EnviroBuild enjoyed strong growth despite the national lockdown due to an increased demand in sustainable building materials.
EnviroBuild has not only successfully continued to supply and deliver to building sites during lockdown but has also grown its sales and workforce as more customers turn to sustainable alternatives.
Although building and construction is one of the few industries which largely remained up and running during lockdown, availability and delivery of materials created a barrier for many commercial developers and construction companies.
In quarter two, EnviroBuild reported a 45% increase in revenue on 2019’s figures. Quarter three saw a 51% rise in revenue via the retail sales division. In particular, the Galleon garden furniture range, which is produced using recycled plastics, saw a massive 250% increase on 2019 sales.
James Brueton, Founder and Director of EnviroBuild, believes this is due to increasing public interest in sustainable building materials: “We’ve seen exciting revenue growth over Q3 and we believe this is due to the public turning towards more sustainable products. Thinking ’how sustainable is my project’ is becoming a more important deciding factor in our customers purchases”.
In order to handle the extra growth EnviroBuild had been investing in their operations before Covid 19 and lockdown. New cloud-based systems enable remote working, which meant the company had the ability to switch to ‘work from home’ rules easily.
The national lockdown is reported to have cost the construction industry over £300 million per day according to the Construction Index. Yet despite the difficult trading conditions, EnviroBuild grew its team during lockdown to cope with demand, employing six new members of staff - two in its sales team and a further four in the operations team.
With a lean operation design and a high level of effective internal communication, EnviroBuild was able to manage the continuously changing working environment and continue to supply and deliver to commercial construction projects.
Brueton added: ”Releasing a new website at the start of lockdown seemed like risky timing, but it allowed us to quickly capture the e-commerce market that was flooded after the closure of physical stores. It allowed us to operate quickly in a changing market.
”Working on a fully cloud-based system meant that the transition from the office to working from home was a smooth process, of course things like staff communication had to be stepped up but our team rose to the challenge brilliantly.
”As a company we are looking to continue to expand in the material supply space and disrupt the traditional distribution model, offering high quality products at good value levels as we don’t have physical store presence costs. This allows us to invest in research and development as well as constant product improvement”.
During lockdown EnviroBuild also released an additional two new core lines, improving their fencing systems and adding a new range of composite decking. They look to further expand their sustainable ranges in 2021.
