TIMco: Stronger together
13 July 2016
On 19th – 20th May TIMco (T.I. Midwood & Co Ltd) held its first networking conference at the company’s Cheshire headquarters. Claire Edwards, deputy editor, joined representatives from nearly 150 independent builders to share developments and opportunities within the industry.
Held in a specially erected marquee outside the main building, the conference’s aim was to give customers the tools needed to help ‘take on’ some of the national organisations that may be operating in their local area.
This included a full itinerary of guest speakers providing an insight in areas such as marketing, logistics and people management, as well as networking with industry peers. Simon Midwood, managing director at TIMco, opened the conference by revealing the results of market research TIMco had undertaken. He gave an interesting insight into the UK market place as well as the opportunities and threats that the independents faced, noting “it’s a tough market and it is important independents stick together”.
The first guest presentation was from marketing expert Grant Leboff of Sticky Marketing Club who gave advice on how delegates can evolve their marketing offerings and develop cost-effective platforms for use in their own businesses. Grant stressed the importance of thinking about the way companies are communicating with their customers, telling delegates “for the first time in history, everyone has a channel. You have to be where your customers are”.
He was followed by Elaine Kerr of logistics business DPD who gave an insight into the sector’s delivery trends. Elaine outlined how operators can offer 24 hour delivery themselves as well as improved ways of working between TIMco, its logistics partners, merchants and end users.
Next, delegates were treated to a unique presentation from James Timpson, chief executive of the Timpson Group, who gave an overview of the family business and its ‘upside down management system’. James pointed out by approaching business in a different way, Timpson has helped bring the best out of employees and the roles they can play on bringing a competitive edge in a challenging world.
Chris Haywood of The National Merchant Buying Society Ltd (NMBS) closed the conference with a recap of the day and a summary of the UK market.
Throughout the conference, Simon focused on strong competition and how TIMco can help its customers’ businesses be more successful by building mutually beneficial partnerships. He also outlined a number of developments TIMco has made in the last 12 months to support independent merchant customers. This includes a dedicated marketing and graphic team to offer customers a bespoke
marketing plan including merchandising and the production of bespoke brochures, as well as improvements to logistics that would enable customers to offer delivery within 24 hours of ordering.
Simon explains: “We were thrilled to see the conference so well attended. It was the perfect platform to share with customers some of our insights, as well as take the opportunity to give them some detail on the initiatives we are taking to help grow their businesses. As a wholesaler we are only successful if our customers are successful.”
As well as the full programme of guest speakers, the conference also gave TIMco customers the opportunity to tour its newly expanded facilities and see where TIMco is building its new 34,000m2 warehouse. TIMco has committed to a GB£1.8 million investment in stock.
Customers were also given an exclusive look at the company’s newly completed purpose-built training centre. The centre has been opened in order to provide another service for TIMco’s customers. Full product training is offered to all TIMco customers, which can be completed in the newly built centre. TIMco’s training team are also able to visit customers on-site. Ben Harrington, training manager at TIMco, comments: “Staff knowledge is paramount. The training centre enables our customers to engage with our products and leave with an increased knowledge of their stock.”
The centre also doubles up as a studio for filming the company’s ‘How to’ videos – which are available on the TIMco website and on YouTube to help it increase its market presence. Ben explains: “‘How to’ is the most searched for phrase on YouTube with people constantly wanting to learn the right way to do things. These videos are also really useful for attendees of the training centre, to help retain their knowledge and also for companies to educate employees who were unable to attend.”
Thanks to the success of the two days TIMco plans to hold the conference once every two years – with plans for a bigger and better second conference in 2018 well underway.
