IN PERSON
PLAYING THE NUMBERS GAME S
Fiona Russell Horne chats to Gibbs & Dandy’s commercial director.
ophie Mellor didn’t know she was applying to work at a builder’s merchant when she filled out an application with a recruitment agency for a job as a data analyst. Had she known, the commercial director of Gibbs & Dandy isn’t entirely convinced she would have continued with the application, but she’s glad she did.
“I didn’t really know which industry it was for when I applied,” she says. “It was only when prepping for the interview that I found out what the company actually did. Would I still have applied had I known it was a builder’s merchant from the start? Possibly. Probably. Maybe. Would it have put me off? Again, maybe. I’m not too sure to be honest. I might have wondered why they needed someone with my skillset. Growing up, I had three brothers, so it was always ‘us’, never boys and girls, we were a group together, so the idea of a male dominated industry certainly didn’t faze me. Eight years down the line, I am still in the same business, so I clearly enjoy it.”
Mellor’s skillset is numbers, having studied for a degree in Business Management with Economics. “I graduated on the Tuesday and I started here at Gibbs & Dandy as a data analyst in the commercial team the following Monday. Right from the day I started I knew I wanted to progress. I saw the commercial director, who was my boss’ boss, and thought right from the very beginning, that’s what I want to do. “I wasn’t shy about my ambitions, I knew there was a long way to go and that I would have l an awful lot to learn but instantly when I saw the buzz in the office, heard the conversations they were having, I knew that that’s what I wanted to aim for. The journey has been rather quicker than she thought it would be. “My 10-year plan was to get to the role of commercial director, and I did that last year, having been with the company for seven years.”
After five months as an analyst, Mellor had moved on to a newly created regional pricing co-ordinator role. That role then grew in tandem with her experience over the next six years, from pricing coordinator to pricing manager, looking after one other person in the team, to then head of pricing, when she returned from her second stint of maternity leave.
“By that stage I was looking after three people in the team. Then after another year, I was commercial director taking over pricing,
14
My 10-year plan was to get to the role of commercial director, and I did that last
year, having been with the company for seven years.”
stock and commercial with 11 people in my team.”
She explains: “While I was in the pricing role it grew along with the few acquisitions we did in that time, but ultimately it was because the team grew. As that happened, I stepped up. It was a kind of natural progression of the team. It built its credibility up within the wider company, and we grew our numbers. The pricing team is still part of my remit.”
One of the things that Mellor loves about the role is that every day is different. She says: “There is never a dull moment. I spend a lot of time supporting the branches with pricing and commercial decisions, meeting with suppliers and conducting one-to-ones with the team members to understand what they are working on, and where they might need my support. It’s not just the running of Commercial that I am involved with, I look after the wider strategy of what we are trying to do as a business as well. I am heavily numbers orientated, so I get involved in the
data, trying to understand how the business is doing against the market. A lot of what I do is supporting the people in my team to allow them to do their role, helping the branch managers, the people in the branches, looking at the prices they need to be selling at. It’s busy, very very busy. But I thrive on that. I love the challenge of every day, not knowing exactly how the day will pan out.” Mellor says she also relishes getting involved in setting strategy, for branches and for the wider commercial function. “The most important thing for commercial is to make sure that have the right deals with the right suppliers at the right price. It’s everything that comes with that. It could be down to the making sure the cost structures are right, ensuring that the deals are right with the suppliers, that we are buying from the right places. Then you’ve got the issues with legislation - especially when dealing with timber, so we have to make sure everything is legal and above board.”
She continues: “This year is going to be tough but as long as we perform in line with, or slightly ahead of, the market then I’m happy. It’s going to be an interesting year, that’s for certain. What next? I wanted to be commercial director by the time I was 40, and I got the opportunity just after I turned 31, so I think for at least the next five years, I want to get my heels under the table in this role. You could look at this as though I’ve come into a commercial director role at the worst possible time, and in a sense, I have because the economy and market is pretty broken. But actually I will learn more now than I ever would in a period of amazing growth. So I think it will make for a more rounded experience and will make me more rounded and better at the role. I absolutely love my job, and the people that I get to work with. Both colleagues and suppliers, and the wider network.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2023
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