Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Plumbers merchant Plumb and Parts Center, part of Wolseley, is investing an additional £2.5m investment into branch stock to ensure availability of 200 of the fastest moving parts in every branch with a further 65,000 products available for next day delivery.
With around 20% of all UK household boilers failing during the colder months, Plumb and Parts Center carried out detailed analysis into the most frequently ordered and parts across the UK before deciding on the 200 items.
Simon Allan, category director for parts at Plumb and Parts Center says: “Clearly installers are rushed off their feet at this time of year and it’s made worse by the fact that we, as consumers, are becoming unrealistically impatient – it’s all driven by smart phones and brands like ASOS and Amazon who’ve made waiting an alien concept. It’s imperative to our business that our stock is readily available for customers so that they can get the job done quickly.”
He adds: “The role of a responsible merchant is to ensure that customers can do better business. This whole initiative is about customers having the trust to treat us as their own personal warehouse in their local area.”
Installers can also access all of the stock through PartsArena, a parts identification tool which allows engineers to access 2700 models, 20,000 exploded diagrams, 10,000 images, and 500,000 unique parts online or from their mobile.
