Ideabright – The Best Tool Shop in London?
An ex-colleague of mine described Ideabright ltd in Fulham as “the best tool shop he had ever visited”. He visits a lot of tool shops in his line of business, so I needed to take him seriously. All I can say is that the entire time I was there my fingers were itching to try out some of the incredible range of quality tools on display. It is certainly very impressive. I met with Atish Patel and Bhavin, his Design, Sales and Marketing Manager to talk about the process that led to the development of “the best tool shop”. The business was started in a single premises in Fulham by Atish’s father about 35 years ago. The original premises was a typical high street hardware shop at the time, but gradually more retail outlets were opened, each one specializing in a particular area like lighting, electrical goods and cleaning products. Over the last ten or so years, the retail premises I visited was opened, with its main focus being stocking quality power tools. Atish himself, having worked himself from shop floor to Director, now has control of the tools arm of the business and uses his wide experience to manage a huge portfolio of products. Recruiting and retaining staff was one of the big issues we discussed. Atish, with his intimate knowledge of the business, has a key management and training role and believes firmly that trained staff with good product knowledge are very
important to the business. Trained and knowledgeable staff can aid a company’s development through their skills in understanding products and then use this understanding to sell the tools that customers actually want. With a staff of about 40 people, it remains a “family business” in size, and staff retention is good. The sales staff enjoys a commission incentive scheme, and that may help retention too!
Atish admits that he was also lucky to have got the services of a shop manager from a nearby competitor that closed down. His encyclopedic knowledge of tools has been a boost to the business.
Stocking the right tools is very important in Ideabright and they use a number of different ways to ensure that they keep up to date with trends as well as maintaining stocks of regular “mainstream” items.
Company representatives are encouraged to visit regularly and try to build up trusting personal relationships. In this way they come to understand the nature of the business and so have a clear insight into what can be sold and what is inappropriate.
Managers also visit trade shows, product launches and individual manufacturers in order to find new products and do important deals. The sales teams in all categories also have a key role in deciding what products to stock. They have a free hand, but need to keep within a budget. The commission incentive scheme also ensures that the teams keep a close eye on what sells and what doesn’t, since their commissions may be at stake. Atish sometimes “takes a punt’ with a particular deal he might see at a trade show for example, and relies on his long experience and “feel” for the trade when making his judgement.
With all this stock, stock control is obviously vital. Ideabright has developed its own system over the years, but Atish says it’s “the hardest thing he has ever done in his life”. Apart from the teething problems expected from any system, he has had to take into account the different demands of each department, for example electrical, plumbing, housewares and tools, in setting up the parameters of the system. In the end a continuous stock monitoring system
12 ToolBUSINESS+HIRE
www.toolbusiness.co.uk
Reply No. 208
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