Galleon Fixings and its key businesses Harrison & Clough and Forgefix are undergoing a galvanising period of change. Now with MD Paul Swift at the helm and a brand new advanced warehouse, Torque Magazine grills the firm on logistical challenges, robots, staffing challenges, service innovation and why trust in face-to-face contact reigns supreme.
Galleon Fixings is the group made up of fastener industry heavyweights Harrison & Clough and ForgeFix. Headed up by Dormole, Galleon Fixings has been undergoing a significant reorganisation that has seen both Harrison & Clough and ForgeFix relocate their warehouses to a state-of- the-art facility in Bessemer Park, Sheffield. Meanwhile, Harrison & Clough (H&C) opened a new office in Cottingley, Yorkshire last year (close to its old Keighley base). And those are just the headline changes.
Dormole bought ForgeFix 12 years ago, and Harrison & Clough in 2020, and in August last year appointed Paul Swift as the new Managing Director at Galleon Fixings.
"We are on a journey. Galleon Fixings has a massive customer base and we have a significant opportunity due to the advantages that we can take from merging the strongest parts of each individual business. By streamlining systems, sharing data and processes and obviously skillsets, Galleon Fixings is well placed to grow as a business. So although there will still be two separate companies in H&C and ForgeFix, there will be one way of doing things, shared throughout the group. One example of that is a shared ERP, which will be transformative for customers of both brands and will bring real benefits to our colleagues too.
"The customer facing interaction has got to be clean. We have looked at the customer base and there are huge opportunities for both businesses across all markets."
Internal structure changes have seen Rebecca Fortescue-Halliwell become Marketing Director at Galleon Fixings, and there is also now one sales team, headed up by newly appointed Sales Director Paul Simpson. Swift explains: "We've merged the two teams, we've adjusted the areas they focus on and now a salesperson can cover more bases.
“Both businesses have now got a strong external sales team, and they are supported by brand teams. It also means that we can deliver more for our customers, and we're now rolling out more trade support and hosting events like breakfast mornings that add real value for our merchants. That face-to-face contact is so important. I'm a massive, massive advocate of it - you still need people on the road."
Warehouse
At the time of speaking, the huge H&C warehouse move is ongoing ("we are about 50% there," reveals Swift), but by the time this article hits desks, it will be fully up and running in terms of picking out of the new advanced facility.
All of Galleon Fixings' product range will be under one roof by the end of Q1 and - unsurprisingly - it's a big warehouse to fit all that in. The building is 137,000 foot and there are about 23,000 pallet spaces. The warehouse is roughly split into three sections, including hard pick locations, 10 aisles of narrow aisle picking areas and the auto store - a state-of-the-art fully automated picking system. What has been the biggest challenge of moving all of that across?
"It was a big logistical challenge, but the biggest when you move to a new site is new people. With Forge Fix, we were moving five locations into one. At H&C we are moving three locations into one so that's eight warehouses coming together. [At time of interview] we've recruited 44 new people. Often good people who are in a warehouse don't want to leave. That's part of the reason we've brought in some automation. It helps you scale easier."
The auto store currently has 32 robots in operation, with a capacity for 100 in total which will be needed to meet future demand. It's not only an exercise in technological advancement but also a statement of intent - it's an investment in the group that demonstrates its confidence in its offer and its market position.
Galleon is pushing its next day order cut off times and the new facility looks to be able to help that project. Swift says: "We supply fixings and fasteners, but I see us as a service delivery business. We just happen to have a warehouse full of pieces of metal.
"Generally, for the customer, I want them to be able to order whatever they want, whenever they want it, and get it shipped to wherever they want."
Delivery innovation
"Expectations are sky high. We sell commodity products and we've got to be competitive, but we offer so much more than that. Across the business we're always looking at new ways of doing things that will improve things for our customers. For example, later this year we'll be developing locker deliveries. We're building systems so that we'll be able to introduce later cut-offs for orders, all of which means the customers have increased access, and a trusted, guaranteed provision of stock.
The warehouse itself was named a BMF (Builders Merchant Federation) Centre for Excellence last year. The facility has a huge conference room which the BMF will be using (as it does other Centre of Excellence's throughout the UK) to host training, talks and forums.
