RETAILING
up accounts is easy, because we don’t need to go through all the referencing, and we can open it quickly and get a line of credit.” Mrs Machin adds: “One of the big benefits is that we have 400 of us, buying together. And we can do the promotional magazines with offers we couldn’t do otherwise. It is a professionally-done magazine that we have delivered around nearby postcodes. Without the buying capacity of 400-plus shops, you can’t get those deals.” Tony says: “It’s
the only real
promotion that we do. To pay for the costs to produce it independently, you wouldn’t be able to do it.” Tony also
highlights Home
Hardware’s Homelink system. “You’ve got the Homelink desktop app, which lets you view orders, stock and so on,” he explains. “What’s nice is they do stock updates every day. If a customer comes in you can check and say, ‘I can get it for Friday’ or if it’s out of stock you can call Home Hardware and give them a timeframe for when it’ll be in.”
It has evidently been a beneficial
relationship. “We’ve been members a long time,” Mrs Machin says. “It must be pushing 30 years. We never really considered becoming corporate members because, round here, our name is well known, but we work well with them as a supplier.” Given the volume of products
Whiting & Son carries, it is no surprise that anything that makes the buying and delivery process simpler is helpful.
“I like to say that we sell the necessities of life,” Mrs Machin says. “If you want to mend a tap, or need a new hose, or a new saucepan, or to paint a room, or do something in the garden…” Tony adds: “We tend to be
more practical, selling products that match
needs rather than
wants. Most of the staff are very knowledgeable too, and you can ask and get advice on what you should use for a certain job.”
‘People have gone back to fixing things themselves’ Having a successful model doesn’t mean Whiting & Son ought to rest on its laurels. “We nearly bought another site,”
Tony explains. “One of the local stores that closed, we looked at buying. It was a bit bigger than this, but there were flats above with staircases which they hadn’t segregated from the shop, so we decided not to do it. We also looked at Shaftesbury about
three
years ago as an option. We found a shop we wanted, which went under, but they split half the assets and one half wouldn’t sell the building to us. We own the building here and we’d like to own any building we then moved to.”
He adds: “We reckoned we’d need 2,000sq ft minimum to do a replica of what we do here. That cuts down the options you can get, and you start looking at places that bigger chains would look at, so there’s more competition.” If the prospect of expansion is being considered, there must be positivity for the future of the trade? “If you go back to the last
recession, people learned that they had to watch their pennies,” Mrs Machin explains. “If it’s £20 as a call-out charge to get somebody to do things, and it’s going to cost you 50p for a couple of screws to reattach something, then that’s what people are going to do. That’s when
we saw a lot of people stop calling the plumber out to change the tap washer. It’s 50p to do it yourself.” She continues: “People have gone back to fixing things themselves. You get a lot of the older generation coming in saying, ‘My son or my daughter has asked me to go and do this and show them how to do it,’ because they want to be able to do it themselves.” And, while Tony says Brexit has
had an impact, with price increases of up to 20%, footfall hasn’t declined and Mrs Machin believes
social
media and digital platforms are helping inspire customers. “I think YouTube has had a big
effect on people trying to have a go themselves. They can go online and watch a video and learn how to something that they used to have to get someone in for.”
For the business, the generational shift back towards DIY means plenty of potential sales. There are opportunities, as well as hard work ahead. Mrs Machin adds: “Well, Anthony is young…”
At a glance
Whiting & Son 68 High Street, Wells, Somerset, BA5 2AL Tel: 01749 686950
www.whitingandson.co.uk
Established: 1936 Selling space: Approx 3,100sq ft
Product offer: ‘A traditional ironmonger’, stocking household, hardware, gardening & lighting products
Branches: 1
Staff: 9 shop staff (including Michell & Tony) and one delivery driver
Main suppliers: Home Hardware is the retailer’s biggest supplier but the shop stocks a lot of Addis, HG & Kitchencraft
The back office at Whiting & Son includes a potted history of the business, from 1936 to the present day
www.diyweek.net 16 JUNE 2017 DIY WEEK 23
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