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It is not often that I visit a relatively new company with the successful track record of Tool-Line which has been started so relatively recently. In fact, Tool-Line was started in 1993 by Mike & Sue Hatcher in a small lockup shop on the main London Road in Westcliff on Sea, Essex.
The first premises used by Mike and Sue was a small lock up shop. Initially, the windows were blanked out because the premises were going to be used as an office with the main floor area being utilised for the storage of stock. Mike and Sue were working to a very tight budget so there were no luxuries, the equipment consisted of one desk and two fold-up chairs plus some DIY shelving which formed the main part of the office facilities and because at that time the Hatchers didn’t have any stock, the storage area was completely empty!
Not one to stand and wait for customers to come knocking on the door, Mike utilised his many years of selling experience in the hand and power tool industry and steadily built up a substantial customer base of predominantly account customers that were ordering everything from the smallest drill bit through to heavy woodworking machines. In the early days Mike and Sue had to do everything themselves so the customers knew that Mike would be personally delivering every order that he received.
Sue’s background is in Administration Management within distribution. She worked for large companies such as HMV, Tibbett & Britten and BOC. This experience stood her in good stead for the challenges of organising and controlling the systems that were to prove to be so important to the success of the venture. Armed with only the manufacturer’s manual she set up a brand new computer and accounts package and within literally a few hours invoices were being produced on the new equipment!
After one year The Hatchers decided to open a trade counter so display racks were installed and Tool-Line opened its doors to the first cash paying customers. Within a very short space of time Mike and Sue were finding it difficult to cope with the extra business and so they recruited their first full time member of staff to help with the work load. Because of the huge emphasis that the company places on customer service the business continued to increase as did staff numbers until 5 years later with 8 people working in a the same small unit it became obvious that the Company needed to be relocated to premises that were better suited to the volume of business that it was then attracting.
In April1999 the Company moved into a completely refurbished retail showroom further along London Road in Westcliff on Sea. The new premises had a good size retail area but came with the bonus of three floors of office and storage space above plus an all important car park large enough to accommodate the growing numbers of tradesman’s vans that were now regularly calling on the business. The improved facilities triggered another substantial increase in retail turnover so once again staffing levels were increased to ensure that good customer service was not compromised. A further extension to the premise was made in 2002 providing extra storage space for the Company.
In 2000, due to the difficulties the Company was experiencing in providing a reliable power tool repair service for its customers via existing repair centres Mike and Sue decided to start a centre of their own. Although the operation was quite small in its early days, by maintaining the Company’s ethos of exceptional customer service coupled with extremely competitive prices the operation has now become a significant part of Tools-Line’s overall business. Initially the workshop was situated in its old retail premises but in a relatively short period of time the sheer volume of work dictated a move to more suitable premises. In September 2005 the whole workshop operation was moved into a modern factory unit on an industrial estate close to Southend Airport. With overall responsibility for the Service Centre Sue Hatcher says that the new facility was instrumental in enabling Tool-Line to streamline its workflows and gave more space for the efficient storage of customer’s machines. Sue’s background in systems management has ensured that the all important monitoring and reporting controls are in place. These are vitally important in this type of industry. With a compliment of five factory trained engineers the centre is able to carry out both warranty and chargeable repairs for all the leading makes of power tools on the market plus a large range of petrol and diesel powered small plant. The volume of spares held at the Centre is increasing all the time enabling Tool-Line to offer a National delivery service for most power tool parts.
In 2001, Tool-Line joined the THS Tools Group. Mike & Sue regard their entry as one the best decisions they’ve made for their business. Membership has brought so many commercial benefits to their Company and is playing a key role in their plans for future growth. As Mike says “We all value our independence but it’s also reassuring to have the strength of the Group around us. There’s a huge reservoir of knowledge and support that can be called on at any time which has proven invaluable on so many occasions. We also enjoy the social side of Membership where official functions offer us an opportunity of catching up with old friends in our industry”.
The final words of Mike and Sue during my visit were: “We have future plans for Tool-Line that will take the Company forward but one thing will never change and that is our commitment to providing our customers with the very best service available”!
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