Polish manufacturers are capturing a growing share of Britain’s home improvement market, as tighter energy efficiency rules catch domestic fabricators flat-footed on production capacity.
The UK’s Future Homes Standard, finalised in March, is pushing window specifications towards triple glazing and Passivhaus-level performance as the baseline rather than a premium option. Polish exporters, whose factories were already built for those specifications to serve German and Scandinavian markets, are positioned to benefit.
“The country’s joinery sector is not scrambling to catch up,” according to analysis by KJM Group, which forecasts the UK glazing market will grow 2 to 3 per cent annually from this year through 2029. “It is already there.”
Poland’s window and door exporters shipped in the region of 12.5 million units globally in a recent year, generating about €2.38bn in revenue, with the UK among the largest destination markets alongside Germany, France and Ireland. Leading producers include Oknoplast, which operates six factories across Poland, Austria and Spain with capacity for roughly 2.3 million windows annually, and Drutex, which exports more than 80 per cent of its output — up to 7,000 windows and 5,000 doors a day — to more than 70 countries.
By contrast, the UK’s domestic door and window fabricators market has struggled. Industry data from Barbour ABI shows the sector was worth £2.285bn in 2025, essentially flat after declines of 3 per cent in 2023 and an estimated 5 per cent in 2024, with recovery not expected until this year.
Modern Polish-made frames commonly achieve U-values — a measure of heat loss — as low as 0.8 W/m²K, comfortably inside the UK’s replacement-window requirement of 1.4 W/m²K and close to standards new-build developers will soon need to hit.
UK trade bodies have yet to publish formal figures quantifying import penetration, and major manufacturers have not commented publicly on the trend. Analysts note that currency movements and post-Brexit customs procedures remain the principal checks on further Polish gains, alongside delivery lead times that still favour UK-based production for time-sensitive projects.
Why This Matters: The UK market is attracting significant interest from European companies, with several major acquisitions having taken place over the past 18 months. Historically, the UK has been rich pickings for major European PVC-U systems companies. Now, the trend could shift towards finished products entering the UK from Europe. This is linked to falling demand for windows and doors in mainland Europe, as well as the increasing attractiveness of the UK market as the requirements of the Future Homes Standard come into focus. The big issue will be lead times, which could inhibit growth in the domestic replacement market. New build is slightly different, however, and could offer a greater opportunity.
