2020 marks the 25th anniversary of MKM Building Supplies Ltd, the 海角视频’s largest independent builders' merchant.
MKM executive chairman, David Kilburn, looks back on milestones and memories constructing one of the building trade’s best-loved and fastest growing brands.
“In 1995, my favourite sound was the ring of the fire-bell going off in the warehouse. It meant there was an order!” said David.
“As for any fledgling business, in the early days orders are everything. And, after closing our first month with a trading profit and haven taken a healthy £123,000 - I am delighted to say 25 years later, we have never been short of orders and never looked back.”
In many ways, the MKM of 2020 is almost unrecognisable from the first branch that opened in Hull in 1995.
For a start the first branch sold caravan supplies - no surprise in the city - rather than building supplies, which MKM is renowned for today. A small team of five people operated from rental premises, secured in the short term to get the business off the ground.
“Ironically, the premises belonged to an MKM competitor, William Wilson. We signed up for nine months but were still there 18 months later, at the time we were just glad not to be chucked out!”
Today, MKM Building Supplies employs more than 1,650 people and last year recorded sales of more than £460 million.
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This year has seen it open a 70th branch.
Aside from the phenomenal figures, according to David, many things haven’t changed at all over the 25 years. “Since day one, our company culture has always been very people-focused, how we treat people has remained exactly the same. Every single person is important no matter what their role - our people are our biggest asset.
“Technology and the digital age have of course altered things, but our teams still do the majority of business either over the trade counter or on the phone. That may change in years to come, but essentially people buy from people.
“Relationships are key, our customers trust us to deliver quality products with great service as their own businesses rely on it – our teams appreciate that and make customers the priority. More so than any other industry, this is a people business and good relationships are the absolute bedrock of that business.”
MKM was built on the concept that skilled, local people understand the needs of local customers. A differentiator in the national market is that branch directors own an equity stake in their branch. David believes empowering people and supporting their entrepreneurial spirit has been a key driver of growth.
At the 10th anniversary, MKM had 15 branches, with that figure doubling within the next five years. A further 15 branches have been added in the past two years.
“Our biggest challenges in the early years were always time and money,” David said. “If we had more of both earlier we would have grown more quickly, but it is important to keep a level head and not get ahead of yourself. We always prided ourselves on paying suppliers and staff on time, even though both my business partner and myself often took a reduced salary.”
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Business wasn’t always plain sailing, in 2008 almost every industry in the 海角视频 fell victim to the deepest recession of a generation. The building and construction industry was hit hard, and performance acted as a barometer for the economic downturn and went into meltdown.
“We were acutely aware that external factors, beyond or control can take a serious toll on business,” he recalled. “It seemed the entire financial world collapsed, our own industry went into a desperate panic with many of our competitors laying off 30 to 40 percent of their people.
“We took the decision not to take action. We decided to back our people and ride out the storm and were confident that business would eventually pick up - which of course it did. While the majority of the industry seemed to lose up to 40 per cent revenue, I’m glad to say we did fare better and suffered losses of up to 11 per cent, we were relatively unscathed in comparison.”
Looking ahead, MKM has an ambitious growth programme to open a further 30 branches in the next two years. David said: “Today, we still face challenges. We have an expansive growth programme but finding good properties in good locations can be a challenge and planning applications can be very slow, which frustrates progress.
"However, our mantra, which we instill in all of our teams is to have fun at work. Indeed, some of the most demanding times in business have also been the most enjoyable. Some of our best times were in the early days - negotiating manufacturing deals, securing credit with the banks and often coming up against brick walls, while driving a couple of old bangers to collect building materials and grafting to sell. Working hard, but having fun is very much the MKM culture.”
While looking forward to the opening of their 100th branch, David also believes there are growth opportunities ahead for MKM with acquisitions, developing new product lines and developing the kitchen and bathroom offering.
“Our own recipe for success, now fine-tuned over 25 years, has been giving customers what they want, employing and retaining the best staff, engaging people in profit generation activities and of course having fun at work – which we certainly do!”