The company, which is changing its name in July to Ferguson to go with its strongest brand, is investing more in B2B e-commerce on FergusonOnline.com.

Wolseley plc, a United Kingdom-based plumbing products distributor, is opening wide the spigot of e-commerce.

The company’s largest business unit—Ferguson, which is based in the United States and sells plumbing and heating supplies to industrial, commercial and residential markets—does more than 20% of its total sales online, Wolseley CEO John Martin says. About two-thirds of Ferguson’s e-commerce sales go to businesses through the B2B site FergusonOnline.com, the rest to consumers through FergusonShowrooms.com.

There are some complexities far beyond what you see in most consumer sites, for B2B e-commerce.
John Martin, CEO
Wolseley plc

Ferguson’s revenue grew by 8.5% for the third quarter ended April 30, 2017, Martin said on a recent earnings conference call with stock analysts, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. Wolseley, which also operates retail e-commerce site Build.com in the U.S. market, doesn’t break out sales for its individual brands.

John Martin, CEO,
Wolseley plc

Overall, Wolseley posted its strongest year-over-year growth—at nearly 10%—in sales of industrial products, Martin said on the call. He added that sales to residential customers increased 9% in the quarter; sales to commercial customers increased about 7%; and to municipal customers about 8%.

advertisement

To maintain its strong growth to business customers, Martin said Wolseley will continue to build on its history of investing in B2B e-commerce technology. “I don’t see any relaxation materially in the investments that we’re going to be making in modernizing the business model and making available more diverse and attractive channels for our customers to shop in,” he said.

Although Wolseley also has a strong e-commerce platform, Martin said, the company realizes that business customers need online features beyond what’s typically available on retail sites. “There are some complexities far beyond the complexities of what you see in most consumer sites on the web, for B2B e-commerce,” he said. “And those things are somewhat expensive—in particular, things like master data management. Our [business] customers have got to be able to see product availability on our sites, and we have a lot of sites.” Master data management software is designed to maintain such information as product descriptions, specifications and inventory records in a single master file, providing a single source of accurate information to multiple marketing and customer service personnel.

Martin added that Wolseley was also investing in technology to ensure that its customers can view customer-specific pricing and warranty data. “They’ve got to be able to see a lot of technical data about the product,” he said, adding: “This is investment that is fairly prudently made.”

In addition to the U.S.-based Ferguson and Build.com sites, Wolseley operates more than 10 e-commerce sites in Europe catering to business and retail customers of its plumbing and heating products. The sites include PlumbCenter.co.uk, ClimateCenter.co.uk., Haustechnik.ch, Stark.dk and Wasco.nl.

advertisement

Wolseley is changing its corporate name to Ferguson plc as of July 31, 2017, to reflect the strength of its Ferguson brand. Based in Newport News, Va., the individual Ferguson unit itself is No. 54 in the B2B E-Commerce 300.

For the third quarter ended April 30, Wolseley reported:

  • Revenue from its U.S. operations of 3.003 billion British pounds (US$3.930 billion), up 24.4% from 2.414 billion pounds (US$3.160 billion) a year earlier;
  • Total revenue of 4.270 billion pounds (US$5.590), up 16.7% from 3.658 billion pounds (US$4.790);
  • U.S. operations net income, or trading profit, of 227 million pounds (US$297 million), up 11.3% from 204 million pounds (US$267 million);
  • Total net income of 254 million pounds (US$332.5 million), up 9.5% from 232 million pounds (US$303.7 million) a year earlier.

For the nine months ended April 30, Wolseley reported:

  • Revenue from its U.S. operations of 8.763 billion pounds (US$11.47 billion), up 29.0% from 6.795 billion pounds (US$8.90 billion) a year earlier;
  • Total revenue of 12.731 billion pounds (US$16.670 million), up 21.8% from 10.453 pounds (US$13.680);
  • U.S. operations net income of 678 million pounds (US$887.57 million), up 23.5% from 549 million pounds (US$718.70);
  • Total net income of 769 million pounds (US$1.007 billion), up 19.2% from 645 million pounds (US$844.37 million).

Sign up for a free subscription to B2BecNews, a twice-weekly newsletter that covers technology and business trends in the growing B2B e-commerce industry. B2BecNews is published by Vertical Web Media LLC, which also publishes DigitalCommerce360.com, Internet Retailer and Internet Health Management. Follow B2BecNews editor Paul Demery on Twitter @pdemery.

advertisement

Follow us on LinkedIn and be the first to know when new B2BecNews content is published.

Favorite