TTJ: WHEN WAS THE COMPANY SET UP?

Jack Sutcliffe: Power Sheds was launched in February 2019 by Simon Hobson and me. We met at another garden shed manufacturing company and we made the decision to leave and set up on our own. Simon has worked in the industry for 28 years from being an installer to becoming responsible for all operations. I was there for 11 years and was responsible for all non-production. We believe this was an ideal combination to set up on our own.

TTJ: DID YOU SEE A GAP IN THE MARKET? WHAT IS YOUR USP?

JS: We set this up due to the unbelievable opportunity there is in the garden shed industry. It is a big, and yet surprisingly unbranded market with online retailers all competing on price and promotions.

For most companies, the lead time is around four to six weeks. Sheds are an awkward product to deliver and so companies send them on their own fleet. Our research has shown that shopping for a shed can be overwhelming, with customers having to look through hundreds of sheds and options and finding it difficult to know which to choose.

We wanted something simple to choose and quick to deliver and we took inspiration from the mattress industry, where it was a challenge to deliver a mattress. One company brought out a ‘mattress in a box’ and this enabled complete delivery flexibility and it transformed the industry. In a similar way, we have developed a modular ‘shed on a pallet’. We can deliver a shed using a national pallet delivery network to anywhere in the UK with next day delivery, or anywhere in Europe within a week. We are the first UK wooden shed manufacturer who can do this with the whole of the range.

Our brand has become synonymous with a much simpler approach for both purchasing and customising a shed, which allows for both versatility as well as assurances on a high quality and functional end-product.

While many of our most prominent competitors pride themselves in a million and one ways a shed can be customised, we found our niche in doing the exact opposite. Although choice can be valuable, we found large numbers of customers getting bogged down in the enormity of choices available for sheds which, when coupled with a general understanding of what’s best for a robust unit, has led to the end customers’ decreased levels of confidence.

We overcome this by minimising the level of customisation to a handful of key decisions which help the buyer to customise a relatively standardised and robust product.

The sheds are manufactured as a modularised product, which is then delivered to the customer for building. The modular units allow for a very simple build process which is easy to understand, resilient, and also cost-competitive for the quality that customers actually get.

The modularised product then allows the sheds to be assembled in many different variations – the doors and windows can be put on any side, which the customer can choose as they are assembling it.

We have 400 products but there are then thousands more when you consider variations and configurations. This allows our sheds to suit any garden. And being modular, all of this is possible from the manufacture of just 50 components. This makes our process incredibly scalable as we grow… and this is unique in the world of sheds.

The shed industry is massive. More people are spending time at home so the market is growing. Some 1.5 million sheds are bought each year in the UK alone and yet there is no manufacturer with a larger than 5% market share. With the industry having no wellknown brand we wanted the most powerful brand possible – ‘Power’. This brand is trademarked throughout Europe, and soon the US, and is on Amazon’s brand registry – www. amazon.co.uk/power is our Amazon store. It is becoming a brand term well searched for and remembered.

The company was started with no loans, no venture capital, no angel investors, no crowd funding. It was simply the money that Simon and I had managed to save up, which was used to lease a 10,000ft2 manufacturing unit, to purchase all the necessary machinery, and to build a website. Turnover in year one was £1m and expected turnover in year two is £5m.

TTJ: WHAT IS YOUR MANUFACTURING SET UP? HOW MANY PEOPLE DO YOU EMPLOY?

JS: In the two years we have been in existence, we have grown from just the two of us to now having 36 members of staff. We are planning to increase this to 80 within the next six months.

We are recruiting heavily from the local area but also through the Kickstart scheme, which is part funded by the government with the direct creation of high quality jobs for young people at the highest risk of long-term unemployment. It will give young people the chance to build their confidence and skills in the workplace, and to gain experience that will improve their chances of going on to find long-term, sustainable work.

We believe this will not only help us bring in great staff who we hope will be here for the long term, but we’re also doing our bit to help the local community with our inclusive growth commitments.

At the moment, shed manufacturing is rather labour intensive – a manufacturer will be making shed panels using a nail gun and it can be fairly repetitive work. However, we are building a great team and due to the rapid growth of the company there are a lot of progression opportunities available for anyone who is looking for more responsibility.

We run a really lean manufacturing process with very little in stock – as soon as it’s made, it’s out of the door to a customer. With a shed being made from a natural product we try to minimise the amount of time it’s standing around and so stock levels are very low.

TTJ: WHAT IS YOUR ROUTE TO MARKET?

JS: We sell through both retail and trade. We sell via our own website, www.powersheds. com and other retail or marketplaces such as Amazon and eBay. We also have a fantastic network of retail partners throughout the UK who sell our products through their websites or via display sites.

TTJ: WHAT ARE YOUR BESTSELLERS AND ARE NEW PRODUCTS PLANNED?

