PEOPLE
10 MINUTES WITH: ADRIAN BUTTRESS
Managing director of Permaroof UK LTD
What is your current role and how long have you been doing it?
I am the managing director of Permaroof UK LTD. I took on the role in 2003, so have been doing it for 16 years in total.
What does your role entail? Quite a lot currently, such as importation of stock; liaising with Firestone, our main supplier; analysing all KPIs; producing marketing strategies; sales management; and researching new products and implementing them.
How did you get started in this industry? I was originally ‘on the tools’ as we say, fitting double glazing and conservatories. I was looking to get more out of life, and for a new challenge when I saw an advert looking for rubber roof installers. It made sense to me so I decided to get on board originally as a customer. Long story short – I worked closely with the company, was made a shareholder, loved the company and product so much that in September 2017, I bought the remaining shares.
What roles were you doing before and how did they prepare you for this one? As above. Originally, I was a customer and merged my little business into it. Back in 2004, we came very close to going under as we were a little early to market. I was given the chance by the owner at that time to try and turn it around. I had very little knowledge of running a business but I had determination, and the hunger to make this a success.
I learned what I needed to learn, mixed with the right people and contacts and as a result, I gained another skill – finding amazing people that are great at their own speciality. I cannot get enough of them.
What would you like to achieve in your role? To create a recognised brand that people can rely on and trust. My mission now is in the Permaroof slogan – permanent solutions to age old problems. Secondly, to seriously scale our success of the business.
What has been the highlight of your career so far? • Turning a company that had £48,000 of debt and a lovely ‘winding up order’ into an eight-figure revenue company with a seven- figure bottom line
• Being the second largest Firestone customer in Europe
• Employing a growing team of fantastic people, who I think genuinely love the
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company they work for – that’s nearly 40 families relying on us to earn a living, and I’m proud of that
• Winning numerous sales awards with Firestone for sales achievements.
What do you see as the main issues for builder’s merchants and for the construction industry at the moment? Firstly, I think it’s the transition of traditional merchants going over to an e-commerce business. I can see some getting left behind, and the big boys who have worked this out could very quickly clean up. I can see it being a very different marketplace over the next 3-5 years. Second, the obvious uncertainty of
Brexit, which I think is holding some of our growth back. Currency rates for imported goods is clearly having an effect, but we will overcome this in time, just as we did after the last recession.
If you could go back to the start of your career, what piece of advice would you give yourself?
Learn to delegate sooner than I did and think bigger than I first did. I have since pushed myself outside of my comfort zones, and the business seems to have gone on steroids!
Football, rugby, cycling, golf or gardening – which one’s more likely to keep you busy at the weekends?
We have a property in Spain where we visit a few months of the year (I have an office there, so I am not totally away from the business). Occasionally golf, socialising in pubs and eating out. I have recently become a very young grandad, so apparently I am to become a regular babysitter.
If you’re at the bar – what are you drinking? Nice lagers usually, but if dining out, I love a good red wine. Champagne every record week or month…
What’s your favourite book? Favourite film? I love motivational books, such as biographies of successful people – anything that can motivate me. In terms of films, there are plenty but the one I found really interesting was Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street.
If you could be a superhero, what super- power would you choose? That would have to be none other than Superman. Just being able to go out there and help.
ON THE MOVE
• VitrA has expanded its UK sales team with the appointment of Darren Bailey as Area Sales Manager for the Midlands. Bailey will be responsible for VitrA’s Bathroom and Signature
portfolios. He has had a long career in the bathroom industry, spending 15 years as a showroom manager where he specified high-end products, including VitrA. Bailey has also worked at Davroc as a Business Development Manager.
• Digby Stone are committed to their merchant only policy and have appointed a new experienced Area Business Manager to help their customers grow their sales.
Steve Clutterbuck has worked within the merchant industry for over 20 years and brings with him a wealth of experience to help Digby Stone’s merchant customers grow their sales of products in the landscaping sector. He will be working with Andy Williamson to help their customers to help improve their displays and delivering training to their teams to help improve product knowledge across the sector to help merchants get that extra sale.
• Scott Parnell Water Management Ltd. has promoted Jordan Trench to the role of estimator at the company. Trench joined the company two years ago as a Supervising Technician and has a wealth of
experience and expertise, having worked in the industry for many years.
• H+H has appointed Phil Ball as operations director, taking charge of the company’s three manufacturing plants in Borough Green, Kent, and
Pollington, Yorkshire. Ball will be based out of the company’s
headquarters in Kent and dividing his time equally between the company’s two locations. His responsibilities include Operations, Procurement and Health and Safety.
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2019
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