About County Construction Chemicals

County Construction Chemicals were established in 1971 as a mastic contractor. Fifty years later they have carved a firm spot in the mastic joint sealant and waterproofing material market. Specialising in all types of mastic joint sealants, County Construction Chemicals have the largest range of silicone colours in the UK. As well as a popular showroom counter in Chingford, North-East London, they have also grown their online business, sealantsonline.co.uk, to become one of the UK’s largest online suppliers of high-quality building and waterproofing materials.

Number of Employees: 21

Partnered with OGL since: 2007

Company Location: London

Company Website: county.construction

OGL Software helps boost online & offline sales for County Construction Chemicals

The challenge

County Construction Chemicals were originally using Sage to manage their data. However, by not having clear visibility and control over the stock they held, County Construction Chemicals started to see a decrease in the quality of service they could offer their customers. Instead, they required a more flexible, scalable, and long-term solution to meet their needs.

The Marketing Manager commented: “Our previous software, Sage, was primarily an accounts-based package and didn’t cater for, or integrate well, with our sales and marketing. We needed better visibility and OGL Software provided an integrated solution for our business needs.”

The Solution

“We chose OGL software because they had a generally good understanding of retail with a personal approach and flexible options to evolve and expand. We much preferred to put our trust in a tried and tested supplier as opposed to shopping around to save money. It’s often a false economy.

“OGL was there to hold our hands every step of the way. Aftercare for all staff was available and after a short time, most people were confident with using the software. The initial training was great. OGL was patient and approachable for the bespoke changes and tweaks we wanted to make within the system.”

Fully configurable to drive success

With its modular structure, County Construction Chemicals has taken full advantage of several of OGL Software’s additional modules to suit their business needs:

Warehouse Management System

Since installing OGL’s Warehouse Management System (WMS), County Construction Chemicals can now pick, pack, process returns, scan goods and perform stock counts with greater speed and accuracy:

“We were expanding turnover-wise which inevitably meant more margin for error with booking in and picking stock. We needed a more robust system for our staff and OGL’s WMS was the perfect answer. OGL organised for our key managers to visit a working site using the system and this convinced us 100% of its benefits.

“With the introduction of WMS, and especially barcode scanning, we’ve found better ways of keeping check of our backorders and other anomalies that we need to keep a close eye on. We tend to report more on sales and stock, with OGL offering bespoke methods to make our workflow easier and more accessible. Our warehouse team now have a much more efficient operation in place, compared to the clunky triple paperwork system we used for many years previously.”

Fully integrated eCommerce website

County Construction Chemicals also chose OGL to develop their e-Shop, sealantsonline.co.uk, which integrates fully with OGL Software:

“The website has been a massive benefit for us and with the help of OGL’s specialists we’ve tweaked and improved sealantsonline.co.uk so it now generates nearly 50% of all our business. Everything about the integration of our e-Shop with OGL Software is perfect for what we need to keep on growing and keep on top of our orders and stock levels.

“The automation of Web Order picking list printing has also been a major time-saving effort and the communication between all our departments has improved dramatically with better stock control.

“The integration between OGL Software and our e-Shop is paramount to our future plans, with a heavy focus on streamlining stock rotation and barcode scanning technology. Cloud-based options have proved invaluable to the continuity of our working methods in recent times. ”

The future

Previously, expanding the business was daunting, with any additional orders making operations chaotic. Now that their processes are automated, County Construction Chemicals now feel confident they can take on more customers and more orders.

The Marketing Manager commented “Looking to the future, we aim to keep stocks high of existing key product ranges and evolve our own brands, especially 3C Sealants, to ensure we hold a firm place of our own in the marketplace. We want to continue to source new products from both our supplier catalogues and also our own brands and expand our ranges to increase turnover and ultimately profit at a manageable rate.”

When asked what advice they would give to other businesses who are struggling with limited systems and manual processes but are unsure whether to invest in a full ERP system, they said “ We’d highly recommend a site visit for a company such as ours. Personal liaison with an experienced OGL consultant will demonstrate what enhancements and improvements a new software system could make to your operation and could make a massive difference.”