It’s been a busy couple of years for AMES UK following the acquisitions of La Hacienda and Kelkay, and now the more recent news that Antony Harker has stepped down as AMES UK Managing Director. We caught up with Richard Slade (above) of AMES UK to ask him about the changes and the latest happenings within the business.

With Antony stepping back, you have taken on a new role within the business?

Yes, I was delighted to be asked to take on the role of General Manager for Kelkay, which means on all the day to day operational issues, the buck stops with me. I am also supporting our La Hacienda and True Temper businesses.

How has your past experience qualified you for this new role?

I’ve had many years of experience, formerly with Aggregate Industries where I was General Manager with responsibility for the Borderstone and Aggregate Supplies business and since 2015 I’ve been a Director at Kelkay. More recently I stepped up to be Operations Director for the whole of AMES UK, so this latest move is a logical progression for me. I am fortunate to have had many years’ experience in the UK marketplace and have built a very thorough understanding of the Kelkay operation, and the other businesses within the AMES UK family.

What role do the AMES management team play in the UK business?

One of the key reasons for AMES’ success throughout the world is due to their philosophy of investing in strong local managers and providing them the responsibility and autonomy to make the best decisions for their local market.  We are fortunate to have a local management team here at AMES UK that consists of several very experienced professionals with highly relevant experience in this market. So, we have a great dynamic with the wider AMES management team – they empower us to run the business from a day to day perspective, but they are also there to support us with the bigger business decisions.

So, who is driving the business forward now?

I’m supported by some very familiar faces who are well known in the UK garden and leisure sector. Richard Pyrah is our Sales Director and does a brilliant job in providing leadership to our substantial sales team.  Sarah Winn is also a key member of our leadership team here at AMES, and leads our Marketing and Product departments.  Sarah was formerly the Marketing Director at Gardman before joining us in 2017.  We have also recently made a new appointment to the senior leadership team, with Matt Wilson joining us in the role of Finance Director earlier this year.  Matt brings a wealth of experience in relation to Finance, human resources and governance issues and has already proved to be a great new addition to the team.

How has Antony stepping back changed the business?

Antony founded the Kelkay business, so of course, the business is a little different when he’s not here every-day.  However, Antony did a great job developing the team and creating an efficient business that runs with good systems and processes.  They say the true test of a leader is in what they leave behind, so it’s a credit to Antony that the business is in excellent condition and performing very well.

Will AMES UK appoint a new replacement managing director from their own business?

No, we are currently recruiting for a new Managing Director and the new appointment will be someone that comes with a thorough knowledge of the UK retail market.  The experience is very important, but we are also focused on finding someone that fits the culture of our business and industry, and shares the same values we do.  This will be an exciting role for someone who is looking to lead some strong, established businesses with a passion for providing great service and delivering solutions for our customers.  We expect to make this appointment within the next few months.

What changes should we expect to see in the future?

We are proud to say that the businesses within the AMES UK family are all good businesses, so there isn’t a burning need to make a lot of changes.  So, our number one priority is ensuring that we continue to meet and exceed our customer’s expectations by providing high levels of customer service.  We are also focused on finding innovative ways to create value for our customers.  One of the ways we can do that is by leveraging the wide array of new product opportunities that exists within the global AMES business, and bringing them to market in a way that makes sense for UK consumers.

How are AMES investing in the UK business and what impact is this having?

Some of the early impacts of AMES’ investment was evident at Glee, including new brands, packaging and merchandising for garden décor and aggregates for example. Right now, we are working on some in-depth research in other categories, the results of which should be evident by Glee 2020. Behind the scenes, AMES have facilitated a major investment in one of our manufacturing and logistics sites which will significantly grow our capacity to meet increased demand, in a safe and efficient manner. AMES have also supported the implementation of several IT and management projects to make working across our multiple sites more effective.  And of course with the very recent announcement of the acquisition of APTA, AMES have further demonstrated their commitment to the UK and an intention to continue expanding into new categories. We could not have embarked on any of these projects without the support of AMES.

How will the most recent acquisition of APTA affect your plans?

For the immediate future the businesses will continue to operate independently. We don’t want to disrupt the day to day service by distracting the management teams with a complex integration programme. Paul Sykes will continue in his role running the team down at APTA, and of course he and I will be looking for practical synergies and ways we can work together.

