MERCHANT FOCUS
MADE FOR THE TRADE
SGBD chief executive Mark Rayfield talks to Fiona Russell Horne about the company’s last year and all things Jewson Live.
June 23rd 2016 when the Brexit referendum happened, than others. However, chief executive Mark Saint-Gobain businesses are very much local businesses for their local markets means the effect, so far, has been muted.
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“There were certainly a few more phone calls to and from the UK businesses around that time, with everyone wanting to be sure they were updated on everything that might happen,” he says.
“Our CEO said that we just have to accept the outcome of the vote and move on. It’s just the uncertainty that it brings to the European market helped by the fact that everyone you talk to seems to have a different opinion on what might happen. The
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s part of a Europe-based, pan global conglomerate, Saint-Gobain Building Distribution had, perhaps, rather more at stake on
challenges that the businesses face are pretty much the same in all our markets, so where there will be a good year for the group across the majority of businesses, with some strong results. “Collectively, we think we are trading above the market. We have three or four brands in plumbing and heating and in general, aggregated together, we feel we outperformed the market.
Priority launch
Investment has continued across the broad spread of businesses, he says. “We opened seven new branches in London called Priority Plumbing, which is a different format. It’s something that’s open seven days a week and is really focussed on the needs of the localised market in London. We also made an acquisition in Northern Ireland and one more recently in Manchester to add to our
Local Merchant Group portfolio.” With such a broad spread of businesses, there are always some that will be doing better than others “Some that are heavily allied to the commercial market and architectural had a bit more uncertainty over the past few months. What’s very positive is that the businesses are all trading round about mid-summer, with a little bit of a softer market but that has been the pattern: softer markets strengthening then going softer again and then getting stronger. “In terms of investments following the Summer’s Brexit vote, I think our plans will continue as they were. Saint-Gobain is a global business and there is always a very complex matrix of how and where it invests across the globe. I can say, hand on heart, that the investments we had planned three years ago, two years ago and one year ago are as big and more robust as they were then, so, in that sense, the Brexit vote hasn’t reduced our investments.” In the last few years, Jewson has been focusing on supply chain says. “Two years ago, we focused very heavily on our customer experience centre where we have a large team
January 2017 BMJ
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