The spotlight is on – Speyside Plumbing & Building Supplies

Company profile:

• Business established: 1990
• Head office: Moray, Scotland
• Number of employees: 3
• Branches: 1
• Time working with Midland Lead: 10 Months

Based in Rothes in Moray, Scotland, on the banks of the River Spey, Speyside Plumbing & Building Supplies has been stocking Midland Lead’s machine cast and rolled lead sheet for just under a year now.

While only working with Midland Lead for some ten months, the firm in fact dates back to 1990, when it traded as Plastics for Building. In December 2015, however, the business switched both hands and names.

New business owner Iain Paul explains how the change came about: “Around 23 years ago I was a manager at the store, working with the business’ founder Barry Brown.”

“After working there for 18 months, I left to pursue a career that saw me work for some of the UK’s biggest firms in the construction and building industry, including Keyline Civils & Drainage, part of FTSE 100 company Travis Perkins plc.

“The career change saw me travelling lots and when Barry sadly passed, his wife approached me with an offer to buy the business. Looking to stay more local with my job, I took on the challenge.”

The first thing Iain did was to change the company name to Speyside Plumbing & Building Supplies. “I did this as it was very apparent to me that the business hadn’t been growing, and I wanted to expand the product range and needed the name to reflect that.” Part of that product expansion included bringing in a range of lead sheet and ancillaries.

“Looking to include lead in our product offering, I went with Midland Lead for a number of reasons. Their sales rep Kyle impressed me with his pro-activeness in approaching us, and I also had a history with Midland Lead from way back. They have a good reputation in the industry for machine cast lead and were competitively priced,” he says.

Continuing, Iain adds: “Initially we brought in both Midland Lead’s machine cast lead and rolled to trial with the customers. The machine cast went down very well, with lots of positive feedback and happy customers, so we now keep higher stock levels of that one.”

While Iain has a history of working with Midland Lead some years ago, he says with this experience he’s been particularly impressed by the speed and reliability of delivery. “Being way up in the north-east of the Scotland, which can be difficult to deliver to, I must say their shipping really is on the money,” he comments.

Iain goes on to outline the types of projects he supplies lead to: “The lead we sell is used in lots of different local projects, such as Portknockie Primary School, which was first built in 1876 and is of traditional stone built design. We supplied two tonnes of code 6 machine cast lead for the school’s roof, replacing the flashings and guttering. We also tend to do a fair few new build and heritage residential properties, with code 5 and 6 being the most popular.”

Looking at the business’ performance since taking it on, Iain say it’s “very good” right now. “We’re selling good volumes of lead and have terrific customer loyalty, with them coming back to us for all their lead sheet needs. Now our stock profile has expanded substantially and we’re selling two and a half times the lead we were nine months ago.”

Contemplating the future, he concludes: “We have long-term plans to continue our stock expansion, but currently we’re focussed on meeting our customers’ demands, tidying the place up and getting our stock profile just right.”

To learn more about the company, head to the Speyside Plumbing & Building Supplies Facebook page, or email iain@speysidesupplies.com.