MERCHANT FOCUS: FRANK KEY
Mayor Ron Gedling attended the official Daybrook opening
in and see us, or for us to deliver to their site, we will try and deliver the same level of service regardless how customers connect with Frank Key. It’s about choice.”
disappearing. Just look at the rise and success of Selco, Toolstation and Screwfix, all outlets where customers can just go in pay for what they have ordered and go.
“That started us looking at a brief from the point of: how do we change to accommodate newer customers and their demands, whilst still remaining true to our core beliefs of service. The conversation has to be, how do we future-proof this site and, by extension, the business.”
An architect was brought in to rethink the site and, after a few ideas were jettisoned due to issues with sewer pipes and old petrol station locations – legacies of the way that the company has expanded over the years, the new site began to take shape. Building began in earnest in September 2023, with the main construction phase of the building complete by the end of April 2024.
The main store area now has an angled front, in order to avoid the 10m long sewer pipe that planners discovered ran underneath the site, and Norton says it probably works better than if it was a more regular rectangle. “Visibility is improved at the trade counter, and we have created loads of retail space and vastly expanded the number of products on offer. That’s definitely changed the average basket value,” he says.
“The really big win for me was how we were able to change how customers can traverse the site. We’ve improved efficiency in terms of moving round the site, but, more importantly, we’ve improved safety. There are clear pedestrian walkways, completely
segregated from forklifts, plenty of clearly marked car parking spaces round the edge of the site, where the forklifts can’t go. It’s a really safe environment. We’ve created a loading zone too. The customer will move their vehicle into the zone, and it is then loaded up for them. We haven’t got it all going on at the same time.”
Safer site management There is now a clearly marked entrance and exit and one way system for vehicles, whilst the service yard, where deliveries from suppliers and out to customers are handled, remains accessible from Nottingham Road, the other side of the plot from the customers. The site feels bigger, Norton explains, as a result of being reconfigured. “Pull a dozen vans into the front now and it still feels empty, before it was as though everyone was falling all over each other. We’re also turning customers around faster, and we have huge capacity to grow further, whenever the market allows us to grow.” he says.
The question the company asked at the outset was: how to deliver the service to yesterday’s customers, to today’s and to those of tomorrow? “We’re basically telling customers that we will trade in the way that they want to trade with us,” Norton says. “If they want to email us, phone us, come
August 2025
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The company has noticed a definite uptick in sales from the Daybrook branch, despite this being a tough year. “We have seen above average rates of growth in our cash accounts, and cash customers, and that’s not replicated in our branches. So we know it’s different now we have the new branch.”
The rebuild has brought the staff together, Norton explains, making it easier for the team to engage together.
Security is also improved, with better visibility round the trade counter, and spaces for conversations with customers that can be had away from the general bustle, whilst keeping them away from the sales and back office functions. Particularly important in this day and age, Norton points out, when a dodgy USB stick can wipe out your entire computer network
The next stage will be more of a warehouse management approach, he says. “So the plan is that this winter we will go paperless. The customer comes in, places their order and it goes straight to a device rather than someone waking round with bits of paper. That will mean we get better stock control, and will be able to move things around faster, which, in turn, will lead itself on to electronic collecting.”
The building of New Daybrook has been designed so that the company can serve customers the way they want to be served. Norton adds: “We can continue to improve how we do that through our processes, people and technology. The site now lends itself to that. We don’t have to compromise. We can build our future around it.” BMJ
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