MERCHANT FOCUS: JW GRANT NEIGHBOURHOOD WATCH
Bringing the local community into your merchant branch can have hidden benefits, as Fiona Russell Horne found out.
W
hat do you do when you want to get closer to your local community, and you have a huge outdoor landscaping
space? That’s the question that Scottish builders merchant JW Grant found itself pondering.
The answer was to turn the Kilmarnock branch into a one-day community market, bringing together 32 local businesses while giving the builders’ merchant an opportunity to show off its extensive landscaping display. For JW Grant director Andrew McLellan, the idea started with a simple question: how could they make better use of the substantial landscaping display at Kilmarnock? “We kept looking at our huge landscaping displays,” he says. “They’re perfect for our builder customers who like to bring or send their homeowner customers along to have a look, and really get a chance to get close to the products.
“They really are absolutely massive and we’ve invested loads of money and time into
24
these displays. So, we were thinking, what else can we do to get some more use out of them?”
The answer was to open the branch up to the wider community and give local small businesses the opportunity to use the space for a market.
McLellan says the idea developed while he was travelling back from a meeting in Coventry, as he considered how JW Grant could build stronger relationships with the communities surrounding its branches. “I was thinking about getting closer to the local people; basically where our builder customers operate,” he says. “So, I thought, what if we used the display?”
The company put the idea out on social media to gauge interest, offering local businesses the chance to set up stalls and invite members of the public along. The response was strong, with around 40 businesses initially registering their interest. There was also the idea that it’s a good thing to support, and be seen to be
supporting, smaller local businesses. “The sort of small businesses we were thinking of in the area don’t always have an outlet,” he says. “Most of them are run by one or two people, often from their living room or family kitchen. Sometimes they have to pay fortunes to go and take stands at events. I thought, why don’t we just let them in and they can set up their stalls, and have some food and drinks and invite the public along to see what they are offering.”
Turning the idea into reality was rather more involved than simply opening the gates, however. The council required an event licence, along with a series of risk assessments and measures covering everything from toilet provision and crowd capacity to fire marshals, first aiders and lost children.
“I was, like, this is like a small event, do I really need two paragraphs on how I plan to identify suicide bombers?” McLellan says. The licensing process also highlighted just how much capacity the branch site had. “We had to show that we had measured the
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2026
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 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
