A radical re-evaluation of business has led to Bristol-based Clarks Wood Co Ltd and Uxbridge-based Y Goldberg & Sons Ltd seeing a 5% improvement in trade since the New Year.

Clarks Wood managing director Geoff Osborne said: “Trade had been pretty patchy, so at the end of last year we decided to take a close look at our operations. Sometimes you find you have been trading in the wrong area with the wrong product.

“The re-evaluation is already beginning to pay off and business is beginning to grow. We have become proactive in expanding our regions to offer our services more widely afield.”

The two companies now cover an area stretching from Birmingham down through the whole of the south-east. Mr Osborne said: “We are capable of reaching all the areas that we intended to support with the service we have.”

The push has been helped by the addition of five staff to expand the sales territory and the acquisition of additional vehicles.

&#8220Trade had been pretty patchy, so at the end of last year we decided to take a close look at our operations. Sometimes you find you have been trading in the wrong area with the wrong product.

“The re-evaluation is already beginning to pay off and business is beginning to grow. We have become proactive in expanding our regions to offer our services more widely afield”

Clarks Wood managing director Geoff Osborne

Mr Osborne said: “It is quite easy to shrink business and in the short term it may have a few benefits, but we have taken a more progressive view and been proactive and positive.”

The companies have also tailored their engineered wood flooring product range, limiting it to a snap lock connection and dry glue system.

Mr Osborne said: “Flooring is a fast moving market which changes all the time as new developments go through. We have decided to concentrate on one system which will enable us to offer larger stock volumes at competitive prices. We expect flooring to form a major part of our sales in the future.”