We’ re a one-stop shop – and people want us to be that.
FEATURE
Dedication – SBT’ s 11-strong team work tirelessly to source engineering, industrial and safety supplies.
We’ re a one-stop shop – and people want us to be that.
Range – SBT’ s premises at Crofton Court, off Portrack Lane, Stockton.
the other day – it was always suit, shirt and tie, but you could take your tie off in warm weather! Then it developed into wearing fleeces and it’ s all workwear now – even the guys who come in from our major suppliers, very few wear anything other than branded workwear.”
Nowadays, branded black sweatshirts and fleeces are the SBT uniform, with its 11-strong team working tirelessly to source and supply anything to do with engineering, industrial and safety supplies.
New starter Ben Watts has come from one of Europe’ s biggest MRO( maintenance, repair and operations) suppliers to focus on external MRO sales for SBT.
And as we speak in the main office, online marketing manager Luke Kelly is working on one of the firm’ s latest offerings – creating bespoke B2B websites, or“ webshops”, for companies wanting to make the ordering process even easier than it already is.
Luke, who also created SBT’ s own website, explained:“ We had an inquiry from a customer asking how we could make it easier for them to process their orders.
“ That’ s when we decided to build a bespoke, password-protected website, tailored exactly to how they wanted it to look and what products are on there. Only they have access to it – it’ s between us and them, no one else.
“ When they process their order, that order comes to us and we go ahead and order whatever it is they need and send it out to them.”
In short, a process that in 1990 would have been done with pen and paper and taken a lot of time can now be done with a few clicks.
But still at the helm are Martyn and Pat – and they’ re happy to keep embracing change.
Martyn, 66, said:“ When the two of us started off, it was all hand-written stuff – we didn’ t have a computer system. So yes, we’ ve seen change.
“ Computerisation has transformed things. Also, we have a lot of acceptance within the local business community. Everyone knows us now – nobody knew us then.
“ If you ask the new rep, Ben, he couldn’ t believe the coverage we have and the amount of people we deal with because we stock stuff people want.
“ When we started, it was purely bearings and power transmission, but over the years we’ ve moved into pneumatics, PPE, first aid, office, janitorial, workwear – the lot.
“ We’ re a one-stop shop – and people want us to be that. If you’ re being driven by your customer, you’ ve got to take notice, and that will never change.”
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The voice of business in the Tees region | 65