Interview with David Hope...

David Hope is the Managing Director of the SIG Construction Accessories Division and a widely respected operator in his field. A qualified Civil Engineer, he has clocked up 12 years of his career working for the SIG business and is passionate about its future success. We caught up with him to ask why he came back to join the group again in 2020.?

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What’s your strategy now for growth at SIG CA?

We now have a dual strategy on products and markets.

On market segmentation, we are focused on 4 specialist product areas including Brickwork/Masonry, Geotextiles, Waterproofing and Specialist Fixings, like heavy-duty resin anchors.

We have a national sales manager for each product area and product managers, who are largely ex-manufacturers. They are quality individuals, that know the product technically and are capable of doing ‘take offs’ and designs, which is a unique service for a distributor.

We also focus on 2 market areas, both infrastructure related, and we employ two market specialists, one on HS2 and another on Nuclear. Both really important as we supply lots of products to HS2 and Hinckley power station which we are looking to replicate when Sizewell opens on the east coast. These individuals are totally saturated in that marketplace, they speak the language and that works really well in supporting the customer.??

Then we have general Business Development Managers (BDMs) focussing on general construction accessory products too. They are still specialists but geographically based and link into the local branch CA sales desks. They focus on merchants and contractors and bring in specialist and manufacturing suppliers as required.

Over the years we have built strong tier-one contractor relationships, where we have frameworks with the likes of Morgan Sindall, Lang O’Rourke, Barratt, Waites and others, so we leverage those relationships too.