Lawsons & Talasey: Starting A New Supplier-Merchant Relationship

The Lawsons group of companies hit the headlines recently after announcing that it had struck a deal with Talasey to introduce several new ranges of paving to its branches. Sean Hayes, Category Manager from Lawsons – the largest independent timber, building materials, landscaping and fencing merchant in the south and east of England – and Amy Coggan (Marketing Manager – Merchants) from Talasey – one of the UK’s leading independent suppliers of landscaping solutions – gave Builders’ Merchants News an insight into the process of a merchant introducing product lines from a new supplier.

Lawsons is happy with its current range of products for the front garden, but the fourth-generation family-owned business (which also has other group brands, including AVS Fencing & Landscaping, The Landscape Company, Oxford Fencing, Witham Timber and Briants of Risborough) wanted to update its range of products for the back garden.

The company’s Procurement Director met Talasey’s National Sales Manager at a FORTIS event last summer and hit it off immediately for two main reasons, according to Mike Hillier.

Why Talasey?

“We knew that Talasey was keen to develop in the independent merchant space, and we liked the fact that its model is focused on selling to merchants – and not end users,” said Mike. “It can become messy if suppliers are selling to merchants and also potentially direct to merchants’ customers as well.

“Equally important to us was the fact that they had a good range of quality, appropriately priced products that differed from what we had already. Not only did this enable us to freshen up our collection but we were also confident in our minds that Talasey would be consistent and reliable with the supply of stock to our 36 branches.”

An agreement was reached very quickly last summer so that Lawsons could press ahead and roll out the new products from the company – which celebrates its 20^th anniversary this June and prides itself on being an ethical and responsible importer of materials – ready for this year’s landscaping season.

Lawsons chose:

40 lines of Natural Paving sandstone and limestone from the full collection of natural stone landscaping materials.

30 lines of Vitripiazza – high-quality, vitrified porcelain paving and porcelain wall cladding.

Putting the wheels in motion

Both companies set to work on a series of individual and joint activities as part of the overall process of introducing the new products:

• Selling through existing stock – Lawsons discontinued several existing ranges to create space in the branches for the new collections. They applied discounts, and as stock dwindled, they moved stock between branches to help their landscaping customers complete orders.

• Joining forces – teams from product category, marketing and merchandising departments from both companies started working with opposite numbers to develop pathways and timetables for the delivery of products into each branch, marketing strategies to promote the new collections to Lawsons’ trade and retail customers, the introduction of jointly branded display POS and merchandising, and which key branches would have installations of products in the Inspiration Zones.

• Training and product knowledge – there were two phases to this, with the first being teams from Talasey visiting branches to meet with Lawsons’ staff to go through each of the collections and discuss all the features and benefits so that they were comfortable and confident talking to customers about the new products. The second phase was to arrange for Talasey to attend customer trade days at branches so that they could talk to landscapers and end users – and then signpost them into a branch.

Amy Coggan from Talasey said that bringing all the marketing activity together was the exciting part of the project because the partnership was coming to life.

“All of a sudden, when you see the marketing collateral and POS taking shape, the partnership becomes real,” she said. “It’s a real take-your-breath-away moment when you see physical POS and brochures. It’s equally thrilling when you start to see social media campaigns take off and that Lawsons is now stocking Talasey products.”

Talasey products help make an entrance at a flagship branch

As part of a wider project to develop the entranceway at Lawsons’ largest branch and head office at Colney Heath, the company featured Talasey products.

The project focused on widening the entry to make it easier and safer for vehicles to enter and exit – which involved tarmacking the road and installing new signage and new fencing to protect access to the field on one side and the woods on the other.

Les Coles Branch Manager said: “As the fence would look bare, and to advertise our landscaping offering, we took the decision to install a run of paving for 15 m alongside the fencing – one side flat and one side at a raked angle.”

“We are anticipating strong sales”

Reflecting on the smooth introduction of Talasey as a new supplier, one thing that has impacted the rollout of products has been the challenging situation with global freight and cargo – meaning that there have been longer lead times on some products. However, Sean Hayes said that the British weather has inadvertently come to the rescue because all of the spring rain meant the start of landscaping season was a little later than expected.

Reflecting on the partnership and the process of introducing a new supplier, Sean has high hopes and said: “We are anticipating strong sales because of the completeness of our product range and the thoroughness in the support from Talasey.”

Written by Paul Kirby. For further details, please email paul@octopuspr.co.uk or phone 07970 961701.