Wax breakthrough set to put Prestige in the frame in market

The newly launched company, which is based at Pudsey, claims to be the first in the UK to offer such protection with its products, which are made using PVCu, or polyvinyl chloride unplasticised – a durable rigid plastic.

Paul Khaira, sales manager and majority shareholder in the business, said UV Guard Wax is “totally unique”, adding: “There’s no-one else in the market that has done this. I think it will be very popular.”

A polymer chemist, Mr Khaira developed UV Guard Wax, which was later tested by Colour Science Analytical (CSA), part of the University of Leeds.

CSA provides analysis and expertise in areas including surface coatings, inks, textiles, water treatment, fine chemicals, medical devices and cosmetics.

“We can see under the microscope what a normal PVCu frame looks like and what it looks like when it’s been coated with this wax.

“You can see a big difference. It fills all the voids in the frame. It gives you a better gloss finish, the UV stabilisers in there give you better protection in the long run and the wax will protect it from acid rain too.

“It’s easier to clean too as you’re not getting the dust particles in the voids. Rainwater just falls straight off, it doesn’t stay there.”

Mr Khaira, who owns and runs a separate company called Saleschem, which imports and exports speciality chemicals such as pigments and dyes, said: “At the end of the day, as a small company, we don’t have the testing facilities here so we do need people like the university to help us out.”

He said the plan over the next six months is for Prestige Double Glazing to employ another four or five people in fabrication. There will be more work for self-employed fitters too, he said.

“We’ve got a lot of people ringing up at the moment and there’s a lot of people in the industry that want to buy this product off us. At the moment, we are keeping it in-house at Prestige, and then we will maybe look to franchise it out.”

He explained his inspiration for developing the product. “A friend who runs a glazing company was looking for a new product to go into the industry, they wanted to improve the product and give something unique to the customers. I decided we needed more protection on the PVCu frames.”

The business currently operates in the retail market, selling to homeowners, but plans to enter the trade industry as well.

Mr Khaira said: “It’s a difficult trading time for everyone at the moment, especially in the construction industry, and that’s why we’ve developed something totally unique. That’s why we’ve developed another product, to be different from the rest of the people out there. Hopefully we’ll develop some new products as well which will move us forward.”

Prestige Double Glazing, whose main supplier is Gloucestershire-based Duraflex, launched a couple of weeks ago and has just seen its new website go live. It supplies glazing to customers particularly in the Leeds, Harrogate and Ilkley areas, but to most parts of the West Yorkshire region.

Mr Khaira continues to run Saleschem, a £130,000 turnover business, also based in Pudsey, with his wife Anita.

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