AMES UK have announced that Sarah Winn, Group Marketing Director, will extend her management responsibilities across the entire product and category strategy for the group, in addition to her brand and marketing accountabilities. This change reflects the group's strategic focus on developing a strongly market-led approach to product and brand development. It acknowledges Sarah’s role in orchestrating a number of key projects over the past 18 months which has seen AMES UK transform the wooden products business, Anchor Fast, under the new brand, Woodshaw. They have also developed a fresh retail proposition for the La Hacienda brand and prioritised the importance of the garden centre channel by investing significantly in a complete overhaul of the Kelkay Aggregates brand.

Sarah is not letting up, however, and has identified a number of further development opportunities as a result of recent market analysis.  Deeper insight work is now underway to help reveal the way consumers plan and execute garden makeover projects and how this is impacting on the landscaping category in garden centres. The results of the research project will help to shape the future of Kelkay’s retail strategy and development for the hard landscaping category.

She explained: “We have some really exciting opportunities ahead and AMES are fully supportive of our ambitious plans. Our new project work is opening up a world of understanding into purchasing behaviour and the changing shape of the UK retail landscape. First and foremost, we remain focused on driving our core categories, supporting our customers and sharing our thought leadership with the market. This means that whilst we’re always on the look out for what’s next, we are also paying close attention to our traditional business strengths and determining how we can capitalise on these to support emerging opportunities.”

Richard Pyrah has more than 30 years in the garden market, but he believes this pre-season has been the best he’s ever experienced. AMES UK are reporting an uplift on 2018 of over 46% on a like for like basis across Kelkay, Woodshaw and La Hacienda.

Richard told GTN: “We enjoyed our best ever GLEE in September with significant sales and order growth coming from our core garden centre customers. Certainly, the new product ranges contributed, but the most satisfying trend is the strong growth in our core categories from our loyal customers.”

Richard’s focus for the next few weeks is in the customer service arena where he believes there are opportunities to adopt some best practices from the different teams within the AMES UK group. They’re starting with operational improvements in the way that bespoke point of sale design and print is delivered to customers. The aim is to provide a more flexible approach and to improve on speed and efficiency in response to individual garden centre needs.

One of the huge advantages of AMES UK acquisition of Kelkay has been investment to drive business expansion. The site near Snaith, from where Kelkay’s aggregate and paving operations are run, has expanded by over 20% this autumn in preparation for the forecasted increase in garden centre business.

AMES UK have demonstrated their confidence in the team by funding the £1.5m investment in logistics and packaging machinery which has been installed since August.

Richard Slade said: “It’s been an exciting, if challenging, few months. We’ve undertaken a pretty major reorganisation of the site to double our internal pallet spaces and expand the external pallet space to accommodate more than 12,000. And while we were making these changes, we’ve also expanded our operations in Cork to cope with the business growth in Ireland of more than 100%.”

Richard, who has been responsible for Kelkay operations for several years is now running the business across all AMES UK sites, including La Hacienda and True Temper. This has also meant further investment in business infrastructure to improve communications through IT and the installation of new servers that allow the whole group to be operated effectively under the new management team.

The most recent addition to the AMES UK Director team is Matt Wilson who joined the business in Setptember. Matt is responsible for Finance and HR and comes with a wealth of relevant experience in privately owned business and large corporations.

Matt has set about bringing all AMES UK’s 300 employees into a harmonised system, streamlining policy and supporting the rest of the management team. He is keen to point out the extraordinary employee retention in La Hacienda, Kelkay and Woodshaw with several members of the team having been on the payroll from the very start.

With his other hat on, Matt is focussing on the future sales growth of AMES UK and he was able to confirm their ambitious 20% growth forecast for 2020. Group turnover in the year ending September 2019 reached over £43million, a significant increase on the prior year and Matt’s confident that AMES UK will break the £50m barrier in 2020.

Apta became part of AMES UK earlier this month, announcing they were acquired by The AMES Companies on 2 December. AMES (www.ames.com) has a long history dating back to 1774 and is excited about expanding its presence in the UK market, with Apta joining its other UK businesses: Kelkay, La Hacienda and Anchorfast.

AMES itself forms part of Griffon Corporation (NYSE: GFF), a diversified U.S. public company with a turnover of over $2.2billion that conducts its business within the Home and Building Products, Consumer and Professional Products, and Defence Electronics markets.

Apta has grown its business significantly in recent seasons to establish itself as the leading supplier of planters and accessories to the UK garden centre market. The present management team will continue to run the business, with Paul Sykes (pictured above) remaining as Managing Director.

Paul said: “This is a terrific development for our business, and we have great confidence that the many employees, customers and suppliers of Apta will benefit from our new ownership structure. As part of the global AMES team, we are well positioned to continue to grow via a strengthened supply chain and broadened product portfolio."

For further information please contact Apta on 01233 621090.