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TRADELINESTHE NEWS AND VIEWS AT KENT BLAXILL AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE: No 73
INSIDE n Karen sharpens kitchen focus n Customer survey solutions n Alpine cyclists
n The Kent Blaxill Decorating SkillsCentre has opened the doors to
its first cohort of students at theColchester Institute Sheepen Road sitein time for the start of the new term.The centre has been fully refurbishedusing products provided by Duluxsupplied through Kent Blaxill.
The building exterior has been painted bylocal decorator Terry Hollingsworth andbears KB signage.
The centre operates 18work bays and currently housesover 30 full-time students, withlocal school groups due tomake use of the facilities in thecoming weeks.
“The link-up is a reallypositive experience foreverybody,” said Adam Ward, director offaculty for construction and engineeringtechnologies. “The new Decorating SkillsCentre is an exciting, dedicated learningspace for our students. The sponsorshipenables us to provide better materials for the
students, and thebetter thematerials the more
valuable the learning experience.”Andy Whitney, KB decorative sales
manager, said: “We are fully embracing thewhole project and our involvement will notend with the centre launch. We will be givingtalks on such things as protective coatings,
brushes and will be supplying decorativematerials to the centre, as well as arrangingvisits and work experience at KB Colchester.”
The KB link with Colchester Institute wasset up by territory manager Janine Scarff whocommented: “With a local skills shortage it isgreat to be able to work in partnership withour local college to support in training thenext generation of painters and decorators.”
Ryan readyto deliverBury uplift
n Ryan Horsley (pictured)is the new branch
manager at the Kent BlaxillBury St Edmunds store.
Ryan, 37, has extensiveexperience in building supplieshaving spent 19 years in the
industry, 17 of them atmanagerial level and 10 as abranch manager.
He commented: “I will beaiming to give the branch someuplift. I see landscaping materialsas an area with massive potentialfor us and we have recentlyemployed Dan Millyard, an ex-landscaper, to help kick this off. Iwill also be looking to expandthe glass department.
“I have begun with a revampof the yard, moving the bricks
and blocks to the outside of theyard and the landscapingproducts to the centre so thatcustomers can see what wehave. We are also sorting outtraffic flow problems in the yardwith a full turning circle for articlorries to be introduced.
“There will also be a fewinitial small changes in the store,with a full revamp to followlater.”
The Bury St Edmunds storehas a staff of 22.
Built On Trust Since 1838
L to r: Graham Haylock (Dulux), Gary Horne (Colchester Institute VicePrincipal), Janine Scarff, Kevin Carruthers (lecturer) and Andy Whitney
Kent Blaxill sponsors ColchesterInstitute decorating skills centre
Investing in the nextgeneration of decorators
TRADELINES
Karen sharpensfocus on trade kitchens n Karen Dixon has been appointed as
showroom manager at Colchester with abrief to increase the trade focus of thedepartment.
Karen, who has been with Kent Blaxill for threeyears after previously running her own interiors retailbusiness, takes over from Peter Last who is steppingdown to two days a week prior to retirement.
“I will be aiming to expand the trade side of thebusiness, as well as to grow the business generally anddevelop the people in my department,” said Karen.
The first step towards increasing the trade focushas been the appointment of Kevin Baker who hasmore than 20 years’ experience as a kitchen designer,the last 10 of them with Howdens.
In addition Stefan Menzies is being trained as abathrooms designer.
Italian tiles from the factory
n Porcelain tiles are now being importedby Kent Blaxill directly from
manufacturer Panaria in Italy – to provide topquality at highly competitive prices.
Four types of tile, direct from Italy’s tile-makingcentre in Modena, are ready to collect from stacks inthe trade shop.
Starting from £19 a square metre, the BuxstoneClay, Memory Mood Sheer, Memory Mood Dim andBuxstone Almond come in shades of grey.
“They are suitable for both indoor and outdooruse,” said Karen Dixon, showroom manager. “Amore extensive range of Panaria designs are ondisplay in the tile showroom from where they can beordered in.”
n Jane Collins (pictured),manager of the award-
winning KB Melton branch, isnow doubling up as managerof the Ipswich stores as well.
Jane, who has a background incustomer service, will focus onimproving service standards at Ipswichas well as developing efficienciesbetween the two branches.
Jane said: “We have been meetingsome of the larger customers at Ipswichto explain how we can provide themwith an improved service and I have hadsome very positive feedback.”
“With a daily delivery van run linkingthe two stores we can maintain betterand more efficient stock levels, supplying
customers within 24 hours. Thevan will also be operating in theMelton area where we have notpreviously had a delivery service.
