TIMco already had 8,500 Chipboard Screws in its main warehouse and a further 2,000 in a separate building on the same site. With well over 300 million screws in stock, supporting annual sales of more than GB£2 million, it wasn’t long before the company moved into buildings on a former World War II aerodrome just outside Nantwich. That demands a skilled and stable sales support team that needs to do much more than just enter an order.” The balance between efficiency and relationships is a recurrent theme in the conversation. “The fundamental rule to our sales guys is never to go out and promise something we cannot deliver and if you do promise, make sure we fulfil it.” While the flow of orders via email and the TIMco website is growing, a high proportion are still phoned in and met with a very personal service. We’ll pack in their own livery. “That was at GB£4. The result was the T. They can be multi-branch – many are – probably a member of a buying group. Within six months Simon was at the Cologne Hardware Show, talking with other Asian fastener manufacturers. We’ll deliver direct to our customers’ customer. While we monitor errors, we do not target the number of lines each sales person has to load in a day. We found in Malta, and in Australia – where our customer actually drives around in TIMco liveried vans – we can offer something distinctive.” Not, Simon admits, that he actually knew very much about the ‘this, that or other’ at the time. “I expect the new systems will improve our efficiencies by 50%. That means he has distinction in his market, and we can tell the brand is recognised because we’ve received enquiries from other Maltese companies.
