As the return to work gathers pace following the lockdown earlier this year, Mila’s national sales manager Julie Holmes is appealing to fabricators to talk to their suppliers as much as possible so that they can deliver support that will make a difference.

“Mila has been phoning and emailing customers regularly to find out exactly what they need from us in terms of stock, lead times, deliveries and sales and marketing support to help them through the crisis,” she said.

“The feedback we are getting is helping us to manage our resource in house so that we can make sure we have the right number of staff available and can work out where to focus our efforts. We’ve been encouraged at how quickly the demand has increased from such a standing start and we’re grateful to customers for keeping us up to date, because it’s meant we’ve been able to get people back in our sales office quickly to keep orders on track.”

Mila has reduced its minimum order value, and switched to 48-hour deliveries – all in response to dialogue with customers. The company is also planning new digital solutions across sales and marketing, and would like feedback.

“The coronavirus crisis has shown us all just how interdependent we are in this industry and the mantra throughout has been that ‘we are all in this together’,” Julie said. “The vast majority of suppliers really do want to help, and I think if fabricators talk openly and share their experiences and expectations with us, then they will undoubtedly see the benefits.”

Mila plans to survey customers over the coming weeks to gauge the level of demand across the whole market so that it can ensure optimum stock availability moving forward, and will be sharing those results with customers so that they can gear up their own businesses to match the shape of the likely recovery.