Filstorage Helps GPH Builders Merchant Sail to Victory

DESIGN and fitout specialist Filstorage has helped a well-known Scottish builders merchant sail to victory at a top industry awards event.

GPH Builders’ Merchants Ltd won Lightside Showroom of the Year at last year’s Builders’ Merchants Awards after completing a full refurb of its Inverurie showroom.

The Scottish merchant, which has four depots as well as an aggregates bagging facility and plant hire division, worked closely with Filstorage to come up with the design and layout of the showroom.

Filstorage also supplied a range of shop shelving for the project, including integrated and gondola varieties, and installed these around a new mezzanine floor fitted to increase the available floor space.

Katrina Gillespie, Visual Merchandiser and Planner at GPH, said the updated showroom design was part of a far reaching rebrand aimed at attracting more domestic customers, as well as the trade.

The rebrand is now being rolled out across the business’s other locations in Ellon, Stonehaven, and Westhill.

Katrina, who used her extensive background in retail marketing to lead the process, said: “Our brand has been very traditional and directed at the trade, and whereas this is still a large and important market for us, we wanted to make the branding more consumer friendly. We want to create a feeling that everyone is welcome.

“To this end, new tool racking was a priority, but so was ensuring all our products were well presented and easy for customers to find. This was combined with a need for efficient over-stock storage, so stock could quickly be replaced.

“We invited Filstorage to come and see the space we had available and tasked them with creating a solution. After several meetings, we came up with the final design and started work. We didn’t know at the time it would turn out to be award-winning, but we were delighted when it did.”

Katrina added that working with Filstorage had been an integral part of the company’s award success.

“This was a complicated process and Filstorage added a lot of value by showing us what was possible,” she said.

“That was key in producing the final design.”

Mike Gorman, Sales Director at Filstorage, said he was delighted to have played a role in GPH’s success.

He said: “This was a great job to be involved in. GPH had a strong vision for what they wanted to create and working closely with them, we were able to deliver on that.

“The award was the icing on the cake. To fight off some stiff competition and win the Lightside Showroom category was testament to what we jointly created.”