T-nuts, studs, tommy bars, collar nuts, slotted clamps, toggle clamp presses, levelling feet, handwheels, knobs and grips, machine vices, spring plungers and high tensile fasteners. That’s just for starters

Industrial merchant Lumsden Stuart Ltd holds over 10,000 regularly stocked lines. For the sub-contract, toolroom and manufacturing industry this is the place to pick up your hardware.

But it’s the company’s new software that holds the key to controlling this vast inventory. Lumsden Stuart Ltd, based in East Kilbride’s Nerston Industrial Estate, undertook a project last year to revolutionise its operation with a new computer-based system.

“It has allowed us to to fully computerise all stock movements within the organisation,” said managing director Lumsden Stuart.

Of course, the equipment and software to make such a system work costs money. This was helped by Challenge Fund – which is funded by South Lanarkshire Council and delveried by the Small Business Gateways – and Scottish Enterprise Lanarkshire funding.

“We put a considerable amount of money in to this, but we wouldn’t have been able to do the whole thing at one time without the additional support,” said Lumsden.

The end result is that the company now enjoys automatic purchasing and automatic stock control. A new fully trading website was also put in place – www.powertoolsuk.co.uk – which the company hopes will become the largest power tool internet site in the UK. The new software system ties all this together.

“It gives us total cost control,” explained Lumsden. “We can make our stock work harder as we know exactly how the stock is moving at any time and how much we need to buy.

“The system also automatically indexes to the most cost effective place for us to buy the quality of product we want.

“Therefore the customer gets the most cost effective price for the product they want within the time scale they want.”

But computers alone do not a successful business make. Lumsden Stuart Ltd was, after all, providing customer-friendly service throughout Scotland for 11 years before its new system was in place. The secret, according to Lumsden, is quite simple.

“One of the principles of this company is that we work with the customer to deliver the product when they want it,” he explained. “We agree a delivery date with them and we won’t promise something we aren’t capable of.

“Our aim is to develop on-going, long-term relationships with our customers built on trust.”

The new IT system just makes the whole process that much smoother. For example, in the future Lumsden Stuart Ltd will be able to use the internet to access supplier databases allowing the company to carry out stock checks in real time and order immediately based on that information

As well as acting as a specialised distributor, Lumsden Stuart also operates a successful trade counter, with the advantage of convenient private parking.

It offers a wide range of off-the-shelf products including hand and power tools, cutting tools, industrial fastenings and safety equipment.

Lumsden said: “We didn’t at first realise the potential for servicing customers with consumables in the local area. But then we found out that many of them had been driving to Glasgow before.”

Over the years, the company has expanded beyond its original target market of sub-contract engineers to all types of trade including plumbers, joiners and builders.

To tap back into the specialist market, the company received Challenge Fund and South Enterprise Lanarkshire support to produce an attractive, glossy marketing brochure.

Lumsden said: “We are looking for new markets and the brochure lets us push our specialist products in Scotland as well as in the north of England. We are selling quality products in here and this helps to portray a quality image.”

Business South Lanarkshire - Summer/ Autumn 2001

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