Wates Retail

Source: Retail Digital

Date :14/11/2007 12:28:45

Taking responsibility

Born from a century of experience in construction, Wates Retail has inherited its parent’s ambition and sense of corporate responsibility. Exec UK finds out more

Written by Ben O'Hanlon and Produced by Charles Sizeland

This year saw Wates Group Ltd celebrate its 110th birthday, with staff recollecting an impressive history spanning back to humble beginnings at the hands of four brothers. This included some notable work during the Second World War when the company supplied major parts of the Mulberry Harbours that were towed across the channel after D-Day. Today, Wates’ expertise spans from construction to interior design and includes a fair amount in between.

The latter part of the Wates journey has been witnessed by David Stanley, who joined 20 years ago and has held several jobs across the business in that time. He was present, for example, when the group undertook a massive cultural change programme during the nineties with the aim of establishing new, better ways of working. And in 2000, when it appointed the first chief executive from outside of the Wates family: “I don’t think the business would be where it is now without making that bold decision.”

Eat Retail, Sleep Retail, Breathe Retail

Just a year later, Wates Retail was established as the specialist shop fitting arm of the business. The remit was to create a standalone retail business that is totally focused on retail customers. David explains why this focus is so important: “Anyone can have a manual on project delivery, but it’s about understanding the customer and what motivates them. Of course, we’ve got good processes in place as well, but that’s ultimately what makes us unique”.

Today, David is employed as the Business Development Director of the division, which alone generates around £180 million in annual revenue. This success comes, at least in part, from contributions to the corporate vision – to be ‘the first UK contractor to deliver for customers on time, on budget, every time.’ And the key driver is how the company manages risks; it prepares as well as possible for the unforeseen. This includes a thorough risk assessment process, which begins as initial prices are being prepared and continues throughout the project. “If you are open and transparent about the risks involved from the start, then there’s a much better chance of resolving them,” says David.

Driving the vision

To deliver its vision the company has implemented three business improvement programmes of operational excellence, marketing and people. For the first it is safety that tops the agenda. Alongside the mandatory training programmes that you might expect, Wates has implemented a strong culture of safe working.

There’s an understanding that it’s ok to stop a job mid-process regardless of the financial cost because safety really is the overarching priority. It’s the ‘small things’, David explains, that can make a big difference. He notes that the company is always talking about the safety issue and that it is featured at the top of the agenda for every meeting. It seems to be working; last year Wates’ Accident Incident Rate (AIR) was half the industry average.

This is good for staff, but also good for business. “If you have an accident free site then it will probably be one of the most profitable and best quality sites,” says David.

The second improvement programme, marketing, is aimed at developing a strong customer base. Specifically, Wates seeks to work with customers who are ‘culturally compatible’, offer the prospect of repeat business and who appreciate value on a project rather than just looking for the lowest price. It’s a selective approach, resulting in the addition of no more than one or two customers per year. “We don’t take on anything that we’re not confident we can deliver,” explains David. “We are as clear about what we don’t want to do as much as what we do want to do.” And you can’t argue with the results; Wates Retail currently boasts the likes of Marks and Spencer, Sainsbury’s and Debenhams on their customer list.

For the internal focus, there’s an equal measure of commitment. A bonus system is in place, for example, when staff are required to work away from home. This includes allowances for the gym and laundry. Also, the company’s staff survey was this year replaced by an independent MORI IPSOS survey. This highlighted several priorities, such as refining the appraisal system and offering more targeted training.

David explains that communicating with staff is a particular priority: “The bigger you get the harder it is to communicate across a range of people who are both socially different and distributed throughout a wide geographical area.” To combat this, the company has setup a focus group, which consists of a cross-section of staff tasked with discussing current issues. It meets three or four times a year in addition to an annual conference and divisional briefings.

Corporate Responsibility

For Wates, corporate responsibility is at the heart of everything they do, giving rise to impressive internal operations and a busy social calender. The company recently completed its annual Community Day where no fewer than 67 projects were completed across the country, many aimed at helping the homeless. This amounted to more than 8,000 hours of work. It also runs a programme aimed at helping underprivileged ex-offenders, 60 percent of which become permanent employees.

Another focus is the amount of waste produced by the company’s operations; the target for the amount of waste sent to landfill sites is zero percent by 2010. It’s ambitious, but levels have already been pushed down to seven percent. This is partly because all material is separated on site and sent to be recycled. And the company has introduced new technologies to deal with the problem of contaminated waste too, where paint is prevented from entering the recycling process. Brushes are stripped using a special solution, and the extract used to make traffic cones.

The company’s achievements were recently acknowledged when it was granted an award for the best store-fit company of the year. But for all its success Wates is not content to sit back and relax. The current five-year business plan, which extends to 2012, outlines aspirations to double in size within that timeframe. With operations recently extended to the Republic of Ireland and work is underway to establish a new retail design service it’s a very realistic possibility.