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help the local community with our inclusive growth commitments.
At the moment, shed manufacturing is rather labour intensive – a manufacturer will be making shed panels using a nail gun and it can be fairly repetitive work. However, we are building a great team and due to the rapid growth of the company there are a lot of progression opportunities available for anyone who is looking for more responsibility. We run a really lean manufacturing process with very little in stock – as soon as it’s made, it’s out of the door to a customer. With a shed being made from a natural product we try to minimise the amount of time it’s standing around and so stock levels are very low.
TTJ: WHAT IS YOUR ROUTE TO MARKET? JS: We sell through both retail and trade. We sell via our own website, www.powersheds. com and other retail or marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. We also have a fantastic network of retail partners throughout the UK who sell our products through their websites or via display sites.
TTJ: WHAT ARE YOUR BESTSELLERS AND ARE NEW PRODUCTS PLANNED? JS: We have already reached our manufacturing capacity in the 10,000ft2 factory we are based in so have just leased a larger 48,000ft2
premises to move into. This
will allow us to increase capacity and our range of products. We currently sell wooden garden sheds, potting sheds, security sheds and bike sheds. However, we are retaining the existing premises and will be using that to manufacture log cabins to cater for the current and growing high demand for garden offices. We expect this to launch around May.
TTJ: HOW MANY SHEDS DO YOU PRODUCE? JS: We are manufacturing 300 sheds a week but with our move into larger premises we will be able to increase this to 2,000 sheds a week making us one of the largest garden sheds manufacturers in the UK.
TTJ: YOU ARE BASED IN BRADFORD BUT SUPPLY CUSTOMERS ALL OVER THE UK – DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO OPEN ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION SITES? JS: We have plenty of plans to open additional sites, throughout the world! We are already investigating other markets to manufacture in and sell to, outside of this country.
TTJ: DO YOU OWN YOUR OWN FLEET OF DELIVERY VEHICLES? JS: We have a special relationship with Palletline, the UK’s first premium palletised freight distribution company, operating right across the nation and Europe. As part of our
partnership it has branded some of its vehicles with the Power brand. It’s nice to see our name up and down the roads across the country.
TTJ: WHERE DO YOU SOURCE YOUR TIMBER FROM? JS: We have a fantastic relationship with Bayram Timber in Hull, which has supported us from day one. It purchases Scandinavian whitewood and redwood and machines this into shiplap tongue and groove, matchings and framing. It also provides a cross-cut service, so the timber comes in cut-to-size, which helps us hugely and allows us to focus on just the panel manufacture.
TTJ: IS THE TIMBER PRESSURE TREATED OR DIP-TREATED? JS: Our sheds are dip-treated. It is our opinion that many shed manufacturers who offer pressure treated products don’t do it properly. If a company offers pressure treated sheds then very often they will pressure treat full packs of timber and then cut it down for the shed panels. Every one of these boards will have then been cut (at both ends) and therefore will have an untreated end grain which is not treated or protected, which of course is the easiest part of timber, with it being cut, for water to get into. Some companies paint the ends green to hide it and paint the facias (not with a preserver) and some don’t, which means important parts of the shed are practically unprotected. ‘Pressure treated’ sounds good to the purchaser but very few shed manufacturers will make a full shed panel and then pressure treat it.
TTJ: GLOBAL DEMAND FOR TIMBER IS VERY HIGH – HAVE YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMS SOURCING ADEQUATE SUPPLIES? JS: Our relationship with Bayram has been very good and although we are aware of the shortages, we haven’t found any difficulty with sourcing. Of course, we have seen that prices are high and continue to increase and that mills are reluctant to price for Q2 in case prices rise further. However, we are confident we will continue to work with our supplier to ensure it keeps up with our high timber demands.
TTJ: HOW HAS THE MARKET BEEN – PARTICULARLY DURING THE PANDEMIC? JS: We moved into an empty building in March 2019 and then in April we sold 15 sheds. In May we employed our first member of staff. Now, we are hitting 300 sheds a week with 36 employees. Our sheds have proven to be really popular – the pandemic has assisted with demand, but we had to do everything we could to slow sales down and ensure we looked after our trade customers first and
www.ttjonline.com | March/April 2021 | TTJ
foremost. We therefore disabled the checkout on our website, and turned Amazon, Wayfair and eBay off. We could have significantly increased prices on our own website and prioritised these orders over trade to maximise short term profit but we are choosing to look after our B2B customers as they are there for the long term. We felt this was the right strategy and it has been well received by trade customers – numerous garden centres were able to sell remotely whilst their sites were closed and it actually helped keep some of them in business.
TTJ: YOU WON SEVERAL AWARDS LAST YEAR – HOW IMPORTANT HAS THIS BEEN FOR THE BUSINESS? JS: We’re extremely proud that our garden sheds are the UK’s most-awarded shed. Our Awards include:
• The Number 1 Best Shed According To Real Homes
• The eBay Award for Innovation 2020 - Winner
• Great British Entrepreneur Award for ‘Disruptor of the Year’ - Winner (North
West)
• Design & Build Award for ‘Excellence in Shed Design & Manufacturing - UK’
• SME National Business Award for ‘Best New Business’ - 2020 Finalist
• Lloyds National Business Award for ‘Best New Business’ 2020 - Winner
• Corporate LiveWire Prestige Award for ‘Outdoor Living New Business of the Year’ –
Winner
This has been great for many reasons – recruitment, PR, branding, and it’s brought multiple companies forward wanting to invest in or be involved in the journey. It’s also great for our amazing team to see because it shows the hard work is being recognised. ■
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