Editor Tom Henman travels to Wales to meet Chris O’Rourke.
“Very encouraging so far; it’s surpassed our expectations,” those are the words of Chris O’Rourke, Andrew Page’s Divisional Manager. He’s referring to the opening few months’ of trading at the distributor’s first Wales branch in its capital Cardiff.
I made the visit to the latest branch on a very wet, miserable January morning. Considering the branch is based on Ocean Way, I shouldn’t have been surprised by the puddles. Having said that, Gwynne Johnson, Branch Manager, wasn’t put off and gave me a customer-friendly welcome to his, thankfully warm branch.
Chris, who looks after the central division – including the Midlands, East Anglia and eastern regions, along with Cardiff East to west coast, and Cambridge to Hull – explained how Andrew Page wanted to make a positive impact even before the ‘closed’ sign was switched to ‘open’.
“It’s a great team; we launched the branch off the back of a recruitment day at the end of September,” said Chris, who managed to complete the drive from Halesowen to Cardiff quicker than he would to Leicester on that particular morning.
“It would have been easy to transfer staff from the likes of Bristol and existing areas, but we wanted to employ Cardiff people. We wanted a recruitment drive in the area, and our experience has told us that people buy from people, so we wanted to come to town and put a face to the business.”
The majority of the staff members have come from motor factor backgrounds, certainly in the automotive industry, and that has boosted employment in the local area as a result. That experience appears to have paid off so far because, as said above, trading has proven positive so far.
Challenges faced
There’s always a risk when opening a new branch – especially one in a new country. The 10,000 sq ft store serves both sides of Andrew Page’s business, including a retail outlet for consumers (right), as well as a trade shop for independent garages.
It also comprises of 13 miles of racking – something Chris explained went against the traditional Andrew Page mould in regards to the existing depo fold – while the store is also a feeder warehouse to Bristol, Gloucester and Worcester – with 10 vans in its own fleet and another five for its IDT network.
There’s a circa of 20,000 units in stock, with a value of just under £1 million. Business Development Managers (BDMs) have been trained and are being tasked with talking to customers about how they’re future-proofing their business.
“That must be customers’ biggest fear: not knowing if they’re going to be around in five or 10 years,” Chris said.
“We have an obligation to tell our customers: ‘We’re here to support you’. It’s in our interest to look after their business. For me, that was the biggest challenge we faced in Cardiff and bringing those to the forefront from the off. We held sales blitzes in the town, where 15 BDMs went out for two weeks and introduced themselves to the town – not to sell, but inform them of what’s available.
“The reception we’ve had so far has been great, it’s been fantastic. It’s not been surprising, though, as we’re comfortable in what we can offer, and we’re already doing well in key places, like Manchester and Birmingham.”
What’s important to the customer? That’s a question that Andrew Page needed to find the answer to quickly to ensure the relationship with its customers – both at trade and retail – got off on the right foot.
The BDMs play and will continue to play a crucial role in that. Chris insisted he doesn’t want customers to receive the impression that Andrew Page is simply a transactional business.
“We don’t want to sell a part and that be the end of our service. We want to support our customers, via knowledge and systems, thus, making sure our telesales teams are knowledgeable of new products, existing product updates and even legislation,” he said.
“We’ve got the literature to go with the product to help garages fit the product. We don’t want warranty problems; neither does the garage, as it affects customer retention negatively. We also conduct supplier workouts; in Cardiff, in the early stages, we want to make sure the suppliers are engaged.”
Further expansion
One question in particular I wanted to ask him was why it took until 2015 for the distributor to move into Wales. Chris was open about the reasons and admitted the purchases of Camberley Auto Factors and former Unipart Automotive (UA) branches meant significant care and attention was necessary to bring those branches in-line of other Andrew Page models first and foremost.
“With the acquisition of Camberley and additional sites of UA, we had a big challenge to integrate those branches. There wasn’t a rush; we wanted to walk before we could run to ensure we had the right systems and procedures in place.
“With the UA sites, we took them under our wing, and we implemented a step change where the depos felt like Andrew Page: the stock range, the liveried vans. We didn’t want a lingering hangover, so the staff members, in particular, that held onto their positions felt part of Andrew Page – had an identity.”
On the Welsh capital itself, Chris added: “The timing was right. With the financial backing in place, we fancied it. The opportunity is huge when considering the potential of Cardiff. We looked at the business case and asked the question of what we can offer the city.”
Continuing to pelt him with questions, I asked that, if Cardiff continues on a positive trajectory, further expansion was possible. He replied: “The investors are very pleased with what they’ve seen from Cardiff so far. We’re actively looking at further acquisition, and new openings are planned for the remainder of 2016. Within 12-18 months, it’s likely we’ll have more branches in Wales – success pending.”
