Six businesses celebrated receiving an EDA Data Quality Award recently as part of the Association’s Annual Digitalisation Forum in the City of London. Presenting the Awards were Edgar Aponte, CEO at Rexel UK, and Richard Appleton, the EDA’s Head of Digitalisation.

This year’s winners were drawn from amongst the 70+ leading manufacturer brands subscribing to the EDATA data pool to share their product information with multiple wholesalers. Every EDA member wholesaler has free access to EDATA, and this year an additional award was given to Worcester Electrical Distributors Ltd in recognition of their early adoption and integration of the data pool into their business.

This year’s EDA Data Quality Award winners were:

Aico Ltd
Overall Data Quality Award <1,000 SKUs

D G Controls Ltd
Overall Data Quality Award 1,000 – 2,000 SKUs

CMP Products Ltd
Overall Data Quality Award >2,000 SKUs

Atkore Unistrut & Marco
Most Complete ETIM data 

Electrium Sales Ltd (A Siemens Company)
Data Maintenance Award

Worcester Electrical Distributors Ltd
EDATA Early Adopter

100 delegates attended the EDA’s Digitalisation Forum & Data Quality Awards, hearing presentations from expert speakers on a range of digitalisation topics, including a session and panel discussion on the potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on the UK’s electrotechnical sector delivered by AI expert and innovator, Paul Bratcher.

In addition to the main Awards, eight businesses received a commendation for achieving Gold Standard product data in the EDATA data pool, bringing the total number of manufacturers with Gold Standard product data to 39:

• Aurora Lighting
• Atkore Unistrut & Marco
• CMP Products Ltd
• Deta Electric Co Ltd
• Electrium Sales (A Siemens Company)
• Elta Trade
• Greenbrook
• Olympic Fixings

Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO at the EDA, said: “The EDATA data pool is one of the key pillars of the EDA’s work and we have experienced substantial growth since we launched in 2020. In October this year we sailed past the 200,000 SKUs live in EDATA but we never take our eyes off the ball when it comes to data quality. Wholesalers, and their contractor customers, depend on easy access to enriched product information to drive sales and today our Awards recognise the fantastic work that businesses of all sizes are putting in to supporting wholesaler businesses.”

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In this month’s Face to Face we hear from Ade Solomon, Group Sales Director at Olympic Fixings, to find out more about the company and the sector it operates in.

1. When and how was Olympic Fixings established?

Olympic Fixings was established over 30 years ago. I joined at the start of 2018, now with over 36 years of experience selling fasteners and fixings, along with fellow Directors Paul Gordon & Gareth Williams. Our aim was to modernise the business and drive growth through product innovation and a new customer service proposition.

2. What sets Olympic apart from other fixing suppliers?

Our mantra is “Quality at our core”. That’s quality in our products, our packaging and the service we offer our customers. We believe fixings are more than just commodities to be traded simply on price. The electrical contractor needs to be able to trust the integrity and suitability of the fixings that are being used. We get great feedback from end users that they trust the quality of the Olympic fixings brand.

Relative to some players in the market we are a small team, passionate about what we do, flexible, innovative and prepared to respond quickly to changes in our customer’s needs.

3. What products and solutions are currently proving popular in the electrical sector?

We have sold a limited range of our products in convenient Trade-Tubs for many years. Based on customer feedback we have added many new variants and the feedback from end users has been fantastic. In addition to the ever-popular screw and red plug tub we’ve added tubs of popular sized steel and brass machine screws, self-drilling screws, self-tapping screws, grommets and fire rated fixings. All designed to help the electrical contractor keep van stock organised and avoid time lost on site by not having the right fixing for the job.

Many of our customers have asked us to source non-catalogue products and so we have launched Olympic Fixings Sourcing – OFS. Instead of turning away an enquiry for “unusual” fixings, wholesalers can now use OFS to satisfy their customer requirement and make some additional sales and margin along the way.

4. How does Olympic Fixings support its wholesalers?

We are loyal to the channel – we don’t supply directly through Amazon or, unlike many others, the hybrid national retailers who have taken so much value away from the electrical wholesale channel.

Our customer proposition is based on being easy to deal with – 3,500 SKU offered for sale, in nearly all cases, down to the single unit as part of a carriage paid order.

Wholesalers can order by phone, email or through our online catalogue which carries an additional discount to recognise that the wholesaler is doing more of the work.

By building brands rather than simply trading commodities, wholesalers who sell Olympic Fixings products can expect to make higher cash margins. We have a range of merchandising solutions from simple countertop units through to full metre wide merchandising stands.

Product data is now available through the ePim platform and we are very proud that we’ve recently been awarded Gold Standard by EDATA. 

5. What are Olympic’s goals for the year ahead?

More product innovation is coming with an exciting range of solar fixings about to be introduced. We have recently launched the “tetra” four way nylon expansion wall plug which can be used in brick, stone concrete or drylining – another value-add product for the wholesaler.

We have signed up to attend all the Elex Trade Shows and are we’re excited to continue the dialogue with our trade end-users. We are working hard on our sustainability plan under the headers of people, product and planet and you can expect to see further innovation in our packaging and in the way we work.

An exciting year ahead for Olympic Fixings and its wholesaler partners.

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