COMMENT


The good, the bad and the Covid


W


as Covid the best thing to happen to merchant businesses? Obviously, the answer is no, before you all think I’ve had a bash on the head and gone doolally. However. It wasn’t the worst thing that could have happened either. It really wasn’t. I’ll admit, when the Prime Minister made the first of his Stay Home, Save Lives instructions, it really did feel like the worst had happened. For a couple of days, no-one could really see a way through it. After all, in the ‘phoney war’ run-up to the first lockdown, companies had already been struggling with staffing shortages caused by people isolating for, as it was then, a fortnight, if they had symptons, or knew someone who had been in a Covid hotspot. I know one guy who took time off because his mother had just come back from Thailand, where Covid was running wild. I’m not even sure he actually lives with his mother, but isolate he did.


When the lockdown happened, most merchant companies shut-up shop, on the assumption that none of their customers would be able to work for weeks. Others put their big boy pants on and stayed open, reasoning that emergency supplies would still need to be sourced from somewhere, and it might as well be from them.


That, as it turned out, was not a bad call. I know several independents who had record months early on, those that had the space to be able to socially distance customers, and the flexibility to get on with whatever needed to be done. Those record months didn’t necessarily remain all the way through, of course; product shortages, allocations and delivery issues all took their toll.


If you take a look at our League Tables, you’ll see that things don’t look as bad as might have been expected. Plenty of merchants are showing turnover down on 2019, but not all of them, and, in many cases they have stayed broadly in line with the


CONTACTS Builders Merchants Journal


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EDITORIAL Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382 frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk


Assistant editor Anjali Sooknanan 01622 699186


asooknanan@datateam.co.uk


Production Controller: Nic Mandeville


previous year. Bear in mind the usual caveat that we can only compare the figures we can access, so, while most are for the year-ending December 31 2020, others are different.


Not being able to run the business the way it used to be run meant that merchant businesses had to work harder, work smarter, and work more efficiently. Some merchants had already started online trading, very successfully, others were more cautiously sticking a toe in the waters, some hadn’t even got that far. Suddenly, with phone calls into branches going wild, the ability for customers to be able to place their orders online, and arrange a time to collect them in a safe, Covid-friendly way, was vital. The virtual door to merchanting has been opened and it is staying open. Merchants who hadn’t got around to sorting out their online offer had to get onboard quickly. By and large they did, and for many of them it made the difference between surviving and, well, shutting up shop. Customers now know that it is possible to order the goods they need from their local merchant online, or via an App, check their account at the same time as seeing whether what they need is actually in stock and arrange delivery or collection at a time that suits them. When they need to interact with a real life human being chances are they will still do so, branch sales aren’t going anywhere.


We have all had to learn new ways of working. We have had to adapt to more efficient ways of working. And many merchants – and manufacturers for that matter – have made changes that will benefit their businesses for the long term, changes that they probably wouldn’t have had to make were it not for the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdowns. BMJ


Fiona Russell-Horne Group Managing Editor - BMJ


It was the best of times; it was the worst of times


“ Charles Dickens


CONTENTS 4 Newsround


News from around the industry. 6 News Extra


What’s what with World Expo in Dubai.


8 News Extra


The industry gets on its bikes for charity.


10 In Person


The new chair of the BMF’s Young Merchants group


12 Business Helpdesk Just how safe is your yard?.


14 Viewpoint


Looking at where we go from here and the importance of marketing.


17 Ironmongery Fired up about fire doors


18 League Tables Turnovers compared for the last financial year.


20 Merchant Focus Taking a fresh approach to family-run businesses: BMJ talks to Beesley & Fildes and Lawsons.


24 Transport Investment in logistics continue.


26 Sustainability Part L is coming. What do merchants need to know?


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30 BMF Industry Voice The latest from the BMF’s own pages.


32 Product news New products and developments


34 And Finally


Industry news and the BMJ Prize Crossword.


56 BMF Industry Voice All the news from the BMF.


58 Product news The latest product developments.


62 And Finally News and the BMJ Prize Crossword.


January 2022 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 3 ”


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