UK supplier uses Web for global reach

Home Channel News, May 24, 1999

YOEVIL ENGLAND -- ScrewFix Direct, the United Kingdom's largest supplier of mail-order building supplies, hopes to expand its business to the United States and other countries through e-commerce.

In March, the company began selling more than 3,200 products -- including screws, bolts, sealants, hand and power tools, plumbing products and decorative hardware -- through its Web site, www.screwfix.com. Screwfix Direct operates a six-acre distribution center in southwest England, and uses this facility to fulfill orders the day after they are placed by customers in the United Kingdom.

Screwfix Direct is working to eventually offer this same service to consumers in the United States and other countries, either through joint ventures or by building DCs in these countries, according to David Cox, Screwfix Direct's CEO. The Web site has received hits from South Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe, but most of the hits are from the United States, Cox said.

The company has borrowed some of its philosophy from American retailers and evaluated such U.S.-based sites as www.superbuild.com and www.toolsonline.com to develop its site, according to Cox. "We've borrowed the need to offer the best price possible to the consumer," Cox said.

Screwfix Direct's buying power and expertise allow the company to offer good prices to its customers, according to Cox. The company's sales have nearly doubled every year in the last five years and are anticipated to grow to nearly u48 million (US$77 million) in 1999, Cox said.