As is so often the case, John Gomersall’s career choice was largely a matter of chance. Now sales and marketing director at Forest Garden, at the age of 18 he had completed his A-levels but decided not to go to university and it was while at sixth form college in Andover, Hampshire that his break into sales, and the timber industry, came. Graham Builders Merchants, now part of Saint-Gobain, approached the college to provide students as mock interviewees for managers’ training. He played his role so well that the company called him back and invited him to join their management trainee scheme.
"At school and college I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and, whether it’s a personality trait, I fell into a consumer business from quite a young age," he said. Mr Gomersall was born in Yorkshire but moved south at the age of 10 when his father’s job took the family to Hampshire. Although there are still traces of the north in his accent, his formative years were spent in Hampshire and he considers the south as home.
Mr Gomersall senior worked in sales, in pharmaceuticals, and later as sales director for a company selling brassware to builders merchants, so to a certain extent he followed in his father’s footsteps.
He joined Grahams as a "very green, young, enthusiastic kid" and, although he didn’t suffer the practical jokes of being asked for striped paint or a long wait, he did have to think on his feet in a completely new environment.
"I was thrown onto a trade counter at 18 years old, with builders and plumbers coming in and asking for things. You had to have the ability to think quickly and interact with the customers otherwise they’d steamroll you," he said.
In his six years with Graham, Mr Gomersall did "a bit of everything" from counter sales to purchasing and quality control and working in the yard where he received his introduction to timber.
Despite it sometimes being a tough environment, he looks back on those six years with fondness.
"I still regard it as some of the best times I’ve had. The culture, the spirit, the atmosphere – there were a lot of characters both in the company and amongst customers," he said.
Impatient to get on in his career, he wanted to move into external sales and so in 1996 he took a job as an area sales manager with Unicorn Abrasives, now also part of the Saint-Gobain group.
Although the job involved selling timber finishing products – sandpaper and grinding wheels – it took him the farthest away from timber he’s been in his career. It also took him from Hampshire to Stafford, where he met his wife Julie and has raised their two children.
Eighteen months of territory sales to two different markets, the industrial sector of engineering firms and the trade and retail sector, convinced him that he was well suited to the latter.
"I was back selling to builders merchants, including Grahams, decorating merchants, and independent DIY stores. The customer relationships side within trade and retail markets was my background and that was where I felt more comfortable," he said. In the early 2000s he was keen to progress again, to take on some national accounts and he moved back to the timber industry, joining Egger as a national account manager for laminate flooring. A year into the job his boss left and Mr Gomersall took over as head of the flooring division in the UK.
"It gave me a real hands-on understanding of running a small business as part of a bigger group," he said.
In 2003 he moved to Kronospan where his role was to drive sales of value-added products through DIY channels. Eighteen months later he joined Forest Garden as a national account manager looking after DIY accounts.
At that time Forest was owned by private equity company 3i, with Jonathan Halford as chief executive.
"The culture was a big part in my wanting to join," he said. "Jonathan is a charismatic, energetic guy who has the ability to take you with him and drive you on in your career. I had a good feeling about the business and its people."
When Jonathan Halford led an MBO in 2007 he restructured the management team and Mr Gomersall moved to the broader role of sales and marketing director.
While he is not a green-fingered gardener he likes a "nice tidy outdoor space", which Forest Garden’s products help to create. "I’m not out there every weekend tending to plants but I do like the structural elements to gardens and keeping them tidy and well presented," he said.
Forest manufactures a wide range of products from standard lap fence panels to the lower volume but higher value items such as greenhouses, gazebos, summerhouses and garden furniture.
"We can offer our customers a one-stop shop. They can buy all their product from us but it does bring its challenges because you’re dealing in different product types, different manufacturing processes, and different complexities, particularly in the varying routes to market," he said.
And it is in these routes to market, rather than products, that he has seen the greatest changes in his 11 years with Forest.
Ten years ago garden centres played a much bigger role in Forest’s customer base but as they have diversified – nowadays up to 25% of a garden centre’s revenue is from catering – merchants and DIY stores have become a greater part of the Forest business.
"Certainly in terms of core fencing, builders merchants can offer next-day delivery from their stock and on their own vehicles," he said.
Much of the change has been driven by digital technology. Consumers now think nothing of ordering garden products at the click of a mouse just through looking at an image on a website.
The garden products market in the UK is very traditional, with a lot of people not straying too far from the conventional lap panel fence. And while it’s a difficult sector in which to innovate, and to receive a return on that innovation, Forest continues to add new products, such as garden furniture, to its range.
"You need to keep innovating, to bring these hero and signature products out, to give overall offer authority, even if a large part of what you do will still be in the volume lines."
When Mr Gomersall joined Forest the trend of garden improvement television programmes, such as Ground Force, was beginning to wane and then in 2008 the global financial crisis hit. While the UK entered a recession, Forest Garden remained relatively immune to the impact of the struggling economy.
"We don’t have any real empirical data but the feeling is that during the recession people were still investing in their gardens, improving their homes rather than moving," said John.
This supports the company’s view that its business is influenced by the weather far more than by the economy.
"The economy plays a part but in periods of adverse weather our sales are phenomenal. We live our business life around storms, otherwise we’re hoping for relatively mild, dry gardening weather," he said.
The storms from the end of 2013 through to February 2014 created massive demand, pushing Forest’s fence panel production up from the usual 1.2 million panels to 1.8 million last year. Such booms in production, however, create operational stresses and last year Forest decided to remove the seasonal peaks and troughs by maintaining production at a more consistent level throughout the year.
"By having a flatter production profile we can build stock gradually with a consistent workforce, to a good standard and do it efficiently."
Additional storage space has been added to house the 200,000 fence panels Forest will have in stock by the end of the year.
"We’re in as good a place as we’ve ever been to prepare for these events," he said. "The flip side is we have to hold our nerve; if the storms don’t come we will hold a lot of stock but we retain confidence that it will sell through the season."
Dealing in a commodity material makes business challenging but it is also what moulds the culture of the industry and Mr Gomersall would not hesitate to recommend a career in timber.
"Timber is a product that is traded hard and with that comes personality and spirit. There’s a lot of character in the industry, from timber traders through to merchants and builders," he said.
It also offers diversity, and therefore career longevity.
"As Forest can testify, it exposes you to different channels and markets. It’s not just about selling timber into merchants."
If life had taken a different turn John may have perhaps made a career in football. He played at a non-league semi-professional level for about 12 years and football continues to be a big passion. He still plays football with friends and he and his 13-yearold son are avid fans of the game (his 15-year-old daughter favours creative pursuits). His son supports Liverpool but Mr Gomersall, having moved around, has an affinity with several teams.
"I envy people who are fans of one club – although that can be the route to disappointment," he said.
In the past five years he’s also taken up running, appreciating the physical and mental boost it provides – and another opportunity to exercise his determination and competitive spirit. He has completed 18 half marathons, including the Great North Run, and run the London Marathon twice, the first year crossing the finish line in a respectable 3 hours 30 minutes, and the second year knocking 10 minutes off that time.
John admits his competitive streak means he can sometimes take even a game of rounders too seriously, but it’s his driving force in leisure and work.
"If I do something I want to enjoy it and I want to do it properly. I’ve carried that competitive nature into my working life because in sales you need to be driven in order to make your business and offer the best in the market," he said.