"We've also got other customers using it as well as a location to host their own meetings. It becomes a silent salesperson. We have merchandising in the conference areas and we have our fantastic auto store... it opens a few doors."
At this point, Al looms in the conversation. Galleon's auto store uses it to monitor robot performance while picking: "If a robot is struggling to pick an item, it'll try so many times, and the system then just gives it another job and sends it somewhere else. And then if another robot goes and gets it, and it's fine, well, that robot gets a gold star. It picks up if a robot has a problem or is a concern... I think AI is going to become more important to all businesses."
State of the market
Much of the feedback directed Torque Magazine's way is that the market has lately been flat, at best. Swift has some detail on that point: “The challenges in the market over the last few years are well known: Brexit, the cost of living crisis, energy prices, inflation, supply chain issues and changing regulation, most recently the introduction and implementation of CBAM.
"But with every challenge comes an opportunity. It's a chance to review every aspect of the business and see where we can increase efficiency. It's a time to drive innovation and push productivity. It's an opportunity for our teams to find better ways of doing things which benefit the business and our customers."
Swift rues UK governmental policies that have heaped a number of extra or higher taxes on employers ("you do not grow an economy by taxing") but adds: "We are very fortunate with the investments Dormole has made.
"This facility we have in Sheffield is a £28 million investment... building the auto store, racking, machinery, offices, and then with product development, marketing initiatives, promotions...
"We will continue to be measured, but we will also continue to invest. Product development is not stopping, and in fact, we will probably speed it up a little bit because we just want to get to market quicker."
Sustainabilty
As you might expect, the new facility at Bessemer was designed with sustainability in mind throughout - even the foundations include ground recycled down concrete. There's solar PV on the roof, there's rainwater harvesting, the forklifts are electric and in the auto store, 10 robots run off the equivalent power of a vacuum cleaner.
But perhaps one of the biggest wins is that all containers move into the facility by rail. Tinsley freight terminal is 700 metres (as the crow flies) from the building. Thanks to arrangements with partner freight forwarders, when a container comes into Southampton, Felixstowe or London City, it goes straight to a train, and then it's straight up to Sheffield by train and then driven the last mile, taking hundreds of containers off the road.
The firm is taking plastic out of the packaging where possible too. Galleon has a project called the mini bag, which is now made in the UK, made from 50% recycled plastic and is 100% recyclable. The label is printed straight on the bag too.
Ambitions and the future
Elsewhere in this magazine we discuss the big picture view of the 2020s, and we quiz the Galleon MD on what's in store in the next five years.
"Currently, we've got an automated picking system that can pick an item every three seconds. It could deliver 500 lines an hour, while one operator, walking up and down the aisles in a warehouse, does about 25. Where will we be in five years time? I would expect we will have a warehouse doing twice as much work, by maximising the benefits of automation, but also by nurturing our team. We want good people within the business and value our team, so automation won't replace that, and people add value.
"If you take Rebecca's role and the Marketing Department, technology is changing so fast and their roles are changing and developing and the same team - who are investing in that technology, and upskilling and investing in new skills - might be able to produce 10 times as much content using AI. For example they produced a video recently, in four languages by leveraging AI. It's going to be really interesting."
Having been through a lot of change, Galleon's short-term priorities are making good on its investment, as Swift explains: "It's key that we bring it together and make some money, we've got to start to see a return on that investment.
"I'm not really driven by turnover. You can do £40 million or £100 million, but if you don't make any profit, what's the point? At Galleon Fixings generally, as this is across both H&C and ForgeFix, we want to be the most trusted supplier of fixings and fasteners into the merchant market. We want to be the best.
"Trust for me is really important. We're going to deliver product on time. We're going to be competitive. We're going to give good service and good value. When there's a problem, we're going to fix it. When there's new product needed, we're going to develop it.
£I want people to want to come and work for us and stay with us because of who we are, and then I want people to deal with us because of who we are. We're on an exciting journey and we want customers and suppliers to be part of that. "Given the history and strength of both the H&C and ForgeFix businesses, it is no surprise that we have very long relationships with a lot of our suppliers. As a result Galleon Fixings now has very strong global relationships that we value and that are valued by our partners. "Over the next couple of years our priorities will be to settle in to and develop our new home, start to achieve a return on investment and strengthen our position to be well placed to face the challenges of AI and whatever geopolitical changes come our way."
