Since its inception, Coastal Building Supplies Ltd has striven to provide outstanding customer service, find new revenue opportunities and take advantage of efficiency savings where possible.
Directors of Coastal, Mark Whitbread, James Peck, Andrew Webster and Laura Whayman, along with their fellow founders, all had extensive experience, working for both independent and national merchants. Based in East Anglia, they identified a space in the market for a well-run independent merchant. Having secured backing, and after finding a suitable site in Leiston in Suffolk, Coastal opened its doors in April 2009.
“The builders trade is a ‘people business’, we wanted to give our customers a more personable experience,” said Mr Whitbread. “Our biggest goal in establishing Coastal was to return to a philosophy of giving our customers what they need, when they need it; whether that is a special product, new brands, flexible delivery or even taking on new suppliers.”
Coastal has expanded from its first branch in Leiston by adding two further branches in Woodbridge and Ipswich. Growth has been underpinned by its early decision to invest in a dedicated merchant software system.
“Our first branch opened in April 2009 and the initial process of looking for a software provider started in February of the same year. We interviewed three suppliers and, for us, the best fit for our business and our future plans, was Border Merchant Systems and their intuitive CounterAct software. We particularly liked the simplicity of the system and the ease of use of both the POS character and graphics interfaces.
“Things moved very quickly. We made the decision in February and by April Border had installed both our hardware and software, and had trained staff on how to use the system. This has been a template that has been replicated as we have grown to three branches. Each installation has been done quickly, efficiently and with relative ease.”
Of course it’s not just the software, it is also imperative that the people are there to support and understand, and for Coastal this was another critical factor in its decisionmaking process.
“The partnership we have with Border is vital,” said Mr Whitbread. “As an experienced software provider to the merchant trade they understand our business and certainly ‘talk our language’. If we have issues they are resolved quickly and this relationship is pivotal to our collaborative success. We can talk directly to people who understand and feel passionately about resolving any difficulties.”
“We use various aspects of the software including information for accounting, sales reporting, stock and delivery, but there are many other elements that we could also utilise as and when our business evolves. The software can already provide automated stock checks with mobile apps, POD and advanced MIS so as our business challenges change, we are confident that CounterAct is future-proof.”
This year Coastal is looking to further develop its business with the addition of e-commerce and has a real desire to drive online sales, increase its presence in the market and ultimately increase sales to both end-users and the trade alike.
“With the help of Border we hope to get our site up and running in early 2019. We will be using their considerable experience to, in effect, treat this as the addition of another branch. We will have information that can be fully integrated into CounterAct, but will also ensure we have everything else in place to both market, sell and deliver from this side of the business.”
