RETAILER PROFILE | Alexander / Masterfit
The showroom benefits from plenty of natural light
The Worthing showroom in Sompting Road
We have always believed that
customer service is important – as much after as during the sale. As the business grew, we needed to create full-time
customer service roles Warwick Hockley, installations manager
on doing business at that time, there was an element of downtime for everybody and he got a taste for it. He was a keen skier and always went on three skiing holidays a year and he didn’t know how many years of skiing he had left.”
Recruitment
I ask Hockley if they are winning the battle. He replies: “If you had asked me that six or seven months ago, I would have said no. But today, with what we have done in recruitment over the past few months, I would say yes.” Beechinor also feels the uncertainty created by the lockdowns helped convince many tradespeople to opt for the security of full-time employment. Hockley adds: “They are very good skilled trades but the organisation, planning and having to do all of the things they don’t have to do here is a massive, massive benefit. We save them the stress and hassle of working
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evenings and weekends and worrying about if they are going to get paid.” Alexander has been in business for more than 40 years now. It moved to its current premises in Sompting Road, Worthing, after outgrowing its original showroom. The new location on a major roundabout previously a local B&Q – gave Alexander more space.
It opened its Horsham showroom five years ago with 11 full-size kitchen displays and before long, having already added bathrooms to the mix in Worthing, added them to the Horsham offering. Turnover now is around £1.5 million for Masterfit, £2.5m for Alexander and £1m on contracts, which it moved into six years ago. Beechinor recalls how he got a lot of helpful advice from Nobilia and to do the contracts fitting he headhunted someone he knew from Paula Rosa who had done a lot of developments on the south coast. And he brought
his own staff and fitters with him. Alexander is also a KBSA member. “It is a badge of honour, rather like Checkatrade,” explains Beechinor. “We have a good reputation in Worthing and when we opened in Horsham, I thought our reputation would travel, but it didn’t. So we felt that being in the KBSA would be good for Horsham, as it takes time to build a reputation locally. It also provided us with a vehicle for offering finance.” While its retail kitchen offering comprises Nobilia, Mereway, Bau -
format and English Revival – with bedrooms from Daval – for contracts Alexander just works with Nobilia. Appliances are mainly Neff, Bosch, Siemens and Bora,
with worktops
from Silestone and Caesarstone. Its main bathroom brands are Imex, Saneux, Crosswater, Deuco, Mon - trose, Vado, Aqualisa and Roman. As for the future, Masterfit/Alexander plans to keep up its investment in new colleagues, fitters and tradesmen across all areas of the business as it continues to expand.
· May 2022
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