If you want a big job done, GDM are the ones to carry it out.
Earlier this year, GDM were tasked with re-developing the tapware offer for 84 Mitre 10 stores throughout New Zealand. Essentially Mitre 10 were looking to improve customer experience in their stores and grow sales. Tap displays did not adhere to a fixed design and branding across the board was inconsistent.
The improvements GDM made have been recognised as award winning, quite literally! The Mitre 10 tapware rollout was awarded with a Customer Experience Special Award at the 2020 RED Awards. Our team is incredibly proud of this project and the results achieved.
As explained by Mitre 10 Merchandise Manager Showrooms, Theresa Humphreys in the August 2020 edition of the New Zealand Hardware Journal, “we went back to basics with our whole tapware range, looked at where consumer demand was leading and also how to make it easier shopping [and] better for customer experience.”
Theresa Humphreys believes this initiative is “really going to inspire our customers” as well as tempt them upwards in the value chain.”
To create the required look, tapware branding has been consistent throughout the display. All branding is white with black background with labels across the top of the display. The colour is significant as silver and black are the predominant colour of the taps fixed into white display shelves. The eye of the customer is drawn to the tapware, it is not distracted by other elements.
This project required design, engineering, prototyping, logistics, and project coordination to get to the finished result. It was a complex job involving large numbers of materials. To give a sense of scale, GDM manufactured over 2000 Bathroom and Kitchen Panels displaying Kitchen, Bathroom and Laundry tapware. Each of the panels was manufactured specifically for the taps being displayed. A larger MEGA store has up to 43 different display panels, each with a minimum of six taps on a panel.
GDM’s ability to manage storage and logistics also came to the fore during this project. We had the capacity to receive over 15,000 boxes of taps at our Whanganui base. Over 18,000 taps and fixings then had to be unwrapped and manually fixed to the backing panels. The manufacture and assembly process took a full 6 weeks. We had 12 workstations operating, with staff fitting taps into the set display panels. It was a big job!
The next task was to carefully package the display panels and deliver them to stores. We manufactured over 170 custom transport crates to facilitate the safe delivery, the overall volume was similar in size to approximately six 40-foot containers.
Once delivered, we ensured a smooth transition for those installing the panels. We picked and packed all the internal posts, slatwall, shelving, and fixings so the taps arrived with all of the internal fixings required to attach the panels to the racking.
The rollout was completed within a 6-week time frame.
The finished result has improved the customer experience in Mitre 10’s bathroom and kitchen departments and increased sales to above budgeted volumes. The display looks sleek and striking, its simplicity catches the eye, making it easier for the customer to experience the full range of tapware in a logical manner.
Customer Testimonial
Jim Yule M10
Mitre 10 NZ engaged GDM to design and implement a full network change out of our Tapware range. This included a major change of the range in excess of 500 taps, shower roses, bath spouts and kitchen faucets. Mitre 10 required a solution which would integrate with the existing racking and merchandising system in the stores.
GDM designed, prototyped, and manufactured a system which fitted seamlessly into the store networks infrastructure. A typical store change out included six, retail bays with 38 fully completed and assembled customer ready display boards. On average the time for stores to complete the reset was one day resulting in a complete refresh in rapid time.
The result has been a very happy store network and a better than budgeted improvement in sales.