Getting the ball rollen’

PlaceMakers is delighted to reaffirm its commitment to Canterbury tradies by opening its new store in Rolleston and getting the ball rollen’ to fill a gap in coverage

The branch, which has been in development since September 2021, joins seven other PlaceMakers stores in the region to improve access to building materials for tradespeople working in surrounding areas such as Selwyn.

“We’ve left no stone unturned in the construction of this store and researching the customer base it’ll serve,” says Hub Operations Manager Rob Payne. “We identified a lack of service to builders out here and wanted to expand our reach to better meet their needs.”

He reckons the new location could be a real time-saver for a lot of tradies and enable them to complete projects more efficiently. 

“We’re anticipating it could save some builders a 40-minute round trip to restock on supplies – and that’s with good traffic!”

Plenty of space

With more than enough space to stock all the materials needed to take a project from concept to completion, the showroom will be 583m2 with a drive-through area of over 1,000m2. 

“It’s a big site,” explains Rob. “We also have a gravelled area that we’ll use for product storage and that’s roughly 3,000m2. It’s a location that has a lot of potential for us, and we’re planning to cover everything a builder needs to take a house from start to finish.

“We thought really hard about what builders need most and made sure we have plenty of that stock in the store, then we fleshed out the rest of our range from there.”

The new store will provide a delivery service as well as the option to ‘click and collect’.

“Our Order Make Up service is really popular here in Christchurch,“ says Rob. “Builders can tell us what they want in advance, then we’ll bundle it all together, so it’s ready to pop onto a forklift and into a customer’s vehicle as soon as they pull up. Some builders use it differently – they’ll just order the big stuff through the App when they arrive at the store, then browse for smaller items while we do the heavy lifting.”

Knowing the customers

Rob anticipates that most of the new customers will be working on residential builds around Rolleston and the Selwyn district.

“There’s a lot of subdivisions popping up around the area and we’ll work with anyone from group home developers to individual builders. We anticipate we’ll be supporting a broad range of clients. 

“There’s also Lincoln down the road and that has a lot of big subdivision projects as well, so we anticipate that residential will be our biggest client base for sure. That said, we will always have stock on hand to service commercial clients – and if we don’t have it, we can always bring it in from one of our other Christchurch locations.”

Broad range of experience

The new store’s branch manager Scott Morton has been working with PlaceMakers for 14 years, but this is his first time managing one! He started off part-time at a young age, working after school in the showroom, before progressing through telesales and account management, as well as spending some time as a commercial account manager.

“Focussing on key commercial account customers in Canterbury gave me a really good understanding of the building environment in the area and what tradies need to get projects completed from start to finish.

“Before moving out to Rolleston, I was based in Riccarton and being part of a big, supportive team was a real plus for me. I’m really looking forward to getting to grips with my new role and growing my team in a similar way!”

Scott says he’s confident the knowledge and experience of the staff working at Rolleston will help fill a gap that was previously missing for builders in the area.

“We’ll ensure we meet their needs by providing the most enjoyable and efficient in-store experience, the best range of merchandise in the area and a comprehensive delivery service.

“Stock is anticipated to be high and this is an excellent opportunity for us to make a real splash in the area, so we’ll ensure all key products are available. A real advantage for us is that we can bring stock in from other areas of Canterbury if we’re missing something.”