82 84 OPINION - Trade Counter TOR063 2022_LAW.qxp 03/05/2022 15:16 Page 1
OPINION TRADE COUNTER
Views from the TRADE COUNTER
From the front line > The first in a short series of interviews with trade counter managers about Covid, trade, shortages and strategies
This interview is with Jim (not his real name) who has many years of experience running a trade counter. The premises is situated in a smallish town in East Sussex on an industrial estate that can be quite busy, with competing businesses close by. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR BUSINESS? It is a timber merchant supplying a wide range of hard and softwoods to trade and retail customers. Because it has an up todate machine shop it is able to supply custommade joinery from mouldings, solid wood panels, to doors to worktops etc. HOW MANY STAFF ARE EMPLOYED AT YOUR BRANCH? We have five staff but are currently recruiting for another. One is a specialist driver, the others work the trade counter and yard. These are integrated roles as a result of a rethink post Covid. With the need for social distancing, the old ‘yard’ staff were trained to be public facing, because no customers were then allowed into the yard to select their own timber in order to comply with social distancing. This new training has resulted in a number of benefits
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including, more motivation, quicker customer turnaround times, better health and safety outcomes (no cheeky customers trying to dodge the forklift for example) and much neater timber stacks since customers are no longer allowed to work through the stacks looking for that mythical beast – the knot free batten of softwood! WHAT PRODUCTS ARE IN DEMAND NOW AND ARE YOU ABLE TO MEET DEMAND? Sheet materials are in high demand even though at the moment there seems to be no particular signs of shortage as shipments arrive regularly. This however, doesn’t prevent a number of customers buying more than is needed for their stocks indicating that perhaps they fear a shortage or are buying before the inevitable price rises that seem to be rife in the timber supply chain. Specialist timber, like Russian birch ply, is increasingly diffi cult to obtain. That reflects the situation in Eastern Europe as well as sanctions. We’ve seen two price rises in as many weeks. Most of our softwood is high quality stuff from Sweden, and