F & P Wholesale directors go back to the floor

Directors at heating, plumbing and bathroom distributor F & P Wholesale have been going ‘back to the floor’ at the company’s 10 distribution centres across the UK.

The initiative is part of a company-wide initiative to raise money (£2,700) for the Whizz-Kidz charity,

The company challenged each distribution centre to raise as much sponsorship money as possible through bake-sales, auctions and dress-up days, as well as donations from branch staff, suppliers and customers. The competing branches then submitted a sealed bid the company’s charity co-ordinator for consideration.

Following the sealed bid results, the winning centre in Wakefield was given the chance to select the director of their choice to work with them.

Thus, managing director, Mark Earnshaw, was set to work for the day, making rounds of tea, assisting with goods in and sweeping the warehouse floor.

Richard Birch visited the West Midlands branch, Shane Knight helped out in Nottingham and Alasdair Watson supported the Camberley team.

Earnshaw said that there was also a serious business benefit from the experience: “Working back on the shop floor and in the office further enhanced our directors’ understanding of what we expect of our staff every day.

“We have had some really good feedback during our days back on the floor and it gave us a chance to interact with staff at every level and chat through their suggestions as to how we could enhance certain procedures at the distribution centres.

“So we will certainly be looking at investing in some new technologies to make our branch procedures even smoother.”