MERCHANT FOCUS: COVERS
Covers was a founding member of the Fortis buying group and is still very actively involved; Covers commercial director Phil Walford is a trading director, timber director Neil Woods is a category director. “As with any merchant in a challenging supply chain environment, it is important to have strong relationships with the suppliers to source product,” Rupert Green says. “That is one of the areas where our participation in Fortis has been a great help, especially when the supply chain has been weak.”
Some of the Covers branches are on very big sites, the main Chichester site, for example, is 13 acres. It includes not just the trade centre, and the Home Ideas showrooms but also a doors and windows display and specialist team, a landscaping area, renewables centre, as well as the timber mill and treatment plant. The company extended the mill a few years ago to increase operational efficiency and output. Chichester also acts as a stock-holding and distribution facility for other branches.
Flat structure “Our strength in this area is one of the things that gives us, we believe, an advantage,” Henry Green says. “Another is that our depots tend to be slightly bigger than many of our competitors’, and then there’s the fact that we have a very flat organisational structure. There’s our Board, then depot managers and department managers, so we don’t have swathes of middle management.” The Board comprises Henry Green as Managing Director, Nick Walker IT Director, Steve Weston Western Regional Director, Sean Clarke Eastern Regional Director, Roger Lewis Operations Director, Neil Woods Timber Director, Phil Walford Commercial Director, James Bowry Finance Director, Patrick Green Non-Executive Director and Rupert Green Chairman. Between them, they have a mixture of experience - some have been with Covers for their entire working life and others have joined from elsewhere, whether that be other merchants or, as in Henry Green’s case, outside the industry.
In 175 years, the company has seen many, many changes, the most recent being the changing dynamics caused by the influx of private equity ownership into the sector. “I suspect that builders’ merchants in the 70’s and 80’s felt a similar threat when Jewson, Buildbase, Grafton and TP went on the acquisition trail and were knocking on the door of every independent then, and it is a similar situation right now,” Henry Green says. “The slight difference is these guys appear to be on a faster trajectory for getting those dots on the map. It is something that we are overtly aware
to pay through their account online, build a quote, check stock levels, etc. That is one of the unknowns about the website, it has good product information and live stock levels, but you never know how much people just go and check whether one of our depots has got something in stock but would rather drive in, have the camaraderie with the person over the counter and pick the stock themselves.” He says that 15% of Covers online order are for click and collect, which bears this out. ”There is also an element where people want to have a bit of negotiation, while we can set up the pricing to their terms online, if they are buying a bigger quantity they want that interaction with us, in order to feel like they have achieved a fair price.”
The strong customer service ethic is reflected in the rest of the business. Rupert Green says that he believes the flat management structure helps accessibility.” It is very open door, if anyone has any issue they can knock on our doors and we know the majority of them by name. People are spending more time here than they are at home. If you can have fun at work and enjoy your work more, the customer picks up on that and you get a bit of momentum and engagement. It is great because the staff and customers have seen consistent growth, acquisition, development, modernisation of the business and investment, and they like to know that this is going to continue going forward.”
of, for example, we know we have an MKM arriving on our doorstep very shortly. So, we know we need to be on our toes.” Another big change in the dynamic of the industry is the rise of specialist niche businesses and, of course, the online specialists. Henry Green says: “I think it is fair to say that an element of our lightside business has suffered as a result of the likes of Toolstation and Screwfix. We’ve been trading online for three years and growing our team, and have a nice established business but we’ve got hopes and aspirations to grow considerably. During lockdown last year, we did more in March than we’d ever done.”
Online opportunities The biggest opportunity for Covers with an increase in online trading, he believes, will be the ability to give the confidence to trade customer that they are getting the right price and the back-up service without having to speak to their long-established friend over the counter or in the sales office. “Some of that will happen as part of a generational shift with customers, indeed it is already starting. There are additional services that we can offer such, as the ability for the trade customer
June 2022
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
There is strong support from the family and shareholders to continue to invest and grow the business, and Henry Green says the aim is definitely to remain a successful independently- run family business – there are currently Green family members working elsewhere who are building up to take on roles within the group. The focus is also on growing management resource internally - “the business does have a responsibility, and opportunity, of progressing our younger colleagues. We are embarking on a programme that will involve all the management in additional skills and learning. Part of that will enable us to secure the next generation of leaders in the business, which we will need to maintain our ambitions to grow, sustainably and independently.” Covers is also devoting resource and investment to a more sustainable future. Rupert Green says: “We have solar PV on virtually every suitable depot roof which saved over 500T of CO2 last year. Our lighting is constantly being upgraded and we are in the process of replacing our forklifts and company cars with electric ones. Green lorries are the next big challenge. We have also helped our customers install hundreds of energy saving systems since we opened our eco centre in 2007.” BMJ
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