‘the Future Is E-commerce When This Crisis Is All Over’
BUILDING plastics supplier Horton Building Plastics believes e-commerce will be the way forward coming out of the coronavirus crisis. The company – which has trade counters at Cobridge and Parkhall – closed its doors to customers in March following the lockdown announcement.
But it has used the opportunity to kickstart its online business which sells everything from timber and plywood to doors and windows.
Rob Horton said: “We shut both of our sites because it just didn’t feel safe, so we furloughed 20 staff and there was just me and one other director still working.
“We have been wanting to launch our e-commerce business for a while now, but we never really had the chance to give it the push it needed to make a good go of it.
“We decided to team up with PAB Logistics, in Newcastle, so we can offer a nationwide delivery service – and now we are generating online sales of £10,000 a week.” Rob added: “We decided to sell just the essential items at first, but it went mad overnight and it’s not slowing down so now we have started adding new products to our online shop. “There’s obviously a massive surge in people doing home improvement projects at the moment so we hope things continue as we start to come out of the lockdown.” Around 75 per cent of Horton Building Plastics’ staff have now returned to work with more expected to go back over the coming weeks as more restrictions are lifted. Rob said: “We don’t want to let our customers down, so this has been a good way for us to keep supplying those who need it. But we have had to make some changes at the business to make sure we are ready to fully reopen.” Horton Building Plastics has introduced click and collect at both trade counters, as well as a zero-contact policy where customers collect their orders from stillages which are in place outside the shop.
Rob added: “We have had to adapt to a new way of working and the plan now is to carry on doing what we are doing.
“We are hoping that the internet side of our business continues to grow. We’ve seen an increase in sales this month compared to last month which is a positive sign.
“Eventually we hope to welcome customers back inside, but at the moment we will continue to maintain social distancing.”