Merchant rolls outs family concept in its 75th year

Celebrating its 75th anniversary, the company has embarked on a project to create 25 ‘families’ of stores in various regions around the UK.

Each family will be linked with a large, central branch that will handle administration and supply requirements to enable smaller branches to concentrate on customer service.

“We’re now encouraging Graham staff to get closer to their local customers,” said Mr Gledhill (pictured).

“We believe we already have the best trained staff to provide expert advice to our customers.”

Training is a vital part of the business, he continued, delivered through the company’s Green Works Academy and online learning modules, to which each family has access.

Online training will now be offered to customers, focused on energy efficiency and renewables.

“We’re also encouraging manufacturers to work with us, to ensure that the product offering works locally,” Mr Gledhill continued.

The creation of families of branches will provide customers with better access to stock, including same-day sourcing and quicker reaction to requests.

“We want to work on a more local scale and we want our customers to see the change and get clear benefits that come from that,” he said.

The concept has already been rolled out to six stores in the Thames Valley, South Yorkshire, West Midlands, North-east, the Humber and west London regions.