MERCHANT FOCUS: COVERS
175 YEARS OF PEOPLE POWER
Fiona Russell Horne meets an independent merchant that’s been priding itself on the personal touch for 175 years and counting.
E
verything that has happened to Covers Timber and Builders Merchants has happened because of the people, whether that be the owners, employees or the customers.
That’s what managing director Henry Green and chairman Rupert Green firmly believe. The merchant is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year, and has decided ambitions to look forward to the next phase in the company’s history. To be completely accurate, the 175th anniversary was last year but, Covid and the lockdowns happened and so the celebrations have shifted. The celebrations are continuing throughout the year, and include special demonstration and supplier-supported days at each of the branches, and visits from the local MPs. The company has invited all staff and their families to a private evening at Thorpe Park amusement park and many of its major longstanding customers to a celebratory ball. To have a lasting legacy, and support the Queen’s jubilee, Covers is planting a 1750 tree wood locally.
Family ethos runs through every one of those 175 years, from the Cover family, who set up a timber and coal merchant in June 1846 at a site around the canal basin in Chichester, West Sussex. Originally founded by William Cover, and joined, eventually, by his son David in the 1850s, the company has remained a family run business throughout after it was bought by the Green family in the 1940s. Today, Covers has more than 400 staff and its annual sales exceed £90 million
The staff remains the principal strength behind the growth and sustainability of the business, Henry Green firmly believes. “There’s a strong family ethic. Not just because it is family-owned, but also because it’s family-run,
24
and not just by the Green family either in a real sense. We have many husbands, wives, sons and daughters, friends who’ve been referred, etc working within the business. There is a team focus and thought for each other, that is our overriding strength.”
“Our customer base is really loyal and that is another thing that has strengthened us. Not only will many have been a Covers customer for years, but often so will their parents, and his or her father, and so forth. But we do not rely on this; we know that we have to build the business, and ensure that we keep it. While customers come, they also go. You’ve always got to be getting new customers in, so we are heavily focused on that, as well as looking after the current ones.”
Rupert Green adds: “Covers as a business is embedded in the local community, supporting many charities and community groups wherever we have depots. We have an annual Covers Help For Hospices week and have donated over £155,000 to them in the last 6 years. We moved swiftly to support local charities for the most vulnerable when COVID struck.” The company has gradually expanded over the years and now trades from 14 sites, although on the Chichester site there is also the
Covers Home Ideas DIY and retail showroom, which operates as a separate branch. Sites stretch from Southampton in the West to Tunbridge Wells in the East and up as far as Bexleyheath. Some new branches were the result of organic expansion, others by acquisition, most recently Horsham, Rudgwick, Tunbridge Wells and Bexleyheath. The family-feel and good internal communication came into its own during the lockdowns in the past two years. Initially, the business closed, putting the safety of staff and customers as the main priority. Henry Green says: “Once we established where we were at, and that we could open, we did so, with all the right safety measures in place. We anticipated what was going to happen and prepared well in terms of buying laptops, etc. In the first week of lockdown, we acquired three pallets of Perspex knowing that would be essential.” Like all merchants, once open again, the demand from customers, both trade and retail, was immense, though like most of their peers, the company experienced difficulties sourcing materials and maintaining supply, something that is still continuing to some extent. Henry Green says: “During the depths of last summer, when there were supply shortages, it was more of a case of us trying to source the product for our customers. The shortages with price increases continue. It is certainly more challenging, and no one knows what the immediate future looks like, but the cost of living has increased, interest rates have risen and so have national insurance contributions. So, everyone is being squeezed, our customers and their customers.”
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net June 2022
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
