When John Helliwell, Glenn Moxon and Mick Dodson created Watermark Plumbing Supplies in 2005 they each brought with them extensive industry experience. This knowledge and insight, combined with a healthy smattering of hard work, led to the development of an enviable reputation within the marketplace, which the Yorkshire-based company has been able to build on ever since.
Tragically Glenn Moxon passed away very suddenly in 2012 aged just 50 years and his loss was keenly felt throughout the business, amongst his colleagues, friends and Industry associates alike. “He would be immensely proud of Watermark’s achievements today as he was such an integral part of our story,” explains Karen Thornton, who joined the company as Finance Manager in 2009 before being appointed as Managing Director two years later. “Glenn played a key role from the outset, taking care of the financial side of the business whilst John and Mick took care of operations and sales. His role was absolutely vital in establishing the foundations on which Watermark has been built and we are equally proud to be an expanding Yorkshire-based business, covering North, West and more recently, South Yorkshire.”
“We’d all worked in the merchant sector for a number of years prior to creating Watermark and this set us in good stead,” explains John. “The growth that we have seen since had a great deal to do with the fact that from the very outset myself, Glenn and Mick were all determined to be extremely customer focused concentrating on their needs and requirements. Looking after people has been basically at the root of everything we have achieved as a business.”
“Prior to opening we visited every single account face-to-face,” adds Mick. “We were certainly men on a mission, putting an awful lot of energy into getting the foundations right. There was a lot of hours and late nights put in!
“After Karen came on-board she used our enthusiasm as a catalyst to help transform us into a much more organised operation. She has been instrumental in introducing structure, innovative systems and technology, project management and planning for growth. Words can’t express what she has done for this company and we’re in a much stronger position because of her input.” Says John.
Having been created pre-recession, Watermark’s focus on the customer proved to be a winning formula and it capitalised on the strong economy to make hay while the sun shone, opening a store in York in the process. A site in Huddersfield quickly followed but the advent of the recession saw the commencement of a period of consolidation. Having successfully weathered the storm, however, the company marked its tenth anniversary by adding Barnsley to its portfolio of stores last May.
“The process of opening the Barnsley site was like shelling peas, purely because of the systems that Karen has introduced. From going into an empty building, within five or six weeks we were trading as everybody knew what was required. Karen’s team on the financial and the administration sides knew what was required and everything just fell into place. That’s credit to Karen and her team.”
“The sector continues to be volatile but we have four very robust sites. They recently helped us to achieve our best ever month by quite some way, which followed the growth we saw in our last financial year. We’re also confident enough to look at expanding again in the near future.”
Karen Thornton, Managing Director
Currently employing 35 members of staff, Watermark is able to provide a wealth of knowledge and expertise across its four sites whilst also continuing to have one eye on the future by recruiting apprentices and supporting them to achieve their own goals and have a long term role with the business. It encourages development internally by offering opportunities in different areas throughout the company.
“The ethos that we’ve developed over the last few years has been built on bringing through trainees and apprentices to support the company’s aspirations in the long term,” says Karen. After all, they’re the future.
“We have a wide range of employees bringing different strengths, the experienced ones having the tried and tested expertise and the apprentices/trainees bringing in new ideas,” outlines John. “It’s a great combination as the two elements gel together really well. In addition, we constantly look to identify areas of training for our staff through appraisals. This level of support has helped engender strong levels of loyalty from our employees and as a consequence we have very low staff turnover. As we don’t have people coming and going frequently we’ve got a great deal of stability that allows us to develop our customer focus ethos. This is even more important given the skills shortage within the marketplace at the moment. It’s therefore vital that we’re able to retain our good members of staff. We are also proactive in developing new systems and it’s something that we want to continue.”
With the strong collective experience within the company, Watermark knows all about the vagaries of the marketplace. “The sector continues to be volatile but we have four very robust sites,” highlights Karen. “They recently helped us to achieve our best ever month by quite some way, which followed the growth we saw in our last financial year. We’re also confident enough to look at expanding again in the near future.”
As it grows Watermark will be looking to further strengthen the relationships it has with its supply chain. “As we develop as a company our buying power increases, which puts us in a stronger position to negotiate better deals with our suppliers that we can then pass on to our customers,” says Mick. “Adding a fifth site is a definite priority, so we’re working on the feasibility of that, but we’re also going to be spending time on enhancing our branding and marketing activities. These are areas that we want to improve so we’re committed to investing the required time and money to get to the next level in our development. It’s another challenge for us but we feel that it’s necessary and that it will be the next piece of the jigsaw.”
Even with ten years of operation under its belt it’s clear that Watermark is in no mood to get complacent. “We’re very very proactive when it comes to improving the business,” says John. “We’re always looking ahead and whilst we pay close attention to the present, we’ve also forever got one eye on the future. You can never sit back on your laurels, you have to think what’s next and how you can evolve further.
“The success of the Barnsley opening and the fact that we were able to get it up and running so quickly really gives us confidence moving forward. We have embedded a strong working model that is ready to roll out and we know exactly what we need to do and how we need to approach it. The hunger is there and we want to invest in its growth. It’s not about taking money out; it’s about reinvesting in our branches for the good of the company. We’re also looking to adding more bathroom showrooms, that’s also in the planning stages as well.”
With such a well-oiled machine in place, supplemented by the expertise that permeates throughout the business from the very top, it is clear that Watermark is ideally placed to continue developing the impressive momentum it has already built up.