“There will be some staffinterchange between the twobranches, Ipswich being more
trade based and Melton more retailorientated, which will help improve thestaff knowledge base.
“At Ipswich we will be promotingexpanded ranges of paints such asMacpherson and Crown, and Liberonproducts. I also see great potential foran expanded range of designer paints.”
Earlier this year the Melton branchwon Farrow & Ball’s Best InstorePresentation award.
Jane takes on second branch
nAn extensive range ofPorcelanosa tiles from Spain isnow being stocked in theColchester tile showroom.
“Customers can order from ourdisplay featuring hundreds of designsand have the tiles delivered a couple of
days later,” said Karen Dixon,showroom manager.
“There are not many of these highlydesigned tiles available in the area sowe have taken the opportunity toshowcase them and create somedemand,” said Karen.
n Kent Blaxill is making a major investmentto become ‘East Anglia’s lintel specialist’.
The company is significantly increasing its lintelinventory with additional sizes becoming standardstock lines to create East Anglia’s widest choice oflintels. Kent Blaxill’s solus supplier Birtley Group isthe UK’s fastest growing lintel manufacturer and thehigh quality of its galvanised lintels is widelyrecognised in the marketplace.
“We are delighted to be working closely with oursupplier in establishing Kent Blaxill as the place
to go for all lintels,” said Matthew Carter,KB procurement manager. “Inaddition, we will be increasing ourcommercial activity to ourcustomers with new signage,promotions and product literature.”
Region’s widest lintel stock
Tradelines Autumn 2015 kentblaxill.co.uk
New lines:Karen Dixonshows off thePanaria tiles
TRADELINES
n Sales ofprotective
coatings have climbed75% over the last yearfollowing theappointment of DanRuegg as protectivecoatings manager andan overhaul of thedivision.
“Protective coatings atKent Blaxill is still a workin progress with newproduct lines and newbrands still being added toour comprehensiverange,” said Dan.
“In addition to thegrowth in the traditionalKB protective coatingsbrands, we are now alsosuppliers of brandsincluding Bradite, Wall -guard Systems, Envirograf,Zeroflame, Jotun,Reprotec, Keim, TeamacMarine Paints and more.”
Kent Blaxill hascompletely re-vamped itsfloor paint range and nowoffers a fully tintable,more durable single packfloor paint range as wellas a fully tintable epoxyfloor paint. The fireprotection range has alsobeen expanded, and KentBlaxill can now offer class0, 30 minutes and 60minute fire upgrading onmost interior andexterior surfaces includingtimber, steel, walls,ceilings, lath and plaster,fire door upgrading andupholstery.
“Kent Blaxill can alsonow offer a warranty ofup to 15 years on varioussurfaces such as floors,exterior cladding androofs,” said Dan.
“We will be looking tofurther grow the servicesoffered as well ascontinuing to increase thebrands and productsavailable.” said Dan.
kentblaxill.co.uk Autumn 2015 Tradelines
Protectivecoatingssales soar
The KB customer survey earlier this year found some high levels ofcustomer satisfaction. But it also highlighted a few customer concerns. Here we explain how some of those issues are being addressed.
n Andy McMahon (pictured first right) istaking on the role of business
development manager at Colchester, inaddition to being branch manager, with a briefto focus on heavy building materials.
“It will the first time we have given this level offocus to the heavy builders’ merchant side,” saidAndy. “I will be working closely with our keysuppliers to find additional services that they canprovide so that we can pass the benefits on to ourcustomers,” said Andy.
“The builders merchant representatives and salesstaff will also be reporting to me and I will be lookingto organise them as effectively as possible.”
“Essentially we are looking to grow the business,
although things are very much in the planning stages.”To help free up Andy for his new role, Carl Jenner
(above right) has been promoted from assistantmanager to Colchester operations manager. “He willbe looking at all the operational aspects of theColchester site to make sure we have everything inplace to improve the customer experience,” said Andy.
n A revamped andreorganised builders
merchant department will belaunched at Colchester inJanuary.
It will involve the integration oflightside builders’ merchantmaterials with the heavysideunder one builders’ merchantbanner, so that customers canbuy all their building materials atone sales point.
“We are putting everythingtogether to make the customerexperience a lot easier,” saidAndy McMahon, businessdevelopment manager. “We havea shop fitting company coming into completely redesign the areaand make much more efficient useof space.”
