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MERCHANT FOCUS: BUILDERS MERCHANT COMPANY LTD


compliance isn’t a problem for the company, says Thomson, who has worked in national merchants for many years. “My background prior to this was in nationals, Wolseley and Travis Perkins, so the whole idea of a buying group deal commitment wasn’t new to me. At nationals you have to stick to the stated supply deals. So that bit was easy for us. Indeed, I believe that if you’re not going to support what the group does for you, there’s no point in being a part of it.” The 2020 pandemic and lockdown put paid to any tentative BMCO plans to open a new branch last year, but Thomson says instead they brought in a digital marketing plan to handle it, which has worked well. “We’re using LinkedIn, our website, Twitter, Facebook to connect to our customers and our potential customers,” she says. “It’s about selling the brand and getting across that we are a company people can trust.” That element of trust came to the fore during the first lockdown last year, Thomson says. “When we were told we had to shut, it could have been a disaster. The day after the announcement, my phone didn’t stop ringing all day. The BMF did a fantastic job in getting merchants recognised as essential services and so when we heard that we could re-open we did.” It wasn’t an easy decision, Thomson says. “We rang the managers and told them that we were reopening but that there would be no judgement on anyone who didn’t want to come in, if they felt they or their family members were vulnerable. On that first day of re-opening, there were cars and vans queuing all down the road to get in. I’ve never seen anything like it.” One of the difficulties that soon became apparent was that of getting hold of stock – a challenge faced by most other merchants; however, Thomson says that the strength of the supply relationships forged over the years and through the membership of NBG eased that slightly.


“The other thing that we had to get our


heads round was the rise in our online sales,” he says. “We had invested in a transactional website and it really made the difference to us getting through the difficulties. It’s all about having visibility and we are continuing to develop it, adding more products, so


they are easily accessible to anybody who wants to buy. We’ve also started an online chat facility, so customers can just come to the website and talk to a salesperson, which makes us more accessible. We are looking towards incorporating click and collect as well, that is in the pipeline for the future.” Originally, BMCO was aiming to open five branches in five years. It got to four and then concerns about Brexit and Covid put the brakes on that ambition, however Thomson says expansion is most definitely back on the cards. “We think we will put another branch in maybe this year, certainly next year. We have been really buoyed by the experiences so far of opening branches. Wherever we’ve done it, we have been welcomed by the local market. I put that down to us being independent, which gives our customers another option. We are talking about one branch a year, but there’s no reason why we wouldn’t do two if the circumstances and opportunities were right.”


He doesn’t discount the possibility of expansion by acquisition either. “We want to go into the plumbing and heating side to give us the wider spread of products and customers, and one of the easiest ways to do that would be to buy an already established plumbers merchant and then spread that ability and that expertise around the round the branches. Whether we do that or not, I


don’t know, but that would be a really good way of getting branch five and giving us that added expertise.


“It’s all about managed growth, we don’t want to over-extend ourselves, but really, the only thing that will hold us back will be our decision not to do it.” BMJ


May 2021 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


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