Focus on Littleborough: Performance Doorset Solutions Ltd

Tim Fairley; a Director of PDS

In 2003 three men left one Rochdale company behind to set up their own business where they could be in control and where they made the rules.

Now, seven years on, the business, Performance Doorset Solutions Ltd (PDS, based in Littleborough, has grown beyond all expectations employing over 100 people and supplying door- sets and joinery to organisations all over the country.

Rochdale Online Reporter Laura Wild, met with one of the three men to find out about the firms growth.

That man is Tim Fairley; a Director of PDS, here is his businesses story…

“We set up business in 2003, with a sole aim of producing security door-sets for local authority housing, we made all of Rochdale Boroughwide Housing’s doors, and seven years later we are still manufacturing door-sets for them.

“A door set is the complete finished product, pre-hung in a frame, fitted with locks ironmongery, glass and even house number.”

“We started in 2003 with a 5000 sq ft factory on Queensway, 10 months later we opened another 5000 sq ft factory, and 12 months later we had opened our third factory. We had about 15,000sqft but it wasn’t big enough so we started looking for somewhere else,” said Mr Fairley.

After searching around for the ideal location the firm moved to Greenvale Business Park, Todmorden Road, Littleborough.

“We moved here in December 2006, and the site was much better for us and had much more scope for expansion.

“When we moved we brought all 47 employees with us and since then we have created more jobs, we now have 117 employees.”

Since 2006 the firm has expanded incredibly.

It acquired another local company, City Joinery and created a new factory for it at the Littleborough site, it then bought Acorn Glass from Middleton which also has a factory at the site.

Mr Fairley added: “We wanted to be able to control what we do – that was our initial aim – so to have everything done in one place instead of relying on glass to come from somewhere like Leeds gave us that control, and put us in a position to develop PDS even more.”

To add to the idea of control PDS also has its own transport so it can make all its own deliveries.

This year PDS is expected to sell 13,000 door sets and 4,000 windows and turn over around £9million.


Of course Mr Fairley recognises that we are in a recession, however he is confident of a bright future for the firm.

He said: “We are trying to build a strong business and as things get easier in the economy we will be in a position to go from strength to strength.

“We are still growing, and the recession has made things harder but we are up year on year. We expect to be up 6% this year.”

Since 2003 PDS makes much more than doors for local authority housing, it works on developing like for like matches of doors and windows for heritage buildings, it carries out custom designs and has branched out from making door sets to making window frames too.

Mr Fairley continued: “We want to keep growing, , we have a clear path of what we want to make and what market we want to target but if things change, then we aren’t afraid to change direction”

“I think we are what you would call ever-evolving.

“We never knew where we would end up but we wanted to build the business and be in control – I don’t think I ever thought it would be like this.

“I think sometimes when you have inflated aspirations, things can happen too quick and too soon and we could have made the wrong decisions.

“When we can see that we need to grow or expand we sit down and we all discuss it.

“We have a policy of continual investment in machinery and employees.”

In seven years the business has expanded much more than Mr Fairley and his colleagues ever expected. It just goes to show that when you want something enough you can achieve it and surpass all the expectations you had in the first place.

PDS are members of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) which promotes responsible management of the world’s forests, are members of Secured by design (SBD) which is a Police backed security initiative for doors and windows and has an ISO 1401 certification for environmental management.