Toolstation opens its 500th store equipped with SSI Schaefer’s Racks

How loyal and trusting can be a collaboration between a client and supplier? We say: “500 projects together”.

Toolstation, a retail chain selling durable quality tools and building materials, has been working with SSI Schaefer for over 15 years. In 2005 Toolstation hired SSI Schaefer for their first project together – supply for their distribution centre within their head office in Bridgwater. This saw the use of Pallet Racking, R 3000 and a mezzanine structure. In 2007 SSI Schaefer for the first time supplied its R 3000 shelving directly to the Toolstation store located in Leeds. The project realisation went very smooth, and it helped to establish SSI Schaefer as a trusted supplier with prompt reaction time, a high degree of flexibility and willingness to tailor the solutions to the client’s individual business needs. Since 2007 every new Toolstation store has utilised storage solutions from SSI Schaefer.

Toolstation is one of Britain's fastest growing suppliers of tools, accessories and building supplies. The company is part of Travis Perkins group – the UK’s largest supplier to the building and construction industry, holding many other brands in its portfolio. Toolstation has been growing at a very rapid pace in terms of product choice and store network with the aim of having the right selection of products and being in close reach of tradespeople and the public.

In 2008, Toolstation was opening around 20 new stores per year. In recent years, the number of new stores has increased to 60-70 per year to reach a total of 500 across the UK in July 2021. As Toolstation’s demand has grown exponentially over the years, SSI Schaefer UK has implemented procedures to cater for this and ensure our customer's growth continues.

Toolstation’s store concept has worked so well it has remained virtually unchanged since 2002. The general scope for each project is R 3000 shelving for storing small and medium items and pallet racks. R 3000 shelving works so well for Toolstation as it comes with a wide variety of accessories, which allow for a huge variety of products to be stored easily, it is adaptable and can be amended very easily - even by non-tradespeople. SSI Schaefer supplies R 3000 in a wide range of depths and heights – which has given the customer scope to fit their store concept into a wide range of property – warehouses, retail park outlets, empty offices, high street shops.

Where space has been very tight on multiple sites, SSI Schaefer has supplied Toolstation with Mobile Shelving Systems. This solution allows for more efficient use of space compared to standard static shelving. The majority of aisles are eliminated and become space for extra storage. This solution has been incredibly successful in this type of retail environment as it allows the customer to store more, it is simple and easy to use and install and requires minimal maintenance. This system enables the customer to have a wider choice of property to chose from when acquiring new sites.

“R 3000 is the best for the customer because it is quick and easy to assemble and install and adaptable. With such a large number of openings yearly and shifting on-site dates, we aim to be as dynamic as we can with our customer. With the use of our large UK based warehouse and stock projections, large holding of reserved stock and our dedicated team for Toolstation we can meet very tight delivery deadlines to ensure our customer can complete projects rapidly, efficiently and on time.” - Sam Davis, Account Manager from SSI Schaefer.

SSI Schaefer’s dedicated design engineers have also supported Toolstation over the years with CAD drawings and layouts, even at the property acquisition stage. When a prospective property is found by a customer, SSI Schaefer can produce a layout to ensure efficient use of space to meet the client’s storage needs.

Working so closely with Toolstation for 16 years, handling multiple orders and projects every week, SSI Schaefer is happy to support Toolstation through every new milestone they reach. In July 2021 Toolstation opened its 500th shop in the UK in New Malden, London.

SSI Schaefer looks forward to continuing the collaboration with Toolstation.