Fencing and decorative garden structures expert, Grange, has reported considerable business gains across the merchant and garden centre sectors, thanks to its positive handling of the storm damage crisis in 2014.
With an industry-wide shortage of timber still said to be a factor in the market, Grange has also put plans in place to mitigate against any similarly bad weather conditions in 2015.
This includes full-time storm management provision to ensure proactive responsibility for ensuring that trade customers’ stocks are maintained at sustainable levels, regardless of weather conditions.
Product manager Antony Barrett, who played a key role in managing fence panel supplies for Grange in 2014, will now not only manage but plan stock availability ahead of any adverse weather as part of Grange’s overall provision for storm damage going forward.
Mr Barrett said: “Last year, we were able to make the best of a difficult situation through good communication with customers, scrupulous fairness and our inherently superior logistics abilities as a company. But it’s a fact that last year’s enormous demand for replacement fencing has had a knock on effect in the timber industry as a whole and this proactive storm management is designed to ensure that this does not create problems for Grange customers.”
Commenting on the business gains and the planning for the coming year, Richard Wardle, business development director at Grange, added: “Particularly good storm management over and above our general excellence in logistics and stock availability has won us considerable business. The industry now has an underlying issue of materials shortage – ironically being exacerbated by the overall economic upturn - which means we need to be extra farsighted. By planning ahead like this we can ensure that we maintain good supplies of products like trellis and fence panels - even if there are more damaging storms this year.”
