MERCHANT FOCUS
supplier. Keyline, part of the Travis Perkins group, has gradually been repositioning itself over the past few years away from general builders’ merchanting towards the more specialist markets. The heaviest of the heavyside, if you like. It’s a process that has been going on for some years, but that has really picked up pace in the last few. The company has even changed its name – out is Keyline Builders Merchants, in is just Keyline. “Our mantra is that we want to drainage supply to the UK market,” says managing director Paul Beaman. “We are setting our stall out to be specialist suppliers rather than general heavyside builders’ merchants. Keyline has always been strong in the heavyside with a leaning towards the civils and drainage expertise. About four years ago it became apparent that there was a good deal of overlap with some of the Travis Perkins branches, with Keyline tending to deal more with the larger contractors , and TP dealing more with the general builder, white van man market, and those purchasing on a one-off basis, but a lot of them. So the question arose, do we need both brands to be in the same space in the market? No, we don’t.” The last three or four years have seen the brand moving towards being that specialist supplier, Beaman continues, whilst transferring some branches and business over to the more mainstream general merchant division.
W
New-style branches Part of the push towards the increasing specialisation has been the redevelopment of the branch format. “Our new, low-cost-model yards occupy around two acres and feature a modular building and warehousing on an industrial estate with space for stocking and unloading huge product lines, with product stored on the ground in stillages rather than up on racking. This keeps it relatively low cost to operate and they are also very easy to set up,” Beaman says. The challenge has been more about third such branch has just opened, following on from one in Lincoln and another in Deeside. “Over the next year or so we will be opening one in Telford, relocating a branch in Havant onto a new low cost model site, merging two Leeds branches into one,
18
hen is a builders’ merchant not a builders’ merchant? When it’s a specialist civils and drainage
THE KEY TO GROWTH
Keyline is changing its focus in order to grow through increasing specialisation. Fiona Russell Horne finds out how.
relocating Hull and potentially opening a new site in Bodmin.” Also underway are the extension of a yard in Braintree to turn it into a low-cost-model and Beaman says the company has its eye on potential sites in Birmingham and Aberdeen. “By the end of next year we will probably have 10 to 12 of these new sites, with further plans to roll the concept out still further.” Because of the way the business is moving, the business has far less collection and far more delivered business so a real focus has also been on how Keyline can add value in logistics and distribution to both customers and suppliers, Beaman says.
“We have secured a huge contract on the redeveloped A14 project and a huge part of the reason we won it was the logistics service that we can offer, in particular the safety issues we have been working on and our investment in econic vehicles.” These are HGVs that are like bus carts with big glass fronts that are particularly useful for sites in and around London, having far better visibility, a crucial element in increasing cyclist safety. . Beaman says the company has even won contracts purely on the grounds that deliveries can be made on these vehicles rather than traditional trucks. “We have the FORS Gold standard and
January 2018 BMJ
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