MERCHANT FOCUS: MKM
the challenges now is to replicate that and to maintain a similar level of growth. “The overall market last year was buoyant, but I think we also got ourselves into a position where we could take advantage of the market changes,” Tinsley says. “The company took what was probably quite a brave decision to accelerate growth, whereas others held back a bit more.”
advice and ask what the overall objective is and help steer whatever the activity is, but they will all have their different requirements, objectives and outcomes,” she says.
“We see ourselves as the experts who provide the tools that the branches can use to market their businesses and we work alongside them. That’s the beauty of the way we operate: the branch is everything and it’s what’s right for them and their local customer base that counts. Not what we might think is the way to go. What we think will work here in Hull, might not be the same thing that would work in, say, Peterhead.”
centre very much operates with the branches as its customer’s base. The business has grown very quickly particularly in the last two years, but the culture and ethos remain as it was when MKM started.”
In terms of marketing, for example, each branch has different requirements. Head of marketing Nicola Ollett says that there may be over-arching centralised campaigns on things such as landscaping, or kitchens, which tend to be co-ordinated by the central marketing team. Otherwise, individual branches tend to approach the central marketing team and say what they want to achieve.
“That could be promotions on a range of products; invariably a branch director in, say Sheffield, might want to do something very different to the branch in Deal, because they are different businesses with their own local customer bases. The marketing team might give
By and large the expansion of the business is along the same lines it has always been: find the right people and then find the site for them. That said, MKM did buy three businesses in the last financial year, two in Scotland and one in Wales. While the main thrust of the growth strategy remains organic, Tinsley says that sometimes acquisition opportunities crop up that make sense for the business. “It might be that the location is right, the size of the site is right. It can be very hard to find the right site in some areas. So, acquisition is certainly something that we will consider, though if we didn’t do any more over the next five years, we would still see significant growth in the business because of our planned increase in branches organically.”
The last financial year was only the second time in MKM’s history that it had posted double digit branch openings, with 12. One of
March 2022
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“It feels a real privilege to be part of a business when it’s going through real acceleration like this,” she continues. “Many businesses in our sector are stagnant or growing slowly, whereas this business is really accelerating, and that’s exciting to be a part of. “I absolutely believe that we are building something really special. We have 94 branches now and that puts us a long way behind the market leaders, which means we have so much more room to grow. You don’t get that opportunity in many organisations to really invest and build up for growth. There’s no map on the wall that we are aiming for. We’re not Aldi, we follow the people rather than the locations. It feels hugely liberating to be able to operate a business along these lines.” Tinsley says that MKM intends to continue to grow at a level that’s comfortable and compatible with the business. “We won’t do it just for vanity, it has to be something that enhances MKM, and in the medium term I can’t see an end to that. The gap between us and the next highest competitor in the marketplace is huge. They are three times our size so the opportunity is tremendous. The size to be honest is irrelevant to us, it’s about creating a quality, sustainable business.
“None of us know what’s going to happen over the next 10 years; we couldn’t predict the pandemic, after all. All we are doing now is going to enhance the future of the business. We don’t think in a short-term way, we don’t act in a short-term way and we genuinely put the needs of the customer base and our teams at the heart of what we do.” BMJ
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