The outdoors is more alive than ever

swela responds to this with its products

It's buzzing with activity at hardware stores and garden centers. With a more or less obligatory summer vacation in our own garden on the horizon, it is hoarding time. Plants, flower pots and lounge sets are in short supply. The awning industry has noticed this too. Where elsewhere in the country the alarm bells are ringing incessantly for small and medium-sized businesses, the awning sector is plumping. Manufacturers and dealers are running into problems with delivery times even earlier than usual.  The rush is also very noticeable at swela. Marina Schavemaker, account manager at swela Netherlands, struggles to make time for an interview. "You're lucky I had time to take your call, the phone is red hot," she says. We speak to her about the role swela plays when it comes to outdoor living.

The sunvas fabrics from swela's RAYOS collection find their way into articulated awnings, drop awnings, conservatory awnings and freestanding conservatory awnings.

From articulated awnings to freestanding conservatory awnings

Marina Schavemaker gets a lot of phone calls from dealers about delivery times for designs from the RAYOS collection. "Logical, because delivery times increase everywhere. As we communicated to our dealers at the start of the corona crisis, fortunately we can draw on enough stock in Emsdetten. The bottleneck will lie mainly in the speed at which it can be made up," she outlines. "We notice an increasing interest in the RAYOS collection because the properties of the polyester fabric appeal to people. The transmission of light is different from acrylic and produces an atmospheric image. The gluing of the fabric strips as a method of confection also plays into the choice, because it improves the behavior of the fabric. This is something that does need to be communicated to the end user from the dealer, as he or she often visits the showroom unknowingly."

Sunvas fabrics from swela's RAYOS collection are used for articulated and drop awnings, conservatory awnings and free-standing pergola awnings. Marina Schavemaker, despite the very limited amount of off-site work allowed, is still in close contact with the dealer network. "After all, we have all modern means of communication at our disposal and we are easily accessible. There is always room for a chat, in addition to the questions people ask us about the applications of sunvas in various awnings."

"Many questions are about the properties of our fabrics, especially about color fastness and weather resistance. Sunvas has all the good properties you would expect from modern awning fabric. The yarn is colorfast, the fabric is rot- and mold-free and the nano-coating provides good dirt-resistant properties. In terms of waterproofing, you can expect that in a drizzle, water will not penetrate the fabric, but in heavy rain, the warp and weft can become saturated and water will penetrate the fabric drop by drop. At least by gluing the cloths together, there is no stitching seam for water to seep through. An added benefit of gluing is that there is no waffling or herringbone formation along the seams."

Marina Schavemaker, account manager at swela Netherlands.

Outdoor living is so much more than just awnings

Naturally, Z&R asks Marina Schavemaker about the Outdoor Curtains that swela is currently promoting. "For our Outdoor Curtains, we mostly get questions about that from end-users.users. The awning trade is apparently still batting an eyelid. We are doing our best to take private requests and put them down as leads to the confectioners in the Netherlands who have lovingly embraced this product."

"We are therefore going one step further. We are now advertising Outdoor Curtains in consumer-oriented home magazines. We expect that with sufficient market demand, awning specialists will automatically approach us to include this product in their delivery program. The same applies to our collection of textiles for outdoor furniture upholstery. These requests come in directly, often from consumers who already have a swela fabric in their awning. We refer them to the processors in the Netherlands who have signed up with us.ASSOCIATED. For the vaktrade is a missed opportunity not to show these products: they turn out to be sales boosters!"