MERCHANT FOCUS: LBS
PEOPLE ARE POWER O
pening its first branch in 1931, LBS Builders Merchants is still family owned and family run. Headquartered in Llandeilo, the company now has 117 branches across west Wales.
The branch in Aberdare is one of the company’s “showcase” branches, consisting of an example of each of the sub-businesses within the LBS “Family”: Total Plumbing, Middleton Kitchens and Bathrooms Showroom and the LBS shop floor. The team at Aberdare are part of a very family oriented business, where everyone knows their place, feels appreciated and understands their role within the business.
“2018 was a record year for us,” says LBS managing director, Mark Davies, “We saw 13% growth, although we didn’t open any new branches. It has helped us to lay solid foundations for our plans for this year: We appointed two new board directors at the beginning of last year. They’re the fourth generation of the family now and it’s really helped us gain a clearer scope, considering
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the size the business has now grown to. “At the beginning of 2018 the board decided that our primary focus had to be on our people. To that end, we’ve formalised our Company Values and Objectives, which took a bit of time to drill down to the core of what those mean to us and find the points that really make a difference.
“Everything we do has to relate to our objectives now, which has helped us to avoid doing the things that made no difference, as well as helping us to remind ourselves and our colleagues of our values and what we’re really about. This has also led to us speaking to our customers and suppliers about these values, making them known and ensuring that they work for everyone involved.”
Power to the People “The people element feeds into all of that because you can’t do any of this without the people involved.” Davies continues. “This is a very large part of what we’ve been focussing on, because when an independent goes from being a small nest of a couple of branches, to
At the far end of the M4, an independent merchant is quietly growing. Elizabeth Jordan went to meet LBS Builders Merchants to find out how...
a business that’s home to over 350 members of staff, it can be very difficult to maintain a family atmosphere. It can’t all come from one guy at the top telling people what to do, it’s about asking them what we need to do. We have focus groups on almost everything to do with the business which had opened up some fantastic initiatives and opportunities. We’ve even added a 15 minute break, universally across the company at no change to pay, which was received with a mixture of gratitude and pleasant surprise. Because it was the right thing to do.”
Director Rachel Davies, one of the new directors on the LBS board, is particularly focussed and driven when it comes to their people. She says: “We have also formalised annual reviews for everyone across the business, starting from the very top to set the standard. This isn’t a negative thing- it’s an excellent opportunity for individuals to express their feelings about their role and where they’d like to go in their career with us. This means that less members of staff are leaving us because we are made aware of their feelings
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net March 2019
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