JS: We have already reached our manufacturing capacity in the 10,000ft2 factory we are based in so have just leased a larger 48,000ft2 premises to move into. This will allow us to increase capacity and our range of products.

We currently sell wooden garden sheds, potting sheds, security sheds and bike sheds. However, we are retaining the existing premises and will be using that to manufacture log cabins to cater for the current and growing high demand for garden offices. We expect this to launch around May.

TTJ: HOW MANY SHEDS DO YOU PRODUCE?

JS: We are manufacturing 300 sheds a week but with our move into larger premises we will be able to increase this to 2,000 sheds a week making us one of the largest garden sheds manufacturers in the UK.

TTJ: YOU ARE BASED IN BRADFORD BUT SUPPLY CUSTOMERS ALL OVER THE UK – DO YOU HAVE ANY PLANS TO OPEN ADDITIONAL PRODUCTION SITES?

JS: We have plenty of plans to open additional sites, throughout the world! We are already investigating other markets to manufacture in and sell to, outside of this country.

TTJ: DO YOU OWN YOUR OWN FLEET OF DELIVERY VEHICLES?

JS: We have a special relationship with Palletline, the UK’s first premium palletised freight distribution company, operating right across the nation and Europe. As part of our partnership it has branded some of its vehicles with the Power brand. It’s nice to see our name up and down the roads across the country.

TTJ: WHERE DO YOU SOURCE YOUR TIMBER FROM?

JS: We have a fantastic relationship with Bayram Timber in Hull, which has supported us from day one. It purchases Scandinavian whitewood and redwood and machines this into shiplap tongue and groove, matchings and framing. It also provides a cross-cut service, so the timber comes in cut-to-size, which helps us hugely and allows us to focus on just the panel manufacture.

TTJ: IS THE TIMBER PRESSURE TREATED OR DIP-TREATED?

JS: Our sheds are dip-treated. It is our opinion that many shed manufacturers who offer pressure treated products don’t do it properly. If a company offers pressure treated sheds then very often they will pressure treat full packs of timber and then cut it down for the shed panels. Every one of these boards will have then been cut (at both ends) and therefore will have an untreated end grain which is not treated or protected, which of course is the easiest part of timber, with it being cut, for water to get into. Some companies paint the ends green to hide it and paint the facias (not with a preserver) and some don’t, which means important parts of the shed are practically unprotected. ‘Pressure treated’ sounds good to the purchaser but very few shed manufacturers will make a full shed panel and then pressure treat it.

TTJ: GLOBAL DEMAND FOR TIMBER IS VERY HIGH – HAVE YOU HAD ANY PROBLEMS SOURCING ADEQUATE SUPPLIES?

JS: Our relationship with Bayram has been very good and although we are aware of the shortages, we haven’t found any difficulty with sourcing. Of course, we have seen that prices are high and continue to increase and that mills are reluctant to price for Q2 in case prices rise further. However, we are confident we will continue to work with our supplier to ensure it keeps up with our high timber demands.

TTJ: HOW HAS THE MARKET BEEN – PARTICULARLY DURING THE PANDEMIC?

JS: We moved into an empty building in March 2019 and then in April we sold 15 sheds. In May we employed our first member of staff. Now, we are hitting 300 sheds a week with 36 employees. Our sheds have proven to be really popular – the pandemic has assisted with demand, but we had to do everything we could to slow sales down and ensure we looked after our trade customers first and foremost. We therefore disabled the checkout on our website, and turned Amazon, Wayfair and eBay off.

We could have significantly increased prices on our own website and prioritised these orders over trade to maximise short term profit but we are choosing to look after our B2B customers as they are there for the long term. We felt this was the right strategy and it has been well received by trade customers – numerous garden centres were able to sell remotely whilst their sites were closed and it actually helped keep some of them in business.

TTJ: YOU WON SEVERAL AWARDS LAST YEAR – HOW IMPORTANT HAS THIS BEEN FOR THE BUSINESS?

JS: We’re extremely proud that our garden sheds are the UK’s most-awarded shed. Our Awards include:

  • The Number 1 Best Shed According To Real Homes
  • The eBay Award for Innovation 2020 – Winner
  • Great British Entrepreneur Award for ‘Disruptor of the Year’ – Winner (North West)
  • Design & Build Award for ‘Excellence in Shed Design & Manufacturing – UK’
  • SME National Business Award for ‘Best New Business’ – 2020 Finalist
  • Lloyds National Business Award for ‘Best New Business’ 2020 – Winner
  • Corporate LiveWire Prestige Award for ‘Outdoor Living New Business of the Year’ – Winner

This has been great for many reasons – recruitment, PR, branding, and it’s brought multiple companies forward wanting to invest in or be involved in the journey.

It’s also great for our amazing team to see because it shows the hard work is being recognised.