Q: How did Cumbria building supplies start up? A: CBS first opened for business in August 2000, the three directors Darrell Elliot, Paul Blythe and David Reed worked together in various positions for another builders merchant in Carlisle. They explained “We used to go for a pint every Friday after work and always ended up having a little moan about our bosses and how we disagreed with some of the ways they did things, eventually we agreed that we should stop complaining and see if we could actually start up on our own. Twelve months later we nervously gave notice to our employers and opened our doors, we had a small hired wagon for deliveries which one of us drove while the other two looked after the customers calling into the depot. We now hold three times as much stock as we did then, employ another eight superb full and part time staff, and own two crane off load wagons which were built specifically to our specifications for deliveries to builder’s sites and people’s homes. Q: How do you look after your customers? A: Customer service is everything to a company like ours, every sale no matter how small matters and it is vital that every customer that we come into contact with, be it in person or on the phone feels that they have been looked after, every local delivery is pretty much guaranteed next day and is free of charge no matter how small. Builders merchants depots have a reputation for been purely trade friendly and not really interested in the retail side, as far as we are concerned this is nonsense, good service should be expected by everyone. Having said that we are far from perfect, and are very capable of making the odd mistake and sometimes getting things wrong, however we would like to think our customers realize that these are honest mistakes and that we quickly do our best to put things right Q: Do you offer any specialist services? A: Brick matching is a very important side to our business; we have good quantities of over 80 different bricks in stock and access to every single brick made in Europe. If you are building anything from a BBQ or garden wall to an extension and want the brickwork to match your existing house then we can help, we purposely try to stock bricks that houses in Carlisle are built with. If any customer needs us to identify their bricks they just give us a call, it makes no difference how many are needed, we will pop round and if we can’t identify it there and then will take a photo and send it to one of our brick specialists who will identify it for us, this is all done completely free of charge and with no obligation at all. Q: What are you finding are the latest trends in garden design? A: Over the last few years natural products have definitely become more popular, things like wooden sleepers, stone chippings, granite setts, sandstone and limestone paving are all things that a good merchant needs to stock, we have seen a huge demand for these products and our stock now reflects this demand. However man made products are still popular and we also have a fantastic selection of decorative concrete products for customers to choose from. People are now much more keen to have a go at doing their own garden project and we see a lot of people coming in with a sketch or drawing of their ideas, provided they are been realistic then there is no reason why they shouldn’t give it a go, we can help them work out their quantities and also give advice on how to do it. Q: How about the future? A: Many industries have found the last few years difficult and the building trade is certainly no different, as a company we are lucky enough to have a really good hard working and honest team who have certainly helped us through these times. We feel that to keep successful over our second ten years we must obviously keep our prices as competitive as possible, but more importantly make sure we maintain our reputation for trying to give the best possible service all the time.