MERCHANT FOCUS: TOTAL BUILDING MATERIALS


DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY


Fiona Russell Horne meets an independent merchant that likes things done properly.


T


reat others the way you would like to be treated yourself and you can’t go far wrong. That’s the philosophy that independent Sussex builders’ merchant Total Building Materials tries to live by.


Director Chris Harris set up the company 16 years ago, having stepped away from his previous merchant role when he stopped feeling that it was right for him. In a former life he’d been a lorry driver, so he happily returned to that for a while. Life, however, had other ideas. He explains: “I still saw many of my previous customers because we were all local. A few asked if I could source them some materials because they liked dealing with me, and one thing led to another. Before I knew it, I’d set up the business from a back bedroom.” That business grew and Harris eventually acquired a premises, staff, a lorry, a forklift and more customers, setting up as Total Building Materials in 2008.


Having again grown too big for that first premises, Total worked with a local economic development corporation and moved into the yard in Woods Way, Goring by Sea, just outside Worthing, 10 years ago, gradually expanding from a starting point of one unit. “In the beginning there were three of us, one in the yard, one managing the sales and the branch, and me. They were long days, and we all turned our hands to everything. We all got very good at plate-spinning. The company has continued to grow because we found good people in the industry that we trusted to take over some of these roles, allowing us to move on to other roles and develop the business,” he says.


The company now employs nine, including three directors - Harris, Dan Muncey and Mike McDonald.


Muncey’s role mainly covers sales and development of aspects such as the website and the customer experience, McDonald is predominately operations, looking after all things branch-related, and Harris is strategy, moving the company forward. Muncey joined four years ago as sales manager, and moved into the director role in March 2022 along with McDonald to support Harris, and allow the company to develop further. Muncey explains: “Both Chris and I have worked in merchanting for years, seeing good and bad over the years. We know what sort of merchant we want to be. We had a few conversations and realised that we wanted to build a business with the right sort of culture for us.”


Harris adds: “We always tell our customers that our job is to make their job easier. We think of ourselves as a modern merchant with old school values. I think that sort of attitude is more relevant now than ever. “The world may have changed but the builder hasn’t really changed, what he wants and needs to do in order to do their job hasn’t changed. Our values - integrity, loyalty, trustworthiness - haven’t changed either, and they reflect what our customers need.” The company is a member of the IBC buying group, a move that Harris says has really helped them to grow. “We’ve had such a great journey with them,” he says. As a smaller independent merchant, Harris believes Total has the flexibility to be able to adjust to different circumstances. “We can be more fluid,” he says, “It’s easier for us. We don’t have shareholders that we have to answer to. It’s just us, we’re a small team, and the focus is about doing the job right. The basics of running this business - or any business in fact - is that you say what you are


“If we ask the right questions, we can give the customer exactly what they need.”


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going to do and then that’s what you do.” Muncey adds that another aspect of being part of a small team is that you are all on the journey together. “We are bringing everyone with us. It’s important to develop the team too, as the business develops. We know from our own experience, and that of our


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2024


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