Meet the CLM Team:- Chris Hughes (Director), Trudy Robinson (Sales), Emily-Grace Rickett (Marketing), Amy Seehra (Accounts) Greg Dent (Technical Manager). RAISING THEIR GAME When cutting, lifting or mixing are needed, CLM Construction Supplies
has got you covered. With current trading hitting record levels, it seemed like a good time to discuss future plans…
G
iven that CLM has been mentioned in passing many times over years, and
that the company is both a regular advertiser and such a firm fixture at the Executive Hire Show, a profile article is perhaps long overdue. Director, Chris Hughes, meanwhile, was more keen to catch-up and to introduce CLM’s new Marketing Executive, Emily- Grace Rickett, who is bound to become a familiar face soon enough – she might even put a few ducks in a row at the same time.
CLM itself rose from the ashes of IMER Direct. The company in its present form was then established in 2010 and it continues to market IMER gantry and scaffold hoists – a lot more besides, of course. With the pleasantries easily occupying 90 minutes, I was eager to ask the first of several questions – how has trading been this year? CLM founder and Managing Director, Bob Hughes, is quick to answer:
“It’s been amazing,” he begins. “I was just looking at our financial performance over the last five years, and we’ve already done as much in the first quarter of 2022 as in the whole of 2019. We were 20% down at the beginning of the pandemic, but we were back up by 15% in 2021, and it had doubled by 2022. I put a lot of this down to construction, which never really stopped, but we were able to maintain our supply when others couldn’t – this was because we’d increased our stock by 50% when we saw Brexit coming.”
CLM is the official UK supplier of IMER mixers.
It’s perhaps best not to ponder the dreaded B word, but that and issues relating to the pandemic have caused problems in the
supply chain. CLM deals in equipment made in Italy and Denmark, so has this affected your prices?
“We used to put orders in three months ahead for IMER equipment, but it’s at least double that now,” says Bob. “We have also been trying to keep a two tonne MABER MBC 2000 in stock, but due to the demand being very high, they get sent straight out to customers as soon as they arrive.”
“We’ve had to put our prices up in the meantime,” adds Technical Manager, Greg Dent. “However, we only sell premium products and our prices reflect that. We know we can be expensive, but you get what you pay for.
If we have price increases, we usually do this annually in April. However, over the last two- three years we have tried to hold our prices.” says Bob. “We keep an eye on the Euro and we take a punt on how that’s going to move. We also consider how much we can afford to swallow, in terms of rising costs, and what we can’t. Hopefully, our prices hit the sweet spot between the two.”
28 Executive Hire News - July/August 2022
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