Coldest winter leads to national windscreen shortage

We might be safely in spring now, but after the UK’s worst winter in 30 years, caused such high demand for replacement windscreens at the beginning of the year that there is now a national shortage of windscreens, a leading automotive glazing services company reports. 

Auto Windscreens says that automotive glazing companies throughout the UK are struggling to get hold of parts leading to long delays for windscreen replacement for vehicle owners, particularly for owners of the Vauxhall Zafira, Astra and Vectra, VW Passat and Golf and Audi A4.

One of only a handful of car glass manufacturers in the UK, the glazing company has increased production by more than 40 per cent at its own windscreen factory in order to meet the demand. Production at the firm’s factory has now increased to 600 windscreens a day.

The cold weather through the winter of 2009 led to increase cases of cracked windscreen glass, as vehicles were exposed to extreme temperatures. The firm says it’s still dealing with the aftermath of the harsh weather.

Nigel Davies, Auto Windscreens Sales and Marketing Director commented: “It’s unusual to have a national shortage of windscreens and we’ve certainly not come across it before. Auto Windscreens is in the fortunate and unique position, however, that we can simply add another shift at our factory and increase production on popular windscreen models to meet demand and manage the delays.”

Uniquely, the company is the only automotive glazing services company to manufacture its own windscreens, giving it total control of the supply chain. It has the capacity to produce 250,000 windscreens annually and has been manufacturing them for 26 years at its factory in Chesterfield, Derbyshire.

Author: Faye Sunderland, May 7th, 2010
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