Huws Gray adds showrooms director: design-led branch strategy for project teams
Reviewed by Joe Ashwell
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Huws Gray has appointed Jamie Davis as its first showrooms director to drive customer experience across its UK branch network, after refurbishing 80% of its kitchen and bathroom showrooms in the past year. Davis brings prior retail and trade showroom experience from Homebase, Magnet and Benchmarx, signalling a push towards more design-led, specification-focused sales. The company reports that its upgraded showrooms are outperforming the wider market on Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) sector survey metrics, reinforcing the value of branch-based display and consultative selling.
Technical Brief
- Role of showrooms director formalises central control of product mix, layout standards and specification support.
- Position spans all UK branches, implying nationwide harmonisation of design tools and technical advisory processes.
- Davis’ background in mixed retail–trade environments suggests tighter integration of consumer aesthetics with trade performance specs.
- Builders Merchant Building Index benchmarking provides independent quantitative evidence of sales uplift from showroom investment.
- Outperformance against sector surveys indicates higher conversion rates from design consultation to order placement.
- Enhanced showrooms likely support more complex multi-trade packages at branch level.
- For contractors, stronger in-branch specification capability can reduce design iterations and site-based product substitutions.
- Similar merchants may need comparable senior roles to coordinate technical display standards across fragmented branch estates.
Our Take
With around 80% of Huws Gray showrooms already renovated over the last year, the new showrooms director role looks timed to shift from capex-heavy refit work to sweating those assets through tighter product mix, margin management and installer engagement.
Our recent coverage shows Huws Gray simultaneously scaling plant & tool hire and dedicated timber branches in the UK, so a strengthened showroom function is likely aimed at tying together trade, timber and hire offers into a more coherent, project‑oriented proposition for contractors.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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