MERCHANT FOCUS: KENT BLAXILL
we needed to collate that offer, in a way that makes the experience much smoother for every customer.”
The landscaping display area will be removed and re-built in a different area, allowing the company to move the back offices and showrooms around, and make the site much more effective. “We’re bringing things together, but also allowing them to keep their own identity,” he adds. The front end of the site will be retail, the back-end, where there is the yard, will be more trade-focused, with the two crossing over without being inconvenient for the customers, and without stepping on each other’s toes either. The kitchen and bathroom showroom will be lit up at night, too, making the most of its situation on a main road out of the town.
Separation moves
Another part of the plan, will be to move the head office function off the main Colchester site. This will allow the branch to breathe a little and can act more like a branch in its own right, without the feeling that the management is sitting on top of it all watching their every move.
While the main focus of the revamp will be the Colchester branch the other building materials branch, Bury St Edmunds, will be given some TLC, rather than a complete revamp, including new offices. It has already had a new landscaping display. “We aren’t afraid to invest where we see the potential for future growth in order to drive that,” adds Park.
On that note, there is also a great deal of investment going in to expanding the decorating side of the business; the most recent branch openings in West Thurrock, Tunbridge Wells and, in August, Sevenoaks, expand the company’s reach, in the case of the latter two, beyond the Thames and into Kent.
The decorating side is very much a part of the expansion plans for the business, says Barry Church, decorating area manager for half of the KB decorating stores. “On the decorative side it’s slightly easier to open up the newer branches relatively quickly and adding support in areas which we have recently moved into.
The focus is on expanding the brand into new locations to take advantage of opportunities, especially as the take-up of online ordering continues, Church says. “It’s important that we find the right locations, and a lot of work goes into that. Obviously having been in business for 184 years, our heritage is a big USP for us, but
this is less of a draw the further we go from our Essex starting point. Fewer new customers are aware of the brand and our family run business ethos, so we have to really look at how we approach each new marketplace, and will need to have a more robust national feel to what we do, including strong stock profiles and good deliveries.”
Decorating opportunities This Summer, the company also acquired the Paint and Paper business in Norwich, which gives it a real push into the online sector, something that will help as the company develops sales in this area. Park says that the expertise in the Paints and Paper business will be invaluable in helping Kent Blaxill’s development. The acquisition will help push the company to embrace a newer more technologically-enabled customers, and fits well with the company’s restructure to ensure that the 184-year heritage continues. Simon Blaxill has moved from the managing director role to take on a role that is more focused on special projects, sourcing new locations for branches working on pricing policy, and is also on
September 2022
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the Executive Board of buying group Fortis, again working on projects. The other Kent Blaxill directors, alongside Park as managing director, are Allanna Docherty, sales, operations and HR, while Kevin Pryke is finance director.
The aim is to move forward, retaining the whole Kent Blaxill essence, the family ethos of the past 184 years, but make it more suited to the 21st century. “It remains family owned and we’re not talking about changing the culture but more adapting it,” Docherty says. “Moving away from the job- for-life attitude towards fostering one of wanting success, and wanting to come to work to be successful in that role, which is a part of the bigger picture.”
Park says: “Like many other companies, we had to make some tough decisions during Covid and one of those was to restructure. It possibly meant that we lost out on some business opportunities, but it means that we are as lean and as efficient as we can be now, so that if we do end up going into another dip, we should be in a good place to withstand it. We’ve been through the pain; the team is now settled and we are in a good place to weather whatever is thrown at us now.”
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