The existing lightside store willbe dedicated exclusively todecorative materials, power tools,
tool hire and plumbing.“There will be some
restructuring of the sales force aswe want them nearer to thecustomer on a day-to-day basis.We will also have some salespeople behind the counter.Everything will be customer-service driven.”
Kevin Curtis continues asheavyside and timber manager aswell as taking on landscaping.
New roles to developbusiness for the future
One-stop builders’ merchant sales
n The Colchester tradeand designer paint areas
are being merged into a one-stop shop with an expandedrange and depth of stocks.
The reorganisation, which iscurrently under way, follows theKB customer survey in the springwhich highlighted a need for sitesimplification.
“The two existing paint shopsare being merged into onemodernised department over aneight-week period,” said JamesPark, KB decorative manager.“The new layout will be based onwhat we have developed in our
new branches and will be simplerand easier to use.”
The department is managedby Laura Downing.
Paint mixed into one department
nFour senior KB managers havebeen taking part in a gruelling
450-mile charity cycle over the Alpswhich takes in some of the iconicTour de France climbs.
Simon Blaxill, James Park, Kevin Prykeand Julian Wood were raising money forthe Robert George Foundation – andhave more than £3,000 pledged
(www.justgiving.com/simonblaxill).Thirty teams took part in the three-
day relay event during late Septemberorganised by Challenge AdventureCharities. The ride featured climbsincluding the 21 km Chamrousse andthe famous 14 km Alp d’Huez, whichprovided the finish for the penultimateday of this year’s Tour de France.
Alpine cycle challenge
Tradelines Autumn 2015
TRADELINES
kentblaxill.co.uk
COLCHESTERCO2 9JY
%: 01206 [email protected]
BRAINTREECM7 3GZ
%: 01376 [email protected]
BURY ST EDMUNDSIP33 3TX
%: 01284 [email protected]
FAKENHAMNR21 8SX
%: 01328 [email protected]
HUNTINGDONPE29 6EB
%: 01480 [email protected]
IPSWICHIP3 0AB
%: 01473 341330 [email protected]
KIRBY CROSSCO13 0LY
%: 01255 679161 [email protected]
NORWICHNR2 4UX
%: 01603 [email protected]
SUDBURY CO10 2FT
%: 01787 372241 [email protected]
WOODBRIDGE IP12 1RB
%: 01394 384255 [email protected]
Kent BlaxillCompanyLimited
@KentBlaxill and @KBDecorating
n This year’s KBTool show will be
held on ThursdayOctober 15 between 5and 9 pm. As well asdeals available on thenight, there will bedemonstrations, livemusic, beer and curry.
“It has a reputationfor being one of thebiggest and best toolshows in the area and weare planning for thisyear’s show to beanother great eveningwith great deals,” saidAndy McMahon, businessdevelopment manager.
Screens meet office deadline
Dec salesteamready tomake a splash
n A four-day slot tofit office glass
screens at the newSVC office inColchester provided achallenge for the KBglass department.
“We had just fourworking days after theprevious occupier hadmoved out of the WestSide Centre office atStanway before SVCmoved in” said NeilCurrell, installationsmanager.
“However the projectwas completed on timeand to the customer’ssatisfaction.” One of thescreens enclosed a groundfloor training room and theother created separateoffice space within a largerroom on the first floor.
The four-man teaminstalled two 7500mm x2400mm glass screens,made of 10mm toughenedfloat, into a stainless steeleffect U-channel surround.In each of them, aframeless glass door washung from a top freeswinging pivot controlled
by a sunken floor spring.Graphics were applied tothe glass in the form of theSVC logo once installationwas complete.
“We are carrying outmore and more of thistype of installation,” saidNeil. “It is becoming a bitof a niche market for us.”
nThe KB decorativesales team has
been reorganised togive an improvedservice to customers.
Andy Whitney isheading up the team asdecorative sales manager,with new KB appointmentBarry Church coveringthe Norwich, Ipswich andMelton branches; ColinBaxter coveringFakenham, Bury StEdmunds and Huntingdon;and Janine Scarff coveringColchester, Sudbury,Braintree and Kirby.
“We have had a lot ofsuccess getting newbranches up and runningquickly and now we want togive some of that improvedfocus to our existingbranches,” said Andy.
“We will be workingclosely with the branchmanagers to developcustomer relationshipsand sales, and also have abrief to get any newbranches up and running.
“The crux of thechange is to bring thesales force and branchestogether to work moreclosely as a team toservice our customers’needs. We will also beworking closely with ourmanufacturers.”
Tool showtension builds
Left to right: Whitney,Church, Scarff and Baxter
