Although Garnalex is a new name, our story, heritage and people have strong links with the window industry and the Amber Valley in Derbyshire. Garnalex CEO Roger Hartshorn is best known for founding and then selling two leading PVC-U systems companies Eurocell PLC and Liniar systems, which have contributed strongly to the market, and to the growth of employment and success in the local community. Many of Garnalex’ team of industry experts have worked with Roger helping him build one or both of these companies.

Garnalex also shares its heritage with LB Plastics. Our state-of-the-art factory is at the Firs Works in Nether Heage, originally owned by Lichfield Brothers, the founders of LB Plastics. LB became the first British PVC-U systems company when Anglian Windows asked it to manufacture PVC-U extruded window profiles for them. Garnalex Technical Product Director, Dave Watts started his career in windows at LB in 1982.

In 1974, former employees of LB Plastics set up a new company, HL Plastics, and in 1977, Roger Hartshorn joined as an apprentice toolmaker. By 1988, Roger was part of a management buy-out and in the early 1990s his team launched Eurocell, with a popular roofline fascia and soffits range, and in 1993 with the Eurocell Ultimate 70mm PVC-U window system. The company grew and now Eurocell is a publicly listed company and one of the largest, most successful PVC-U systems houses in the UK employing over 1,000 people. Roger left Eurocell in 2005. He bought back the trade extruder HL Plastics and set up Flamstead Holdings in Denby, launching Liniar systems in 2008. Liniar was one of the fastest growing systems companies in the UK and another leading PVC-U systems companies. Roger sold it to the Quanex Corporation in 2015, staying on for three years until he left in 2018. He then set up a new group, Garner Holdings, Garnalex, an aluminium extruder and launched the Sheerline window and door system. Roger bought Firs Works and LB Plastics to make plastic components, mouldings and ancillaries for trade customers and Garnalex’ own systems.

Like a lot of the industry, Roger had fallen for aluminium and its potential. Garnalex made an immediate splash when it launched in 2018 with its vision to transform fabricators’ and Garnalex article for Vision June 2020 installers’ experience of buying, manufacturing, installing, and selling aluminium windows and doors.

Rich heritage of innovation and success. “It’s fitting we’ve named our new aluminium window and door system Sheerline®, in a nod to this rich heritage,” Roger Hartshorn explains. “The Sheerline name was registered by LB Plastics in 1971, and it’s the ideal brand name for this new, state-of-the-art aluminium window and door system that’s rooted in hard earned experience.”

The new system is the culmination of nearly two years’ extensive research, innovation, and product development, creating a truly innovative, ground-breaking product. Sheerline is the next-generation window and door system that’s engineered for performance, looks, ease of fabrication and installation, with service and delivery levels that fabricators would associate with the best of PVC rather than aluminium systems. Sheerline combines a series of exciting new innovations in a system that’s easier and quicker to fabricate, and easier to install. Sheerline passed PAS24:2016 security testing with outstanding results, exceeding the required load by more than three times! Its uniquely balanced, peerless aesthetics also make it a dream to sell.

Sheerline in a changing world Sheerline hits the market in June through selected fabricators, with a full launch later this year. The industry is starting back to life, under the dark shadow of the Coronavirus, and ambitious fabricators will be looking for an edge, a new product ideally suited to socially distanced work environments, that will help win business, with the added bonus of being more cost-effective to manufacture. To learn more about Sheerline and register your interest visit www.sheerline.com and follow @SheerlineSystem and @GarnalexSystems.