Carvers – one year on

Rachel Groom – Marketing Manager, Carvers Building Supplies

Carvers – one year on

The last twelve months seem completely surreal.

The 29th February (had there been one this year!) would have marked the anniversary of the devastating fire that tore through the Carver buildings and destroyed over 116 years of history in the building of the Carver empire.

Emotionally, the Carver Directors and staff were dragged through a minefield of emotions … would Carvers ever get back on their feet ? The answer, is obvious … but at a time of complete turmoil, it was not always easy to see.

The following day, MD Henry Carver released a statement vowing to ‘regroup and rebuild’. Henry and his group of Directors worked round the clock to work out how to rebuild the company and the 150 people employed at the main warehouse in Little’s Lane waited to find out just what their future had in store. Meanwhile deliveries were operating as normal, with the first delivery leaving site at 7.00am the day after the fire.

Henry vowed “there was just no question of giving up” and within days the company was operating from its storage and production facility in Neachells Lane, Wednesfield with the help of a very loyal workforce desperate to get Carvers back on its feet.

Once the ruins of the fire ravaged building were demolished and site cleared, the first job was to erect a temporary structure, fit for purpose to house a temporary shop and trade counter. The new facility was restocked over the course of a (very long !) weekend and by the beginning of May (only 8 weeks after the fire), Carvers was once more operational. With additional trade counters and offices operating from portacabins dotted around the site.

Once trading had re-commenced, the following months, saw ideas and plans put forward for a brand new build in the form of a “builders’ village” where different trades such as tile and paint specialists will be able to rent space and promote their services under one roof. Meaning that by the end of 2013, Carvers will be an even better one-stop shop !

Preliminary work is now well underway to rebuild the new premises and promises exciting times for the Carver team. Groundworks for phase one, a ‘drive through’ 70m trade warehouse are under construction and plans for a builders village and homebuild superstore will be constructed under phase two of the re-build. All of which, will expand previous trading facilities and offer a fabulous state of the art new showroom.

In the meantime .. Carvers are trading as normal, operating at around 85- 90%, customers are loyal, deliveries are being met, the Carver staff are as committed as ever and for now .. things can really only can get better.