Summary
• Last year CR Taylor doubled roof truss sales to £1m.
• It plans to double them again this year.
• It offers a two-week lead time.
• The company has recently changed its truss design software to MiTek.
• It has introduced a supply and fit service for trusses.
Not so long ago, CR Taylor Timber was a timber merchant selling a bit of engineered timber; today it is an engineered merchant selling timber on the side.
“In 2011 75-80% of our time was focused on engineered products,” said chairman Charles Taylor. And a large proportion of that was trussed rafters.
The West Yorkshire company started out 52 years ago as a traditional timber merchant. Today it supplies joinery and carcassing grades, mouldings, sheet materials and, increasingly, engineered timber products. It established its roof truss division in the boom year of 2007, just before the global economy – and the UK housebuilding industry – nosedived.
However, the tricky economic landscape hasn’t dented Mr Taylor’s natural optimism, nor the company’s performance.
In 2011 CR Taylor’s I-joist sales grew by 15% to £1.15m and roof truss sales doubled to £1m.
“We’ve been running a 12-hour shift for the last four months. If we could’ve worked a night shift we would have,” said Mr Taylor.
Sales goal
Now the goal is to double roof truss sales again this year. December was a surprisingly good month with roof truss sales quadruple those of a year earlier. “We had to work an extra day to service a major plc that needed product desperately,” said Mr Taylor. “We didn’t say ‘we’re shut’; we said ‘we’ll sort it out for you’.”
It’s that attitude and level of service which Mr Taylor said have helped the company to grow its truss sales year on year.
“Before we got into roof trusses we spent a year researching, looking at every pitfall. We spoke to customers about what they wanted and we asked them what the major factor was in purchasing trusses. It wasn’t necessarily price, it was how fast you can process your quote and how fast you can manufacture,” said Mr Taylor.
CR Taylor responded with a two-week lead time, whereas many competitors work on four to six weeks. Mr Taylor also takes pride in the company’s level of service, helped by its stock of products which means it’s a one-stop shop for housebuilders.
“We do everything a house needs, from its joists to its roof to the internal fixings. When a housebuilder calls off the joists for a house we say ‘you’ll need your roof in two weeks, do you want us to get your trusses in production?’ We almost project manage with them,” he said.
“A lot of truss manufacturers only do trusses, so they’re not aware of the build programme, whereas we’re in at first floor level with the joists. That helps, especially with small housebuilders.”
Self-build market
It’s an approach that would be suited to the self-build market too. “Again, we’d hold their hand with everything and advise them how to install things. We provide a laminated drawing
with the delivery so they understand what goes where and we have technical guys at the end of the phone if they have an issue,” said Mr Taylor.
And when the company is making a delivery the client is told exactly when it will arrive. CR Taylor phones them the night before to ensure they’re ready and the driver phones half an hour before he arrives on site.
“It means we can turn things around quickly,” said Mr Taylor.
It’s part of the culture of efficiency gains that has contributed to the company’s impressive results over the past year.
“We increased our stock profile so there was less cutting involved in manufacturing,” said Mr Taylor. “And we reassessed enquiries, putting a greater focus on live work rather than tendering.”
Staff benefits
Mr Taylor also introduced a bonus scheme for all staff. “The business is benefiting and so are these guys. It’s a bit like a profit share,” he said.
“We have a good team and high morale. Whenever we advertise a position we’re bombarded with people who want to join us.”
Staffing was increased in the manufacturing facility with the introduction of a dedicated order picker and a dedicated cutter, and another designer was recruited, taking the total to five.
“We have a lot of expertise here,” said Mr Taylor. “In the design team we have a combined experience of 70-80 years and the design is the crucial part; if we don’t get that right then everything else will be wrong.”
He recognises that the staff are “the main cogs of the business” and this year Emma Newton, who recently moved from the role of finance director to managing director, will lead CR Taylor’s pursuit of Investors in People accreditation.
“Staff are a major resource and if they’re not happy, your customers won’t be happy,” said Ms Newton. “Investors in People helps the company both structurally and strategically. It also helps staff know why they’re valued and they’re more rewarded for knowing that.”
