MERCHANT FOCUS: MACPLAS
MACPLAS: ONE YEAR LATER
Last spring Elizabeth Jordan met the small but dedicated team behind the new independent plastics merchant in Medway. After all the ups and downs of the past year, how is Macplas now?
key. The feedback we get shows that it’s all appreciated.”
“We’ve also tried to support British brands
as much as possible, keeping with our original business targets. However we are hugely customer-led. If there is a product one of our customers wants that we don’t stock, we’ll get it for them. Some things we can’t get from the UK and we have to use our initiatives to avoid being blocked by our competitors, but it’s all about learning how to meet customer needs.” says York.
More hours in the day... The team say that the hardest thing about driving the business forward as a builders’ merchant has been the hours. “Obviously, the more customers we get, the more work there is to do.” says Cotton. “We’ve taken up working Saturdays as well just to catch up with the week and get ready for the next. It gives us time to tie up any loose ends.” It isn’t all work and no play though as Cotton laughs that they’ve been able to book holidays this year for the first time in two years.
The extra workload they have been looking at comes from their open willingness to acquire new ranges for repeat customers. “Word of mouth is the best advertising going” says Waghorn
“O
Cotton grees: “We want our customers to know that if they’re prepared to put their faith in us, we are more than happy to go after any specific ranges or items they might want. Since we only supply to independents, we understand that their needs can change from one order to the next.”
ur customers like us for our traditional ways,” explains Mark Cotton, “We started Macplas saying that we
wanted to keep the traditional methods of business alive and we’ve stuck to our guns. Now we communicate in practically every way: over the phone, text, Whatsapp, Facebook, however our customers want to get hold of us, they can.”
The site still sits in Medway City Estate, but it’s busy to say the least. While the fleet still stands at one delivery vehicle and trusty driver, Cotton says there are plans to grow the team in the next few months.
“One of my favourite things about this job,” says driver Kevin Waghorn, “Is the amount of pleasant surprise on our customers’ faces when they order something in the morning and we deliver it that afternoon.” “We like a speedy turn-around to keep things clear and simple.”Graham York adds. “It keeps us busy and out of trouble, but like Mark said- we will need to add to the team soon.”
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Above: The team at Macplas is a tight-knit group of three dedicated men: Directors Mark Cotton and Graham York, alongside driver Kevin Waghorn.
“Growing always brings snags but we’ve had great support from customers and our suppliers.” Cotton continues. “We have been growing at the right pace and we want to keep it going. Our first year was incredibly busy. I think the secret is, we treat every order like it’s our own. We handle things as if we were the ones receiving them and we deliver with the same attitude, with presentation being
The Future is Bright
All in all, Macplas is going from strength to strength. “This January has been our second best month in terms of figures and growth so we are all feeling positive. Macplas’ fourth month of business saw its first month workload tripled” Cotton says. “Once our customer base is completely established, we’ll be secure to look at the future in a much bigger sense.” He adds that the local area has proved to be brilliant for business both in terms of customers and a transport hub, close enough to London and the vital motorways that act as arteries for the country.
“Although Brexit is a big “?” and nobody knows what to expect, I think we have an edge being a smaller merchant, serving independents. We are looking forward to hiring a couple of new members to our team by the end of the year- someone with experience in the industry who won’t mind carving their own role within Macplas- and hitting our target of £1million in sales.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2019
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