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Executive Report: ‘Sweating the bricks’ Wolseley has established Brandon Hire in Ireland following the re-branding of eight Brooks Hire ‘co-located’ operations. Robert Aplin reports from Dublin. Hot on the heels of last month’s article that discussed Brandon Hire’s expansion plans in the UK, comes news that parent company, Wolseley – describing itself as the world's No.1 distributor of heating and plumbing products - has established Brandon in Ireland following the re-branding of eight Brooks Hire ‘co-located’ operations within merchant branches. Wolseley bought Brooks, the largest timber distributor and second largest builders merchant in Ireland, in October 2004. At that time it operated 13 branches. Brooks now operates 21 branches, of which 18 are in southern Ireland and three in the north. Wolseley itself operates a network of over 100 branches in Ireland, comprising, principally, heating and plumbing products distributor, Heat Merchants and Tubs & Tiles, a leading retailer of tiles, bathrooms and shower equipment. In July 2005 Wolseley trialled tool hire in a Brooks branch in Bluebell, in the south of Dublin, for the first time. This trial was based on the Hire Center model, which was Wolseley’s hire brand at the time. By the start of this year, Brooks Hire operated eight ‘co-located’ operations across Ireland – three in Dublin, as well as Naas, Cork, Sligo, Longford and Galway. Wolseley also added its Heat Merchants and Tubs & Tiles brands to many of the Brooks sites to increase ‘cross-selling’ opportunities throughout its network. According to David Byrne, Commercial Director for Wolseley Ireland, “the business case for re-branding the operation as Brandon was strong. We will take the best elements of Brandon, whilst retaining Brooks Hire’s specialist activities and marry it with our professional hire team. We have developed our hire operation around an individual Manager delivering a consistent service and, in so doing, have attracted some of the best hire professionals in Ireland.” To serve the buoyant Irish construction market, the Brooks Hire fleet, typically, included larger equipment – like JCB three tonne mini excavators and the small Mini CX backhoe loader, as well as three tonne Thwaites dumpers. This will continue and David Byrne plans to also roll out powered access equipment across the network from August. The vast majority of equipment in the entire hire fleet is said to be less than two years old. Visiting the Bluebell, Dublin and Naas branches, I was impressed with both purpose-built operations. The massive Bluebell site must be five acres in size, much of it dedicated to timber distribution. Within the large merchant showroom, the newly branded Brandon activity has its own separate hire counter and equipment display area. In addition, it has its own workshop, which is responsible for its own servicing requirements and also carries out customer repairs. There is also extensive yard storage. The 40,000ft2 Naas branch, opened in March 2006, is located on a commercial park just off the M7 motorway. Apparently, the majority of the Brooks branches across Ireland are of a similar size and standard as Naas. Brandon now accounts for about 10% of the floor area, including a large selection of power tools for sale, displayed in several rows of racking. Not surprisingly, 50% of Brooks Hire revenue at the Naas branch is derived from sales. By the end of July 2009, David Byrne expects hire to account for 65% of turnover across all the outlets. With such a significant percentage of revenue derived from sales, Ger Hodgins, Hire Manager at Naas, is also Product Manager for power tool sales throughout Ireland. With 20 years’ experience, either directly in hire or in supplying the hire industry, and with Brooks since July 2006, Ger certainly seems to fit the ‘best hire professionals’ tag, as does Daniel Cummins, Hire Manager at Bluebell. With Brooks since the original hire trial in July 2005, his previous 12 year hire experience was with Swan Plant and Sam Hire. Daniel also serves as Product Manager for hire fleet purchases throughout Ireland and is now working closely with Brandon’s procurement team in Bristol to pool their requirements in order to achieve better prices. Looking ahead, David Byrne believes “we will only open hire outlets within existing Brooks branches. By sharing sites, we limit the risk and, as we share a common customer base, we increase these ‘cross selling’ opportunities.” The Wolseley term for this, I understand, is ‘sweating the bricks.’ • Executive Hire News › Archives › July 2008 › Executive Report › ‘Sweating the bricks’
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