A Gem of a Merchandising Business

I recently had the privilege of spending quality time with Gareth Edwards, Managing Director of GEM Merchandising. I’ve not known Gareth for long, although we’ve both been bouncing around this incestuous Home Improvement industry for more than 30 years. Whereas my experience has always been on the supplier side, before setting up GEM in 2001, Gareth worked for Homebase and at one stage was responsible for the New Store and Logistics division of the Homebase Mega-Store business in the UK. For those of you looking puzzled, it was Homebase’s failed attempt to take on B&Q Warehouses in the early 1990’s!

From what I can see, Gareth now runs a merchandising team like no other. Based in Sittingbourne Kent, GEM have over 30 years knowledge and experience and have 28 full time and 18 part time merchandisers, located throughout the UK and Ireland. Fully equipped with a branded van, GEM is the largest on-going merchandising provider in the UK servicing B&Q, Homebase, Wickes, Screwfix, Toolstation, Tile Giant, Woodies in Eire, as well as the Builders Merchant and Garden Centre channels.

Over the years GEM has established a blue-chip list of clients that most companies would give their right-arm for. This includes Bosch, Sherwin Williams, Croydex, Masterlock, Monarch, BWT, Luceco, Velcro, Arlec, Wirquin, Cheshire Mouldings, Norbord and many more.

When in early 2001 GEM Merchandising completed a bathroom cabinet install in Wickes, for their first client Croydex, little did either company know they would continue to work together for the next 18 years. Today GEM has many long-term clients and staff and believe it’s a key factor in their success and clearly explains their business strapline ‘Working together to build business’.

With over 150,000 calls and 12,000 pieces of POS and free-standing display units placed in 2019, their Tactical team have completed numerous major range reviews in B&Q, Homebase, Wickes, Screwfix, Toolstation and Tile Giant. You can follow their latest range review activity on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/company/gem-merchandising-ltd/

You would have thought GEM would be happy with their existing client list, but in recent months, they’ve added a raft of new clients including Grohe, QEP, and Resolution Interiors.

There’s more about the work they’re doing with their new clients here  - https://www.insightdiy.co.uk/news/gem-merchandising-ltd-continues-to-build-its-customer-base/7844.htm

GEM was actually the first to use digital images for DIY Merchandising and they have continued to develop the reporting and analysis tools for their clients. This has led to the introduction this month of their new reporting and analysis tool Bee-Vizible, (www.bee-vizible.co.uk).

During my recent visit to their offices, the team were kind enough to take me through Bee-Vizible, their purpose-built reporting tool, with dashboard and real-time access to all of the data including inventory, in-store images and reports. I’ve seen many dashboards and reporting tools over the years, but this really is something else. I saw the tool in action and the ability to see images and reports from the stores being visited at that moment in time by the GEM Team was just brilliant. I remember sending out store-audit reports to my sales teams and eventually seeing the results over a week later – was that secondary location in place, was the line-plan fully implemented 100% in full?Gareth commented “Our real time reporting and analysis tool will revolutionise the way our clients access and report on their data, in real time, enabling them to see at the touch of a button current state of play and quality images and graphs which are easily transferred into other CRM systems”.

It was great to spend time with a business that even more than Insight DIY, has its finger truly on the pulse of what’s happening where it really matters - at store level. This is where the majority of our consumers continue to make their Home Improvement purchasing decisions day in, day out.

If you’re not currently investing in a merchandising service to ensure your brand is presented in the best way possible, then maybe you should think again….

Article written by Steve Collinge.

If you're interested in Steve writing a profile on your business then email him today on Steve@irg.co.uk.