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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Whilst David’s role makes him responsible for the recent F30 and Miers Construction Product acquisitions, they trade as separate businesses, so we talked to him here specifically about SIG CA.

What is your plotted career history with SIG?

I joined SIG originally in 2007 to run Blueprint Construction Supplies, where Brendan Barrett and Tim Hedges were the proprietors at that time. Their business was in West London and I met them and we had lunch and they said you seem like a decent guy and they left the business a few months later.

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They had built an amazingly successful business supplying Brickwork Sundries.? It was so customer-focused and specialised and had a real niche market position working closely with Sheffield manufacturer, Ancon.? SIG then acquired a number of other businesses during that 2007/08 period then in 2009 I was made the first Managing Director of the now combined Construction Accessories (CA) business, as it got formed. It all came together in a very short space of time, which was amazing.

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Then unfortunately in 2009 the market recession started and SIG PLC started to consolidate. Between 2009-11 in particular CA really lost its identity within the group as it got forced in with insulation and plasterboard as SIG cut costs and closed a few sites.? The business lost a bit of its specialisation during that period of recession which is well documented. So between 2011-2017, I went into the general part of the SIG business and I ran the plasterboard category.

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The SIG business hit some tricky times in 2017, the management at that time lost a bit of focus and the strategy was to centralise instead of the decentralised specialist model that had been successful for us.? I left SIG in 2017 and had 3 years away from the construction market to run a packaging business.

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In 2020 Phil Johns, who was the new MD of the SIG Group, called me to say they were putting a team of experienced people together to come back to the business. I still had a lot of passion for SIG and wanted to rectify the wrongs and get things back on track so that’s why I came back and I have not looked back since.

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I am really passionate about this specialist CA sector as my background has always been in this industry.? As a civil engineer, my first job was in reinforcement and I’ve since run reinforcement companies. I ran an installation company and specialist metal fabrication businesses but I’ve always been linked to stuff that goes into foundations or stuff that goes into brickwork products. I also know that SIG CA can really have a differential in this space in terms of what we are offering and focussing on in the business.

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How different was SIG when you returned in 2020 and how did you start the turnaround plan?

I was a bit shocked how terrible it was when I came back but we are now back up to the turnover levels we expect from our CA businesses and are flying this year. I am passionate about this business and we are happy on how the plan is going.

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SIG had lost market share during those difficult times, starting with the recession in 2009 and then a centralised strategy from 2017.? We were the architects of some of the competitors growing during that period, we made it easy for them as we lost great people to them and lost both turnover and profit.

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Our CA category had lost its identity and got hit the hardest within the SIG group. It lost its specialisation, it was no longer being stocked nationwide and had become hidden in the masses.

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In 2020 to 2022 we started the turnaround of SIG and began the focus to put both product specialists and stock back in place to start the momentum growing.

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As a Group, we also finalised a couple of acquisitions to get us back in the space too with F30, a brickwork specialist in the South West, and last August we made a significant acquisition with Miers Construction Products. Whilst we all trade as independent businesses it does mean that all together we became market leaders in the space again.

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In Autumn 2022 I became the MD again of the reformed Construction Accessories (CA) Division, which enabled me to put a management team together just to focus on this sector and grow back into the space as market leaders and all of this was a good indicator from SIG Group that they were prepared to invest in both people and acquisitions in this sector to grow the business.

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As SIG Construction Accessories our UK strategy is that we’re about to finalise our service charter, which means all stocked products will be available on a next-day delivery, trials are going well and we’ve invested in a full stock profile so we have stock in the right place, and are continually developing this to meet geographical needs of the customers.?

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The group board also appreciates that CA is a big market in the UK and we have lots of space to grow.? It’s a model we intend to replicate across Europe too as we have platforms to do it with SIG businesses already in France, Ireland, Benelux, Germany and Poland, so we are helping our European colleagues down the same path.

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

We now have a dual strategy on products and markets.

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

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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.

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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.??

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

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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.

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What is SIG CA now offering that is different?

Our differentiator is about quality, sourcing the right product with the right guarantees and warranties. That’s important as whilst the CA products we supply just facilitate the main job happening, they are significant structural components for a building.

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I like to keep our messaging simple.? It’s about the breadth of stock and service, about having national branch coverage, product specialisation areas and adding technical value. Our relationships with tier-one contractors are important and we have great people, a really focussed and specialist team.

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We don’t cut corners we supply quality products. We are supplying products that are structural components for buildings, they are important, they stop water leaking they stop fire spreading so we have to have the right quality.

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Our manufacturing supply partners like Fosroc , Sika China 西卡中国 , Leviat and reinforcement company Visqueen are key. Our relationships with suppliers are close and that helps us to really support the customer.? For example with Naue Geotechnical, their products mean you don’t have to dig as deep in the ground, you don’t have to lift as much stone, don’t have to transport as much clay so vehicle movements are cut by hundreds on a large site. They also have non-plastic biodegradable solutions and these sustainable solutions are the way forward. And this is just one example from many suppliers.

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So what does the future hold for SIG CA?

We have a great team of people in place and in the future I see us becoming even more technical in our approach, more specialist and going further up the supply chain to add value for customers.

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We are seeing the benefits of this very clearly in our brickwork sector where we have 6 designers, which is unique for a distributor, and they are effectively engineers that provide impartial advice and provide valuable solutions that assist customers in sustainability, in reducing waste and cost and assuring warranties.?

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The market is much tighter now when it comes to specification. People don’t take shortcuts and take risks anymore and we can help and that’s certainly a change for the better.

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The market is huge and SIG CA only has a small share so it's all about specialisation the more focussed and specialist you are the more chance you have to grow.?

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We have grown fivefold in sales over the past two years in SIG CA and are now running at the levels you would expect, 2023 has started positively for us as a result of the changes implemented, and we have ambitions to continue to grow sales, so are happy on how the plan is going.

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