Cheshire-based Timco has been supplying retailers with fixings and fasteners for about 50 years but nothing could have prepared it for the phenomenal roller-coaster ride of business during the pandemic.
The business supplies up to 5,000 outlets around the UK, including timber/builders merchants, fixings and fasteners specialists, DIY shops, national groups and roofing and agricultural merchants.
Ultimately, says managing director Simon Midwood, it has turned out to be a very successful business period for the company and further expansion is under way.
After the initial three to four week shock period when the first UK lockdown was announced, business has not let up as demand for fixings soared.
“In 2020 we grew by 14% and in 2021 it’s looking similar or greater than that,” said Mr Midwood. That’s double what Timco’s pre-pandemic projections had been.
“We’re really positive about what’s happened in the last 24 months, but the negative has really been stock. We really pride ourselves on a reliable next day service, so our customers don’t have to hold stock, they can ring us up.
“Normally our stock would be sitting at about £14m-worth, but it nearly halved at one point of the pandemic. What people forget is Covid has been happening everywhere, including in Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam where the products are made.”
Customer communication was a big factor in the face of such supply gaps – Timco was able to offer different brands of favourite products like 4x40mm screws.
“We looked at every single invoice and every product where we were out of stock,” said Mr Midwood.
The older twin-threaded type of timber screw saw a resurgence in demand as customers looked at available products.
“It’s been an extremely frustrating year because we could have done three times the level of business if we had the stock, but we did extremely well with what we had.”
Mr Midwood remembers that Timco had five containers on the cargo ship Ever Given which blocked the Suez Canal for six days. A further 27 containers had been on another ship behind it.
Timco imported some 1,200 containers in the last year, with container costs rising to £10,000 at one point, before receding slightly, although more increases are predicted. A mitigating factor is that a lot of screws can be fitted in a container to help spread the cost.
The company has recently rebranded, launched a hand tool range and consolidated its branding all under the Timco label – previously it had separate brands for power tool accessories and fencing and gate hardware.
All these actions were set in motion during the trade lull at the pandemic’s start. It also built new mezzanine floors in warehouses, new picking locations and built 20,000ft2 of extra warehousing.
The Cheshire base has 140,000ft2 of existing warehousing but a further 100,000ft2 of warehousing is planned to be added for this year, subject to planning permission.
With 7,500 products currently, the plan is to grow this to 10,000.
A stunningly successful product since launch 3-4 years ago is the C2 advanced chipboard screw featuring two separate slashpoints and in two different formats – the Strong-Fix fully threaded version and the Clamp-Fix partially threaded torx-drive version. It is Timco’s fastest growing product in its history.
The In-Dex coated landscaping screw range has also witnessed big sales. The hex head 80-350mm range is typically used to fix deck joists and sleepers.
“This year feels good, there are lots of government buildings going in and lots of housing projects and lots of infrastructure,” added Mr Midwood.
“We are reliant on the timber industry as a lot of our products are used with wood, but there has been a slight delay of projects due to the high prices. Now prices have slightly come down, all our customers are fairly positive and have work for the next six to eight months. And our stock is going up and looking a lot better now.”
