Fix Radio: How is Screwfix expanding its tool refurbishment programme?

Max Britten: At the moment we sell about 500 products online that are refurbished and they are going really well for us. Obviously, they are sold at a little bit of a discount, which helps our customers and is also good for the environment.

Because it is going really well, we’re looking to expand. By early next year we will have about 1,000 products, double what we’ve currently got.

Fix Radio: Are the tools ‘returns’ from customers?

Britten: Yeah, they are. So if a customer returns[s] a power tool that will be sent to our logistics centre, it will be repaired, put on the website and sold as a refurbished product.

In addition to that, if a customer wants that tool repaired… we offer that as a five day service.

Fix Radio: How is Screwfix developing its online proposition?

Britten: Around two thirds of our sales start online, so it is a really important area of focus for us and also a big opportunity.

I will pick out a couple of examples. About 18 months ago we completely re-launched our app with loads of features that make the shopping experience really easy for our customers.

If you place an order on the app and arrive in-store, you can press a button on the app to say that you are there. Then the store will get the order ready for you and call out your name. So you can be in and out. We have seen how important that convenience is for our customers.

Another example is Screwfix Sprint. Sprint is our rapid delivery service, and is available in about 45% of UK postcodes. When you need a product right there and then, and haven’t got the time to get to one of our stores… then Sprint is an absolutely brilliant offer.

Fix Radio: Do you plan to expand that service?

Britten: Absolutely. About 60% (roughly) of our Sprint orders are in London. We have an opportunity to increase that in London, where convenience becomes even more important because of traffic.

But also we can roll Sprint out to further postcodes in the UK as well.

Fix Radio: How do you see your stores evolving in the next two to five years?

Britten: So we have 820 stores in the UK and Republic of Ireland. 

Around 95% of the UK population are within 20 minutes of one of our stores. It comes back to convenience, being able to get to a store really quickly to pick up an order, or to place an order in-store, is a really important part of what we are trying to do.

Time is money for our customers, so that time really counts. I don’t see it changing a huge amount because our store network is a really important part of our overall proposition. 

We are continuing to open new stores - so we will open 80 stores this year to give even more convenience for those customers where a store isn’t too close to them.

Fix Radio: What about online? Has sales grown as an overall percentage of your sales? And has the pandemic increased that?

Britten: What we saw during the pandemic is a really big increase in online sales. We all changed our shopping behaviour significantly during the pandemic. 

That’s moved back a little bit post-pandemic, but we are about two thirds of our sales online now. That is about double where we were pre-the-pandemic. It has settled down now to a fairly stable level.

It comes back to convenience - being able to access the entire range of 40,000 products online and make a choice of which products you need, seeing the latest prices, [and] the latest promotions is just a really convenient way for our customers to shop.

Fix Radio: From Screwfix’s perspective, what is going to be more important for its trade customers going forward - in-store or getting products to tradespeople onsite?

Britten: It is a bit of both. In early September we introduced ‘In-store Browse’ into our stores. 

There are three big benefits to In-Store Browse in the stores; first you can check what is in stock in that store - before you didn’t know if the product was in stock. 

The second, you have access to our full 40,000 range, whereas with the catalogue that we had previously it was around 15,000 products in-store. 

And the third is up to date pricing, so you know exactly what you’re going to pay, whereas with the catalogue that was a little bit more difficult.

But going back to the Sprint point earlier; we know customers really value having products delivered to them, whether that is delivered to the site, their home on next day delivery or through Sprint within an hour.

Fix Radio: How important is it to bring the industry together at events like Screwfix Live?

Britten: It is really important. Really important to bring out suppliers, customers and our teams together. It has been three years since we have been here at Screwfix Live. 

We have 170 suppliers here and we’re going to have over 20,000 customers here over the next three days and hundreds of our teams here as well.

It is a real highlight of the year for us. It's great to be back, face-to-face after everything we’ve all been through in the last few years.