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PARTNERING WITH THE WHOLESALER IS THE KEY TO DIY SUCCESS
As the DIY and hardware market continues to evolve, the wholesaler is playing an increasingly important role, and this is bringing benefits for the retailer, as Stax Trade Centres Purchasing Director Simon Wright explains.
Although they’ve long been a central feature of the DIY marketplace, the wholesaler’s importance has grown significantly in recent times. In our own case here at Stax, this has been the result of the great emphasis we have placed on developing our offering to the independent DIY and hardware retailer. We have worked extremely hard to develop customer relationships that are based on a two-way partnership, and this has been a strong driving force in this process At
Stax this has involved
investing heavily in measures which have allowed us to align ourselves as closely as possible to the requirements of our DIY customers. Price is obviously a key consideration here, and our investment
helps us to remain
competitive across a huge range of DIY, gardening and hardware products. The other benefits this
brings for customers is the ability to save time and additional money by sourcing everything they need from a single, reliable source. The recent publication of our 2019
Big Green Book gardening catalogue is another example of our investment bringing benefits for our customers. This year it’s bigger than ever before, and contains products from some of the best-know names on the market such as Flymo, Wilkinson Sword, Fiskars and Hozelock, as well as the increasingly popular Stax own-brand products. It reflects our commitment to customer support by providing a quick and convenient reference to the enormous range of garden products and related lines which we offer at our six UK Trade Centres. The huge number of products included in the Big Green Book also illustrates the way in which we work to develop our product portfolio in-line with the changing needs of our customers. As outlets such as garden centres increasingly become seen as shopping destinations, we continue to evolve our products lines accordingly, helping our customers maximise their profits from the new opportunities that arise.
Maximising your convenience During our 36 years of supporting independent retail and trade customers, convenience has been the main focus behind our investments, and as a result we have
worked multi-channel to relationships
develop new that
are specifically designed to satisfy our customers’ needs.
Price is obviously a key consideration for the retailer and so wholesalers must work hard to ensure that they remain competitive across a huge range of DIY, gardening and hardware products.
18 DIY WEEK 8 FEBRUARY 2019
Our six branches serve over 50,000 customers, and we strive to make them a must-visit destination for the independent DIY retailer. We’ve also developed our online presence to create a faster and easier ordering process, and created own fleet of delivery vehicles to complement our cash-and-carry facilities. Our DIY customers can deal with Stax however they please, and this reflects our commitment to supporting them in every way we can.
Stax has a display room at its Manchester headquarters which customers can visit to see the sort of merchandising support on offer and find fresh inspiration to mount their own displays.
Additional support
Customer support is especially important today, given the changing nature of the wholesaler- retailer relationship. Rather than being mainly transactional, that relationship now sees wholesalers providing far more support to their customers, and Stax is leading the way. Once again, our heavy investment allows us to provide individual account managers, merchandising materials and many other features which help make life easier for the retailer. For example, at Stax we offer a huge range of ‘stand and stock’ options which allow our customers to mount their own in-store displays with a full range of merchandising items. We even have a display room at our Manchester headquarters where they can visit to see the sort of merchandising support on offer and find fresh inspiration to mount their own displays.
The wholesaler’s ability to support their suppliers is similarly important. DIY product manufacturers
increasingly
appreciate the wholesaler’s ability to create a new route to market, backed by the sort of account management facilities
they themselves cannot
provide. The wholesaler’s ability to take huge volumes of product helps the manufacturer too, and allows competitive prices to be passed on to the retailer.
Independent DIY retailers have the ability to adapt quickly to changing market conditions, and we support their efforts by providing everything they need, when they need it.
Simon Wright, Purchasing Director for Stax Trade Centres.
www.diyweek.net
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