TOOLS


TRADITIONAL VALUES, MODERN THINKING


A family-run


independent with an online business and logistical systems in place that would make a multiple proud, as well as a trade show that has people travelling for hours to attend – D&M Tools is making its mark selling tools. Fiona Garcia reports.


Y


ou can’t miss D&M Tools. The tool retailer occupies five shop fronts, all decked out in its royal blue corporate colours, complete


with bold signage, and a host of tools glinting in its many shop windows. The business has been trading on the same spot for 39 years – although it has naturally expanded somewhat during this time. It began life in 1978 as a light-side builders merchant with a broad offer that included kitchens, bathrooms, ironmongery and tools. The owners,


husband-and-wife team


David and Mary Dowding, have since retired, although David, who is also a carpenter by trade, still has some involvement in the business. The day-to-day running of D&M Tools is now overseen by their son, managing director, Paul Dowding. The forward-thinking


has many strings to its bow, including designing and print managing its own catalogues and promotional material, and even, on occasion, shooting its own product demo videos for use online.


14 DIY WEEK 26 MAY 2017


However, D&M still holds its traditional retailing roots dear. “We use our traditional values to trade in the modern world,” says Paul, who says he often enjoys telling people he is a shopkeeper when they ask what he does for a living. “I like saying that but people don’t know what that means anymore.” Expanding further on why these traditional values are so important to the business today, he says: “We’ve got that DNA running through our company.


It comes business


down to simple things like that fact that our staff will always give out their names when they answer the phone. It’s more personable and makes customers feel that you’ve nothing to hide from the start. We are a good and honest retailer.” Paul, who joined straight out of school and has been in the business for 35 years now, has a great affiliation with the product D&M sells. “I love tools,” he enthuses. “It’s all about the tools.” D&M’s offer has evolved over the years, gradually dropping lines and moving its focus towards its core business of hand and power tools and accessories, as well as a solid


range of workwear.


Paul details the transition: “Kitchens became difficult because people wanted us to design, supply and install and we didn’t want to do all of that, so we exited that market,” Paul explains. “We thought about what we could specialise in that someone else wasn’t doing and that would make a customer drive past someone else to come to us. The nationals then didn’t have the knowledge to offer specialist tools. So, we grew and grew and more of the shop became tools until not much else remained.”


D&M stocks a vast array of tools and machinery, from screwdriver sets and cordless power drills to suit a discerning DIYer, right through to chain mortisers and one-metre drill bits, which you wouldn’t find on sales in many retail outlets. D&M is a tool specialist in every sense of the word. As well as an incredible depth of offer – all of which is in stock and available to take away on the day, even if it means taking the display model – the business also benefits from extremely knowledgeable members of staff, and indulges its tool-loving customers even further


with an annual event dubbed ‘The’ Tool Show, which showcases hundreds of branded tools, power tools and machinery products at Kempton Park Racecourse every autumn. Paul describes D&M Tools as an original “bricks, clicks and flips business,” as the in-store showroom is supported by online trading and a mail-order catalogue. “We started doing mail order in the early 90s,” says Paul. “And that was simply because customers who had moved away asked ‘can’t we just order something and you send it to us?’ It was completely demand led.” That side of the operation is still going strong and the firm’s catalogue has grown from 150 pages in its infancy, to its current pagination of 650, and with a print run of 75,000. Meanwhile, D&M has developed a solid and impressive online proposition, with thousands of products available for click and collect in store or next-day delivery. “We had mail order before the internet,” Paul explains. “We did telephone sales and had a catalogue, so the move to online sales was not alien to us. A lot of other businesses had a tougher time getting on board


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