COMPANY FOCUS: UNILIN
MERCHANT MARGIN OPPORTUNITIES
HIT THE FLOOR
Put in a new kitchen or bathroom and chances are you’ll want a new floor to go with it. Fiona Russell Horne meets a company that’s aiming to get merchants to make the most of the opportunities that are, literally, right at their feet.
A
ncillary products can get over looked in the day to day running of a busy builders’ merchants, with core items such as bricks and blocks, timber and boilers far higher up the list of priorities. Yet those ancillary items can be serous additions to the merchant’s margin, as Unilin’s builders merchant group manager Kelly Ball points out. Unilin runs two flooring brands through the merchant sector, Elka, and the more consumer facing Quick-Step. “For years we have been plugging away at this, and we do have some merchants who sell an incredible amount of flooring as a result,” she says. “They’ve realised that selling a product well, from a supplier who can offer them a range of products and allied items, allows them to give great service and products to their customers.”
Flooring isn’t really a part of a merchants’ core range, so the key to it is making the whole process as simple as possible, she explains. “We make it as simple as possible. At Unilin, because we have the two brands - Quickstep and Elka, it gives them a better, best option. And we offer them everything to fix finish and maintain the floor, all the fixings and accessories that their customers will need. Available from us, it’s a much easier option all round. Others might specialise in one flooring category but, across our brands we do much more – wood, vinyl and laminate. We offer merchants a one stop shop for their flooring needs.”
Whether a merchant gets an enquiry about flooring from a customer at their trade counter, be it domestic, commercial, structural, waterproof, natural, sustainable – Ball says that Unilin provides a comprehensive solution that the merchant can offer.
Confidence is the key to selling product areas like this, she believes, so there is a variety of
Cascada
kitchens and bathrooms. “Normally you wouldn’t put wood anywhere near your bathroom, but with this Cascada you can,” Kelly says. “Then we have Alpha, a superior rigid vinyl range that now comes with the option of an attached underlay that allows for quicker and easier installation. The beauty of rigid LVT from both Elka and Quick- Step is that they do not require at 100% smooth subfloor”.
training programmes available – inhouse or at the Academy - depending how much in depth a customer wants to go.
The new Academy training facility hosts regular free-to-attend merchant training days. In addition, it offers a range of foundation courses in flooring installation for newcomers as well as a Quick-Step Master Installer programme for more experienced fitters. A completely bespoke fit-out includes six training bays, each an impressive 13sq m, feature brand new challenges as well as some of the Academy’s most familiar obstacles including curved walls and toilets. Alongside, there’s a state-of-the-art cutting room to minimise dust, automatic heating and cooling and high levels of natural light. The training centre is part of the new 110,220ft2 warehouse facility for Unilin that also incorporates distribution, office space and showrooms. The new facility gives the company additional warehousing capacity and space, and also brings the warehouse and the academy together in the same place.
“We’re always aiming to be ahead of the market,” Kelly says, “so we have three new innovative product ranges currently coming to market. These include Quick-Step Capture, the most realistic wood effect laminate on the market, then Quick-Step Cascada, a first-of- its kind engineered wood floor which has a waterproof surface, meaning it can be used in
November 2022
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
Ball adds: “When I first joined the company, there was a pretty clear distinction between the two brands, Elka, with a smaller, more targeted, concisely curated range was the trade brand, essentially. Quick-Step, with more product ranges, was more of a retail offering. Having worked with merchants over the years, helping them to upsell, the mix has changed. Elka now has around 60 products, and whereas 80% of merchant trade would have been with the Elka brand five years ago, it’s now more of a 50/50 split across the brands.”
This shows, she believes, just how much work the company has done with merchant customers and how much confidence they now have to upsell to a higher price point of the Quick-Step, consumer-facing brand. “Indeed, many of our merchant customers now are equally comfortable selling both brands. The fact that we give them one point of contact is also a real plus point. It gives the merchants much more confidence if they can buy everything from us. If there ever is an issue, it can get sorted quickly and easily from the point of contact.
In a nutshell, she says that the pitch to merchants is that Unilin, via both its brands, are offering a one-stop cost-effective shop across a range of price points. “We’re allowing them to make the most of a market that they might not having been heavily involved in, but which can really bring them margin rewards.” BMJ
19
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
