MERCHANT FOCUS: BROWNS BUILDERS MERCHANTS
us as a business, but to Edd as an individual.” Parlato senior is a great believer in the philosophy that you get out of something what you are prepared to put into it. “NBG and BMF are two things that I am very passionate about,” he says. “The BMF, for what it does for the industry, certainly on our supply chain side, and NBG for what it does for our individual business. I wouldn’t say that without NBG we wouldn’t have survived the last recession, but we would certainly have come out of it in a different shape. We purposely didn’t make anyone redundant through that recession, a choice that Gerry and I sat down and made together. We knew that it would end eventually and that when it did we would need our best staff around us to help us to rebuild.
“So we made a decision that there would have to be some belt tightening, but that doing that would help us to retain the staff we knew we would need in the longer term. Wherever we could take cost out without affecting the quality of the service, we did so. We knew it would be tough, and it was. However, we got through it and our membership of NBG – not just the deals but also the camaraderie - really did help us. We emerged, possibly a bit stronger, certainly a little more risk averse, which probably isn’t a bad thing.”
Just before the 2008 recession took hold, Parlato says that Browns had been looking for new premises but the prime site they had their eyes on didn’t materialise. “At the time, it was very disappointing, but, in hindsight, we probably got a better opportunity with the site we did acquire.”
New branch
Browns started trading from the new site in Chequers Road, Derby in November 2018, with a soft opening to iron out any issues. Less than a mile from the main depot, the new branch gave the company the chance to split the operation up, though Parlato says that always comes with some concerns. “It does seem to have worked. The plumbing and light side customers now find they can go in and get parked without having to negotiate their way round huge lorries full of heavy materials. Plus, of course, our retail customers feel a bit more comfortable without all that as well. We were getting very cramped where we were. In fact, I sometimes felt a bit like an air traffic controller, trying to manage the goods and customers in and out safely.”
As well as the two branches, Browns also has a storage yard, which they took on when it became obvious that there were issues with certain products on allocation. “I’m a great believer in the saying ‘if you haven’t got it, then you can’t sell it’. In this day and age, it’s not so much about price, it’s about availability. Having the extra storage capacity has helped us as we’ve been able to take advantage
of offers and availability that we might not otherwise have done.”
As well as his commitment to NBG and the BMF, Parlato is passionate about bringing more apprentices in through the industry. “We currently have three apprentices in the business, three have recently gone through the scheme and another two are starting shortly. “ He says that skills shortages and materials shortages are the things that are causing most concern at the moment across the industry. “The government must realise that if they want to get to the house building numbers they want then they can’t do it realistically on the current infrastructure. The concerning thing about that for merchants and our core customers is that we might get cut out of the picture if there is too much shift to modular construction to speed the process up.” The current main driver of the business is the aim to ensure Browns remains a strong force within or area. Parlato says: “We are called Browns because when the business came into its current ownership we were on the site of Browns’ Foundry that had been in the city since 1868, developing into a merchant business via
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2019
selling stoves, chimneys and manhole covers. It was a well-known name in Derby, people knew where we were and why make a name up from our initials when we could use the free marketing provided by the long established name. So, we aren’t strictly speaking 150 years old, but we took over the business that was.” With the new branch fully bedded in the company intends to continue to develop its successful directs business and its strength in the roofing sector. Parlato say that the roofing section was set up because Browns don’t just want to be a one-stop-shop, they want to be the best at every product that they do. “It’s how we developed our plumbing and heating side five years ago, bringing the right staff in, and getting the right deals with suppliers through being part of NBG, so we plan to do the same thing with roofing.” To facilitate this, the focus on training, development and the apprenticeship programmes will continue, because, as Edd Parlato points out: “You can have the best deals in the world, but if you haven’t got the right staff to operate the business then it’s no good.” BMJ
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