Blue Rock
Merchants
We may be in the midst of difficult economic times but Andrew Rutter, Director of DTW Ceramics Ltd, hasn’t let it get in the way of future growth. Whatever the economic conditions, he still wants the best for his business, staff and customers. His winning strategy is to develop a long-term relationship with Blue Rock Systems using Intact software to work smarter, make life easier and innovate through technology.
On the day we chose to interview Andrew Rutter he had already taken his constitutional 2 hour run -this time up a snow laden Butser Hill in West Sussex. In addition when he arrived at the office he spent an hour with the lads from the showroom to shovel off the snow and ice from DTW’s forecourt.
Driven. There’s no better word to describe Andy Rutter, Director, at DTW Ceramics Limited in Portsmouth. His love of fitness is only matched by his dedication for his business and the people who work with him (and we stress “with” as opposed to “for”).
DTW are a leading, independent, distributor of tiles and associated products based on the south coast. DTW distribute tiles to Independent and National Tile retailers. The business also supports local trade installers as well as serving the retail sector with both tiles and more recently bathrooms.
Andy laid his first tile when he was 13, working at weekends and during holidays alongside a tradesman. He left secondary school on the Friday and started full time work as a contractor on the Monday. By the time he was 18 had started his own tile installation business.
Having spotted a niche in the market place he decided to start supplying tiles and in 1996 formed DTW Ceramics.
“I’ve always wanted the best for my business and the people who work there as I passionately believe this supports our ideal of providing the best service, product and value for money to our customers”, stated Andy.
“We genuinely source our products from around the world, which means, normally, that we are always seen as competitive and providing a superb range. More importantly, however, the team at DTW has a genuine desire to put in 110% all the time and we look after them as a result, both in terms of working environment and financial incentives – everyone in the business from the Cleaner to the Directors have a performance related bonus structure. As a result the bulk of my staff have been here for between 10 and 18 years and last week when the rest of the British Work Force were struggling to get in to the work place, the majority of mine did.”
Andy and his fellow Director Gavin Buckner pride themselves on the range of stock that they supply and their ability to deliver the items to their trade customers within 48 hours. The 90 catalogues of stock are held in the 32,000 square ft warehouse in Portsmouth.
Since the business started Andy incorporated Information Technology into the business.
“I am a great advocate of technology and wherever possible I will endeavour to make our lives easier and more effective through innovation”, continued Andy.
The initial systems at DTW were Amstrad PC’s driven by floppy disk drives. Shortly after Andy installed Sage Line 50 and invested in a bespoke trading solution because he felt that nothing in the market place catered for his industry.
“The bespoke system was really very good and I don’t regret, for a moment, in making the investment as for many years we had an advantage over our competition. However I became increasingly aware that the bespoke element, supported by a single company, posed a serious threat for the business and decided upon reviewing the solution”.
This process started in 2007. The teams’ final choice came after two years and the review of six well known systems.
“We actually came down to a shortlist of 2. Both systems had experience and standard functionality to handle the complexity of tile distribution, trade and retail sales. We unanimously chose to go the Intact route via Blue Rock because, although they were slightly more expensive, we felt the software was much more user friendly. In addition, we were confident that we would get a more thorough service from this provider and would remain an important customer with them and, I am glad to say, we have been proven right.”
Next on DTW’s agenda:
• Laptops for their field sales team to give them direct access to the live Intact system wherever they are
• A customer loyalty points scheme which comes on line in a few weeks
• A web presence to enable their customers to place orders via a fully integrated Blue Rock web shop. This will also allow trade customers to self administer their accounts via the internet
The final word goes to Andy;
“We plan to continue our organic growth but at no point will the quality of our service be sacrificed in its pursuit. I am confident that Intact and Blue Rock will support this which is why I requested that they write this article as so many independent organisations, like DTW, could also benefit”.
