Behind the scenes at The Entrepreneurs’ Summit, manufacturing tycoon Gary Dutton reveals why he turned down a stint on the silver screen.
“Those people from Channel Four got on the blower to me and asked me to appear in Secret Millionaire,” he says, raising an eyebrow.

“They’re having a laugh.”

Perplexed, we asked him why he refused an opportunity to appear on telly. Surely it’s a great opportunity to promote his company, Synseal?

“No way,” he sniffs. “I haven’t spent all these years in business to go slumming it in the back and beyond.”
The back and beyond? Isn’t it filmed in the UK, we ask. “It might as well be the third world. I’m not going to stay in some backpackers’ hostel and pose as an unknown.

“If they offered me five-star accomodation, I might reconsider.”

On a bit of a rant, he then has a quick pop at Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones. “I wouldn’t mind being up on stage with him,” he says. “I’d give him a piece of my mind.

“All he ever does is criticise budding entrepreneurs and moans that their ideas aren’t original. Well, I’d like to see him come up with an original idea for a change.”

Gary Dutton’s Synsel history:

1980 Gary Dutton founded Synseal as a direct sell and fit PVC-U window operation buying windows in.

1981 Thirteen showrooms were opened across the East Midlands. Synseal started fabricating, still operating purely as a direct sell operation. Malcolm LeMasurier joined as Factory Manager responsible for fabrication.

1985 A trade division was set up to supply the local trade. This soon expanded into a nationwide operation.

1990 1,200 windows per week were being fabricated for both domestic and trade. A decision was made to have our own tooling developed and extruded for us. This tooling was known as the Contour suite.

1992 The first extrusion line was purchased and commissioned at our base in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. The extrusion company had been conceived, and profile was soon being sold directly to window fabricators.

1994 Synseal invested over £3 million in the installation of the chemical mixing plant. This meant we had more control over the maintaining of our quality standard and over the erratic compound cost changes in the market so our customers were assured of consistently high quality product and a stable price structure.

1995 The Trade Division was consistently selling over 2,000 trade window frames and some 50-60 conservatory roofs every week. The conflict for Synseal was selling trade windows to the same market that our profile customers were also seeking to supply. To avoid this continued conflict of interests, and again to concentrate solely on one market sector, the Trade Division was sold to JBS Industries (now known as Consort) in December 1995.

1996 Synseal launched the revolutionary Silhouette window profile system. Within 6 months it attracted over 100 fabricators and formed the backbone of Synseal’s later growth.

1999 Synseal’s innovative spirit saw the Silhouette growth record beaten when the market was introduced to the Shield system, a system designed to be ‘all things to all people’, or quite simply the very best window system.

2001 Synseal’s patio door system was independently verified as the best system on the market. More fabricators in Great Britain use Synseal profile than any other profile available on the market - again independently verified. To keep the industry up to date with the latest developments, innovations and news from Synseal, a quarterly publication The Synseal Times was launched. Synseal purchased a 207,000 square feet factory (next door to existing factory) to cope with the anticipated demand for the new conservatory product. Total factory space exceeded 287, 000 square feet. An additional £600,000 was invested in three new extrusion lines taking the total to 20 to cope with the increased sales.

2002 The biggest stand ever taken by a systems company, over 5,300 square feet, was taken at Glassex 2002 at the NEC in Birmingham to launch the complete Shield conservatory system. The Shield roof was designed specifically to fit perfectly onto windows and doors made from Shield profile. By the end of the year 90 per cent of Shield fabricators were using the Shield roof. The success of this redefined the conservatory market in terms of product, price and distribution.

2003 The Complete Shield Conservatory system had taken the market with such success, Synseal developed a sister product, global. The global conservatory roof fits onto any window and door profile system. It mirrors most of the benefits of Shield and, in particular, the substantial installation and aesthetic benefits. This system has played and is still playing to this day a very instrumental role in the evolution of the conservatory.

2004 Synseal announces sales of conservatory roofs are in excess of 1,000 conservatories every week. It was reported in the Financial Times that Synseal is the second largest conservatory system supplier in the UK with 19.5% market penetration - just 3 years after launch. The existing extrusion hall was extended to build an additional blending plant (doubling capacity to 50,000 tonnes) and 18 extrusion lines were added.

2005 Glassex 2005 is the venue to launch SynerJy, Synseal’s fourth generation window system. The fully sculptured suite has a single leg ‘j’ bead and is fully pre-gasketted. Synseal bought Permacell Finesse in September. According to industry researchers Michael Rigby Associates Synseal became the largest window systems supplier in the UK.

2006 Synseal took the top position in conservatories making Synseal the only company to have both windows and conservatories simultaneously. Synseal brought the manufacturing of Legend to Sutton in Ashfield and built an additional 100,000 square foot warehouse.