Interview with Martyn Rees of County Building Supplies

Corporate Partner, Charles Davey, caught up with Martyn Rees of County Building Supplies on COVID-19 and how the business has managed to trade with a smile throughout the pandemic.

Company Background:

County Building Supplies, “the happiest builders merchants in the World”, was opened in 1987 by Martyn Rees and David Lloyd. It is now one of the largest independent building suppliers operating in the Midlands, with 12 branches and over 150 staff. 

It caters to both trade and retail customers supplying building materials, heating and plumbing supplies, renewable energy products, kitchens, and bathrooms.

Unlike many other building suppliers, County Building Supplies has remained open throughout lockdown.

Charles and Martyn had a virtual coffee recently to discuss trading and all things building.

So, Martyn, how has trading been?

We believed that some demand would be there as construction continued and we felt that we could operate safely.

We also didn’t want to let our customers down, so after careful thought and planning we took the decision to remain open. 

Have you taken advantage of any government schemes?

We have applied, and been accepted for, the CBILS scheme. 

For us, the scheme has been great. It has eased any concerns over cashflow and enabled us to keep our primary focus where it matters; on our customers. 

In our experience, the application process was relatively seamless requiring some financial information, but nothing too excessive. 

Have you had to furlough any staff?

As much as possible we have avoided the furloughing of staff. 

We have only furloughed staff members who have underlying health conditions, or were shielding, and this equated to about 10% of the work force. 

Staying open must have been a challenge? 

We stayed open only for delivery and click and collect. 

During the initial stages of Covid and lockdown there was the obvious concern around the potential risks of continuing to work. 

All our stores were closed so we could carefully control the movement of products and ensure social distancing. We found that by providing proper PPE, sanitizing gel, and having appropriate plans in place, together with open and fact-based communication with the team, we could offer delivery and click and collect services safely. 

That was “then”, so as we start to see a clearer picture emerge, what practical measures are you going to have to implement to return business to “normal”?

We are looking at how we can open our stores and have a trial at our Malvern branch at the moment. If this is successful, we hope to open the remaining stores soon.

At the Malvern branch, we are limiting the number of customers allowed in the store to 4 and providing hand sanitizer to all visitors. We have had to rethink our store layouts to offer a one-way system to reduce the risks of contact, which will be easy in some and more of a challenge in others.

As more construction sites restart, we are gearing up to deal with increased demand at our peak times of first thing in the morning and last thing at night. We will work with our customers to make this as painless as possible.

So, with trading good and demand there, do you see any supply chain risks that may be out of your control? 

We ensure that we maintain a close relationship with each of our suppliers who provide a fantastic support network, which ensures a continual supply of goods. We do not foresee any significant issues with our suppliers. 

One of the benefits in our industry is that the majority of our suppliers are based within the UK, with around only 5% of our materials being imported. 

Our main imported goods are timber and stone from India. With India being hit particularly hard by Covid, there is the potential for issues in the future, but as of yet we have not encountered any issues and importantly these will be industry issues and not specific to us.

What are the opportunities as we exit lockdown?

We are a positive business and we feel that the situation has already presented a number of opportunities for us. 

The first and most immediate is that we have been able to further develop our online presences. We already had an online store in place before lockdown. However, with the needs of customers changing, we have seen increased traffic on the website.

This has highlighted to us the importance of our website and has encouraged us to further develop it to optimise it for our customers.

We have also diversified the product range. We had been experimenting with car detailing products online before Covid, and over the past few months this has become very successful. 

We have felt an increased sense of community and we want to use this to further connect with our customers and deepen our relationships with them. This is especially important during a period where face to face customer interaction is becoming less and less common, and is also a big part of the ethos of County.

Finally, being open through the pandemic has enabled us to welcome new customers into the County way of business which, for most, has been a refreshing and friendly change to their past experience.

How confident are you about your market returning to normal? 

Well if you look at the national building suppliers, they may give you a bleak view of the market as a whole, with a number of stores closing down and redundancies being made.

However, we remain optimistic about the future of our sector. There is a lot of support from government and investors which suggests it has a huge part to play in growing the economy again.

It feels exciting to be part of this and having been trading for over 30 years and with never a dull moment seen, there is a reason why we are the happiest builders merchants around. 

Thank you Martyn 

We will be adding more interviews over the coming weeks.

Check out our Business after COVID-19: Transition Knowledge Hub for more guidance and advice on managing the pandemic.