Whichever way you look at it, it’s been a busy year for Cheshire Mouldings. The St Helens-based company started out 23 years ago as a stair parts manufacturer, branching out into mouldings around 10 years ago, mostly serving independent merchants. In the last 12 months, however, it has won the business of major national merchants plus that of one of the UK’s foremost retail/DIY groups.
"We’ve sneaked up on the blind side [of our competitors] and reached a level where the national merchants started to look at us and think we were serious contenders," said managing director John Carney.
It took one company to set the ball rolling and that customer couldn’t have been more significant. In June 2011, Cheshire Mouldings concluded a two-year solus deal to provide the National Buying Group (NBG) with a range of products, including stair parts, small mouldings and decking accessories.
Business with the NBG, which has 83 partner merchants, operating 270 outlets with an annual turnover of £750m was in place by September last year and, said Mr Carney, proved to be the catalyst for further growth.
"A major national merchant group with more than 200 branches took us on after seeing how successful we were with the NBG," he said.
And that switch has proved successful for the merchant, too. Stocking an alternative supplier’s product range has enable the company to differentiate itself from its rivals, leading to a 19% increase in its mouldings’ sales, said Mr Carney.
Last year also saw Cheshire Mouldings dip a toe – and end up making quite a splash – in the retail sector, securing the business of a leading DIY shed. Juggling the trade and retail sectors hasn’t presented any problems, said Mr Carney, as the products offered are broadly similar but with some key differences.
"Typically a moulding is 2.4m long, but they are taking 0.9m lengths – an out-and-out DIY product – and are having phenomenal success," he said. "We rolled out a 150-store trial of 0.9m stripwoods and it was so successful that it was extended to the full estate by September.
"Last month we provided a second range that included quadrants, scotias, dowels and some primed mouldings for 150 trial depots and we’re rolling it out to the full 342 stores in August."
It’s all adding up to a pretty impressive turnover.
"Our business was up 21% to £9.4m last September and we’re on track for £11m this financial year," said Mr Carney. And, he added, the new retail business is a major contributor.
"We weren’t involved in retail at all until last September and this financial year we’ll probably turn over £800,000 in that sector – that’s £800,000 we didn’t have last year."
Other recent developments at Cheshire Mouldings have enabled it to keep up with this new demand for its products.
Last autumn it opened a new 40,000ft2 distribution centre about 400 yards from its main site. The move has improved efficiencies and, said Mr Carney, is the stepping stone allowing them to "go to the next level".
"I reckon we could put another £3-4m on our turnover quite easily," he said.
Moving storage and distribution allowed the company room to install its new moulding line, comprising two Weinig planer moulders – a Powermat 2000 and Powermat 1000 with automated infeed, outfeed and stacking equipment; a Waco inline resaw; and a Stenner single centre resaw. It is, said Mr Carney, a complete turnkey operation now.
The new technology enabled Cheshire Mouldings to increase production by 30% – and there is plenty more in the tank. "We’re on one nine-hour shift at the moment so we’ve got plenty of capacity just by adding another shift."
While business may be booming for Cheshire Mouldings, Mr Carney is realistic about the wider market. Its production has displaced that of rival manufacturers, rather than being the result of any upturn in market conditions. "If we hadn’t won that business we would probably have been down by about 10%, he concedes.
As it is, while the more newbuild-dependent stair parts business has achieved only modest growth of 5%, the mouldings business has doubled and sales of decking balustrades and handrails have been "phenomenal".
"Last year decking was a bit of a flop so this year we were cautious with our stocks. But for the first four or five months of this year I reckon our sales were up by about 35% on 2011. And at the end of May it went bananas again – probably because of people getting ready for their Jubilee garden parties.
"We’ve been pulling contracts four or five weeks forward in order to be able to supply and our Scandinavian suppliers have been absolutely brilliant," he added.
The company is determined that, now that these gains have been made, it will continue to move forward. "We’re working on product development for our stair parts and on mouldings concepts," said Mr Carney.
"In October we’ll launch two new stair part ranges – one with wrought iron and one with glass – and we’re developing a new wall-mounted hand rail system."
Design trends are moving away from turned components towards "very contemporary stop chamfered spindles, flat caps on newel posts, square posts, chrome tubes and glass" and, while walnut is becoming more popular, there is a big swing towards oak.
"We’re also selling a lot of ready primed components," said Mr Carney. "This is why we concentrate on design and innovation – you’ve got to be forward thinking."
