HEAVYSIDE: KEYSTONE LINTELS W
hen the jokes about needing a new shelf to house your customer awards start, you can begin to think that
you’re doing something right. That’s the current state of affairs at lintel manufacturer Keystone Lintels, although sales director Chris Hemmington-Green is quick to point out that there is no complacency about any of it. “The key element is in a market where it can be hard to differentiate is consistency,” he says. “Consistency and credibility, because the first leads to the second. It does all stream from our leadership team, from Sean Coyle. I think that was very evident in the reaction to our 35th anniversary celebrations a couple of years ago. There was genuine warmth in the room, for the Coyles, for the people on the shop floor, for the customers who have grown alongside the business. And that tone matters. Because when people talk about Keystone’s position today, they invariably trace it back to what Sean built from almost nothing into a market leader over three decades.” What Hemmington-Green believes the Keystone journey has given merchants and builders is confidence. “Confidence that the business understands its market. Confidence that decisions are not driven by short-term grabs. Confidence that, more often than not, the company will do what it says it will do.”
Business commitment In a product category that can easily look commoditised, Hemmington-Green says the company is committed to business development. It would be easy, he acknowledges, for a manufacturer to strike a deal, ship stock into a branch and mentally tick the box. Order placed. Job done. See you in six months. That is not the Keystone model. There is, instead, what he describes as a genuine desire to work alongside merchants to help them turn stock. The logic is straightforward: if the merchant isn’t turning stock, Keystone isn’t turning stock either. Cash is tied up. Margins are squeezed. Relationships start to show the strain.
That philosophy changes behaviour. “We’ll work with the customer,” Hemmington-Green says, explaining that there may be an occasion where an area sales manager proposes a substantial stock order, only for the volume to be reduced, sometimes by half. Not because the business doesn’t want the revenue, but because the merchant doesn’t need that level of stock in one hit. “Why tie up cash unnecessarily? Why create a problem that then has to be solved later?,” he says. Although, clearly, the company isn’t a charity, it’s there to make money, but it has to
32
LOCKING DOWN SALES VIA SERVICE AND PARTNERSHIP
Keystone Lintels keeps winning Supplier of the Year Awards. Fiona Russell Horne asks how the company does it.
with a constant internal question: where is the next opportunity? “Is it from new customers, new products, new markets? That appetite for growth is embedded culturally.” That growth will always be through the merchant channel, he adds. In a market where some manufacturers are tempted by direct-to- customer models, Keystone’s stance is firm, Hemmington-Green says. “The company was built with merchants, and will continue to sell through them. Cutting out the middleman is not up for debate.”
be sustainable business, made from stock that sells and brings decent margins throughout the supply chain.
The entrepreneurial streak that started the business remains, Hemmington Green says,
Specification, he believes, is an area where credibility is won or lost. If a project does not require a heavy-duty lintel, a standard lintel will be specified, even if the heavier option carries a higher margin. It is a long-term calculation rather than a transactional one. “Over time, builders remember when they have been treated fairly, when they haven’t been sold something they don’t need, just to boost a line on a spreadsheet. We firmly
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net April 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88
