MERCHANT FOCUS: JEWSON CIVILS FRAZER
other members of the group, such as Jewson or CTD or International Timber, to ensure the customers get what they need for their projects.”
contractors who work in power, and water and gas specialists as well. All of these customers have their own requirements and needs, so our teams need to be focussed on that.”
Being part of the larger Saint Gobain group, means there is a supporting structure in the contracts division, which groups together Minster and Jewson Civils Frazer. “Both brands have a large focus on bigger projects, and there is a benefit in being able to make the synergy between them work,” Davis continues. “We have comparable business models in each of those brands - big suppliers, big customers, a relatively low margin yield, which means operational excellence is paramount. Plus, our activities are pretty complementary: civils is fairly yard intensive, the drylining and insulation side is fairly warehouse-based so that presents some strategic opportunities for operational teams collaborating where they can to meet the needs of the customers.”
Boyle says that there can be many instances where a customer who approaches Minster first, turns out to have a need for what Jewson Civils Frazer can also offer them and vice versa. “So, there’s a real benefit in keeping those customers within the same family, as it were. We can be there at the beginning of the programme of works and then almost at the very end. From a project point of view, there are definite benefits to being part of the larger group, and we can also liaise with
One real benefit to the new set-up, Boyle says, is that the business has now gone from having specialist civils products and solutions in a corner of a yard in a mainstream Jewson yard that is orientated towards the small and medium sized builder, to having dedicated facilities for large specialist projects. Jewson Civils’ existing customers remain comfortable with the brand and Frazer had considerable brand equity with in its traditional utilities customers.
“The real opportunities for us are to provide solutions,” he continues. “That’s what we want to provide as a business. This is a business sector that has a reputation for rather skinny margins. But we have built a model around building profitable growth, and we can only do that by concentrating on the customer and finding out exactly what the customers’ needs were. We can’t do it by just looking at what our competitors are doing or by aiming on being a cheapest to buy business. “We aim to put ourselves in front of our customers and underpin it by world class service and operational excellence. That is as important to us as a sales plan, because it underpins everything that we do. It makes the commercial team’s job easier to if we have a first-class service. Even in these times we believe that we can offer first class operational excellence, which leads to first class sales opportunities.”
Communicating with customers is key, Boyle believes, as is early engagement with the project. “By maintaining a solid commitment to constant communication allows us to start the journey of being a solutions-based company who just happen to stock and distribute building materials. We don’t aim
September 2021
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net
to be a stockist and distributor of building materials; we want to be part of the solution to the customer’s requirements. That’s what we are building towards. For me, value is the biggest game changer. The challenge is how do you prove that you can add value and change the perception that this is all about a race to the bottom. Because that’s what a focus on price leads to. We want to be part of the solution, not just for our customers but part of the solution for our industry as well. We want to be part of the change in what our industry looks like.”
Organic growth over and above the market growth is the aspiration at Jewson Civils Frazer, but Davis says the sustainability of that growth is what’s really important for the company as well.
“Sustainable systems and solutions that we develop in conjunction with our suppliers, for our customers, are the starting point, but solutions go way beyond that for us, too. This could mean moving into the digital arena, to developing new ways for our customers to procure from us, changing how we manage our inventory internally, optimally and using AI methods to ensure we are at the cusp of that,” she says.
“We know that we need a different proposition in our people and our approach,” Boyle adds. “We can’t afford to be complacent. Part of our initial journey was about establishing credibility and standing up and telling our suppliers what we planned to do, what our aspiration was at the start of the journey. We can say that,18 months on that we have over delivered on every single count and that has given us a great deal of goodwill. We believe we can continue to move the brand forward, and know that we have the support of our supply chain. It’s not all focused on driving prices down, instead it’s about driving value up.” BMJ
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