MiTek design software
Improving efficiency was also CR Taylor’s motivation for changing its truss design software to MiTek last month.
“The MiTek system cuts out a lot of administration because it integrates with Progressive Solutions’ bisTrack management software which we’ve used since 2005,” said Mr Taylor.
“Our designers were spending about 25% of their time on admin, transferring orders from one system to another. We thought if we can reduce that by 15% we can spend 15% more on doing designs or following up quotes.
“At the push of a button the MiTek system transfers an order into bisTrack to be processed, whereas before it was done manually.”
The MiTek system also reduces design time and its management tool means CR Taylor can look at customer buying patterns, the design team’s performance, and what orders it’s winning and losing.
“MiTek give us good leads on roof trusses as well; they help all their distributors,” said Mr Taylor.
Over the past year there have been new products and services too, such as a supply and fit service. “It helps us find ways to do the job more quickly, and look at efficiencies so the customer gets a better product,” said Mr Taylor.
In November the company added spandrel panels to its mix and it has already done around £70,000 worth of business.
Investments
This year it is planning to invest around £60,000 in a second truss press and, now that it’s using MiTek software, will look at producing the metal-web Posi-Joist.
“The new press will have a jig to allow us to press Posi-Joists,” said Mr Taylor. “We currently do I-joists but they’ve become commoditised slightly. We do have growth plans for I-joists but a lot of customers favour metal web.”
Another investment this year is the addition of a new artic with two trailers to the five-strong vehicle delivery fleet. It will give CR Taylor more control over its own transport and improve efficiency as one trailer can be loaded while the other is out.
All these developments have been led by Mr Taylor, who brought a new energy to the business when he moved from the role of sales director to chairman last year, and used the downturn to strengthen the company.
“Rather than listening to the negative headlines we’ve stayed positive,” he said. “There’s still an industry out there and we wanted to make changes now because when the economy comes back and it’s booming, we can reap the rewards. The best thing about a recession is that you learn a lot of lessons. Our philosophy was to turn over every stone in the business and make change where there had been no change for years.”
Improving efficiencies
And that quest for efficiency is not finished as CR Taylor has employed a consultant to identify ways of improving systems and processes throughout the business, especially now it’s more focused on manufacturing.
“We were getting up to capacity at the end of last year, but we felt we could get more out of it,” said Mr Taylor. “By fine-tuning things we hope we can gain another 30% from existing machinery.”
Although CR Taylor is becoming more engineered timber and manufacturing focused, it will not forget its timber merchanting roots.
“We’ll always keep some timber, but we’ll probably focus on local trade,” said Mr Taylor.
The company has two sites – the manufacturing and merchanting site in Denholme and a branch in nearby Bradford. The 13-acre Denholme site allows the company to fill another niche.
“We stock really long sections which your average builders merchant doesn’t. A lot of merchants within a 20-mile radius use us if they need 7m lengths or special grading, or if they’re out of 4×2,” said Mr Taylor.
The company’s roof trusses and engineered products are also a big selling point to those merchants who don’t have the expertise of engineered products.
“So we talk to their customers directly. We allow them to put a small profit on and then we deliver it to the customer so the merchant doesn’t even touch it,” said Mr Taylor.
The company plans to advertise its roof truss and I-joist service with point of sale material in merchants.
Understanding merchants’ business
“We understand because we used to buy roof trusses and make £300,000 a year. We bought them from someone else and press plated them, and we understand the pitfalls,” said Mr Taylor. “We know the frustration of a lot of smaller merchants because they don’t know about them, and why should they, they’re not designers. We do all the thinking for them and they make the money.
“We want to help merchants sell a broader range of products because if they get the floor joists they can probably get the roof trusses as well, and they can do the tile battens and slates, and the roof windows. It gives them a lead-in to a house and allows them to sell their products on the back of it,” said Mr Taylor.
But no matter what the product, at the heart of CR Taylor is the fact that it is an independent family business.
“We’ve always had a good reputation from when my grandfather and father ran the company; it’s always been seen as trustworthy,” said Mr Taylor.
“Our policy has always been to do what the customer asks. Bigger companies can be rigid; our customers know they can discuss with us ways to help them out.”
