alongside two other similar sized companies at Carlisle and Newton Stewart for labourers, as well as sub-contractors to ensure he has enough people to cover the workload.
“Finding the right candidates is becoming an issue, they are harder and harder to find – we could do with an extra few people,” he said. There is a large customer base in the radius of the north of England and the south-west of Scotland that Alan and his team focus on, so much so they have had to turn down some work in recent years rather than disappoint people.
“We want to be honest with our customers, and don’t want them phoning us up because it is taking too long to do, so we need to be realistic with ourselves,” said Alan.
“If you are building a new shed, plan it out yourself first. If you want it done properly you need to be willing to spend a little bit extra.
“Once our customer has an idea, we can then put it together and get the plans drawn up,” said Alan, who admits that they will not always be the cheapest on the market.
However, it comes down to quality at the end of the day, and Alan’s business has a lot of repeat customers.
Alan agrees with Colin regarding prices in recent years: “Prices for materials have begun to steady now thankfully, having taken a sudden rise in 2021 following the Covid-19 pandemic,” he pointed out. “Concrete is still holding up the price, but things have eased off.
“Unfortunately, the only way we can cope with this is by passing it onto the customer. However, business continues to be busy. We are at full capacity now and hope business continues as it has done for the last decade,” concluded Alan.