Since its creation in 2010, Archwood Group has strived to put its people at the heart of its business. This philosophy was recently further underlined when the company was awarded the ‘We Invest in Wellbeing’ accreditation by Investors in People.
“The accreditation is validation of the fact that we’re doing the right thing from a business point of view and are looking after our people,” explains Josh Burbidge, Managing Director. “We’re a family-owned and professionally-run company that cares about its employees. We hope that if we look after our staff then they will look after the business, helping us go from strength-to-strength. This is our overriding objective and it’s working well.”
Investors in People is a government-owned standard for people management that offers workplace accreditations for UK organisations. They believe that by making work better for everyone and helping people to get more out of it than just a pay cheque, they can make a society stronger, healthier and happier. Archwood Group member, Jess Budenburg, was also recently awarded Workplace Champion at the Credit Union Wales Awards 2022.
Flush from its latest award success, Archwood Group is continuing to operate as the holding company for three trading brands: Richard Burbidge, Atkinson & Kirby and Masons Timber Products, all of which have slightly different specialisms. Richard Burbidge, for instance, has been focusing on the manufacture and distribution of timber home improvement products for over 150 years, while Atkinson & Kirby is an engineered and solid wood flooring supplier. Masons Timber Products, meanwhile, is an OEM to the manufacturing sector for specialist profiles for timber.
With 110 full-time employees across two sites: one in North Wales and the other in Scotland, Archwood runs its operation in-line with five key values:
- Reputation – focused on the brand and how customers are serviced;
- Responsibility- concentrating on how the group looks after its staff from a health and safety perspective, as well as acting to reduce its carbon footprint;
- Stability – focused on financial results and how the group is meeting its customers’ requirements;
- Transformation – a key part of the business in terms of how it keeps up with IT to maximise productivity;
- Evolution – looking at the culture and moving into being an entity that is completely flexible with an adaptable workforce.
Developing its people has been key to making progress in these five areas, as Mr Burbidge highlights: “Investing in our people through training forms the bedrock of our entire operation. We’ve been down the route of the IIP Wellbeing Accreditation in order to work out how we can improve our working environment so that our staff are able to come in and do their jobs to the best of their abilities.”
Despite the effort Archwood Group is putting into develop its operation, Mr Burbidge feels that the wider marketplace looks set to be a challenging environment moving forward. “We don’t believe the economy is going to give us much assistance if I’m being honest. In the next 12 months we’re really focused on market share gain and using our expertise in servicing our customers in the joinery and staircase manufacturing sectors to go after additional business. This is what I’ve spent my time looking at, namely working at what that customer base needs and delivering that. We’re growing with a number of key customers and engaging with new ones as well. That’s where we see the growth over the next few years.
“One area we’re focused on in order to improve the business is product innovation. We therefore launched a whole new range of new products in October last year under both the two largest brands: Atkinson & Kirby and Richard Burbidge. Taking these to market gives us an opportunity to generate additional profit, because they are either unique to us or target areas of the market we haven’t previously been involved in. This has given us potential to enhance our sales as well. Whilst there’s a chance it may dismantle our existing products, even if it does it would do so at a higher margin.
“We’re also in the process of implementing a new ERP system that should help us service our customers in a more efficient manner to make quicker commercial decisions. The system we are moving onto is significantly simpler to use than the current system and will therefore help to deliver a more user-friendly customer experience. This will also involve keeping our service levels up for our client base and any new customers we bring onboard to ensure that we they are delighted with what we do from a business point of view, all whilst encouraging customers to continue buying our products.”
With its heritage and award-winning approach, Archwood Group’s ability to keep its people at the core of its operation will ensure its customer service remains at the highest possible level, thereby paving the way for further development across the entire organisation.