A proactive marketing campaign aimed at the end user is giving Hoppings a leading edge with independent timber and builders merchants.
As well as supplying precision-cut sections of timber to the trade, the company says it is also helping its customers to sell them. Point of sale material for its branded products – Q-Deck and Q-Line – includes comprehensive consumer guides, dispensers and banners and, while Hoppings may not be the first to offer this kind of support, it is among the few to directly target the consumer.
This move complements other strategies within the company, not least a £2m investment to create two purpose-designed high-speed automated mills – one at Epping and the latest at Lingfield, Surrey, which has replaced the Welling site, part of the company for more than 80 years.
This investment places Hoppings well to combat any increased labour and transport costs brought about by the extension of the working time directive if the EU gets its way, and gives it a position of strength as a local supplier.
Managing director David Horton said Hoppings reached capacity at Welling in the late 90s. Expansion was not possible because it was in a built up area so the company set out on “Mission Seemingly Impossible” to find a new site positioned to enable it to service the increasingly congested south-east.
“To a large extent we wanted to mirror what we had achieved with our Epping site, which covers the north London and Home Counties areas, and flip it over into the south,” said Mr Horton.
Lady Luck was smiling on the company when, some 18 months later, it found the ideal spot at Lingfield. Mr Horton said: “It was a perfect match. Here we had a site in the right geographic location placed 60 miles from Epping but on the opposite side of the M25.”
Lingfield also offered considerable growth potential, being three times the size of Welling at just under four acres and having 44,000ft2 of undercover storage – an increase of more than 60%.
The site was bought at the end of 2001, giving Hoppings about a year to prepare for the move. Around £500,000 was spent installing a high-speed planing line, and a further £500,000 on site development, including offices, racking, cladding and improvements to buildings. The remaining buildings are currently being clad to improve undercover storage.
Mr Horton said: “The great thing about having all this space was that we could lay it out how we wanted.”
Mill opportunities
The new mill comprises a 100m/min planer with automatic feed and take off, with opportunities to grade out rejected pieces on the infeed and outfeed. Automatic measuring and ink-jet marking enable each piece to be marked with the correct length, grade and brand.
A 60m/min line was transferred from Welling and a new Stenner resaw was purchased – after which Hoppings’ Lingfield site was raring to go.
Sales director Geoff Alcoe said: “The investments have increased our combined group milling output to around 30,000m3, a rise of 50%.”
Most of the raw material is European redwood, sourced from top Swedish mills committed to the latest in environmental best practice. This means only carefully selected timber is used as the basis for machined material – and this is visually graded by Hoppings’ machinists as it goes through the mill. Mr Alcoe said: “We produce a quality that is fit for purpose and the machinist can control what goes into the machine.”
Hoppings’ core products are Q-Line – planed all round and mouldings, and Q-Deck – garden decking products and pergolas. These represent 40% and 25% of the company’s business respectively. It also sells clean and treated carcassing, tanatone fencing and MDF mouldings, and is about to install a static forklift to assist in the production of trade packs known as Q-Packs.
Mr Alcoe said: “We add value in some form to 80% of our products.”
Q-Line, which includes architrave, beading, shiplap and skirting, is produced in 160 regular profiles although the company has the flexibility to produce bespoke profiles. It is available in three selected grades – Premium Plus, Premium and Contract – and most of it goes to the refurbishment market.
Q-Deck, available in five designs, is big business for the company. Mr Alcoe said demand for decking in January exceeded budget and substantial stocks have been built up in anticipation of strong demand this year.
The company has developed its own decking patterns which others have tried – and failed – to copy. This is where the quality angle comes into its own. Mr Alcoe said: “What is unique is our ability to select on line so someone could copy a pattern but not get the quality.”
And each piece that leaves Hoppings is stamped with its length, brand and grade, leaving buyers in no doubt as to exactly what they are getting.
Any pieces rejected on the line will not be sold as a Q-Deck product. And if the percentage of rejects is deemed too high a quality claim is made against the shipper.
Prior to 1999 Hoppings had not sold a single piece of decking but today it represents in excess of 25% of turnover. To coincide with the venture, Hoppings launched its first brand and marketing campaign – Q-Deck – and followed through with Q-Line in 2002.
Marketing manager Adam Pulfer said: “There are other companies that offer marketing support, but we got in early and decided we would offer something that would have a pull-through effect from the consumer. We have managed to promote decking as a package rather than a commodity product, and we offer the complete range including balustrades and pergolas.
Creating a brand
“We are the front runners in companies of our size with a literature format that is consumer friendly. We went down that road after looking at what the bigger companies, which have developed some very good marketing tools, did to sell their product and that is one of the reasons why we took the marketing of Q-Deck much further. Decking was the perfect opportunity to create a brand that our customers can develop.
“Because decking succeeded we brought in Q-Line – it helps us put everything in place and get the product right, and Q-Line will evolve. It has given us an opportunity to sell into markets that would have been closed to us – like the larger merchant groups – because the brand is strong in the area that they are competing in.”
Hoppings deals with around 500 timber and builders merchants and Mr Alcoe said: “They all have different needs and characters and it is important to get them to our sites to show them what we can do.”
The company is also conscious that its customers want just-in-time delivery which makes the Lingfield site an even more attractive acquisition.
Mr Horton said: “Ninety-two per cent of what is sold from Lingfield is delivered – that way we get to control it and can plan delivery runs and workloads.
“Fifteen years ago the wood cost of a project accounted for more than 50% of the contract, but now the cost of labour has gone up and the cost of wood has gone down. Therefore it is more important for people to get the right quality of material on site so they don’t have to waste labour time in sorting it. This is why we have concentrated on getting fit for purpose products on site first time.”
