MERCHANT FOCUS: SBS MIDLANDS
STAFF STOCK SERVICE
Nottingham is the new home for one of Smith Brothers Stores’ new branches. Will McGill took a look around.
ottingham: The home of Robin Hood, Tarmac, traffic lights and HP sauce. These iconic sauces, fictional figures, building materials and lights which always change to red at the most annoying times all have lineage in Nottingham.
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The city is now also home to SBS Nottingham, the latest branch of family- owned commercial HVAC merchant Smith Brothers Stores.
SBS Nottingham, located on Blenheim Industrial Estate, opened in May and is run by branch manager Nathan Kinnear, assistant branch manager Shaun Chamberlain and midlands regional manager Stu Bridgewater. Housed in a former Muller Yoghurt factory, the company worked hard to completely transform the premises into a fully functional hub of heating, ventilation and air conditioning materials, ready for distribution across the UK.
Stu Bridgewater, regional manager – SBS Midlands, says: “We came to look at the property 12 months ago, and it was just a big empty shed at that stage. To get to where we are now is very satisfying.”
“It took around three months to bring the Right: Shaun
Chamberlain, assistant branch manager, Nathan Kinnear, branch manager, and Stu Bridgewater, regional manager at SBS Midlands
building up to scratch, and ensure it was ready to serve our customers. It was a tremendous undertaking to install a crane, mezzanine floor, pallet racking, and then bring in all the stock.”
Nottingham is one of the fastest growing cities in the UK, and Smith Brothers’ nearby Leicester branch was beginning to reach capacity, so expansion into Nottingham was warranted and needed.
Branch manager, Nathan Kinnear, explains: “Nottingham city centre has a very large student population, and it didn’t make sense for us to be right in the centre, so we started to look at the outskirts.
“We are in a very accessible location close to Junction 26 of the M1, and it’s close enough to Derby. We have a large number
of customers who operate within 10 miles of here. The branch serves anywhere from London to Bristol and Birmingham, with a fleet of three vehicles – which we plan to expand when feasible.”
Currently, the branch has a team of 13, including internal sales, warehousing and trade counter personnel, drivers, an assistant branch manager, a warehouse manager and three account managers: Nick Smith, Emma Walker and Richard Knight (ACR). Bridgewater says:“We have a five-year plan, with a corresponding budget, that will grow over that period. If sales and everything else grows as expected, we aim to increase our staff by around 20, along with extra vehicles and internal sales support. We are optimistic and ambitious about our prospects. We
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net August 2024
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