Keyline Norwich: why it’s our Branch of the Year
Winning Branch of the Year doesn’t happen by accident. With such a high level of service across the board at Keyline, you need to be doing something special to stand out. Our Norwich branch has earned the title for 2025 through consistency, teamwork, technical expertise and exceptional support for our customers.
We sat down with Branch Manager Ray Hibbard to talk about what makes the branch stand out, how they effectively support projects in a rural location, and why people are still at the heart of everything they do.
Ray has spent four decades in the merchant sector, and 15 of those have been spent at Keyline. Starting his career as a bricklayer in Dagenham, he has had a long and brilliant career in construction. He sets a fantastic example, consistently building a fantastic environment for both our staff and customers.
First of all, congratulations on winning Branch of the Year! What did that mean to you and the team?
I was really pleased for the team more than anything! Once we’d won our region, we knew we were up against some very strong branches nationally, so to come out on top was fantastic.
You always hope you’ve got a chance, but there’s still an element of surprise when it happens. It was a proud moment because it recognised everything the team has put in over the last year.
What do you think makes the Norwich branch stand out?
We’re more isolated than a lot of branches, and most of our business is delivered rather than customers walking in.
The roads around here can be challenging as well – tractors are a regular occurrence! But because of where we are, reliability becomes even more important. We’ve built our service around that.
Being in a rural location, we can’t just borrow stock from another nearby branch at short notice, so we have to manage it very carefully – stock availability is a huge one for me! We work really hard to make sure we’ve got the right levels of stock and the right mix of products available for customers. That’s been a big part of our success. Customers know that if we say we’ve got something, we’ve got it.
Our stock availability sits at around 97%, which is something I’m very proud of. But what makes this branch really special is the people.
How do you maintain such high stock accuracy?
We’ve got strong systems and processes in place. If stock gets damaged, it’s written off properly straight away so the figures stay accurate.
We also carry out two full stock takes a year and investigate anything that doesn’t look right during the year. The team understand how important it is because stock accuracy gives our sales team confidence when speaking to customers.
Are there any exciting projects the branch has been involved with in the past year?
There’s a lot of major development happening locally – Sizewell C is obviously a huge one for the area, which we’ve been proud to support. There’s plenty of big infrastructure projects ongoing in East Anglia – the outlook for Norwich is really positive.
Your branch offers customers strong technical support. Can you tell us more about that?
That’s something that really helps our customers. We can look at design drawings, and support customers with technical queries before work even starts on site. Sometimes we’ll identify issues on plans, suggest alternatives or help customers find more cost-effective solutions. It’s a level of service that makes a real difference.
Tell us a bit about the team behind the success.
It really is the team that makes this branch truly special! We have 14 staff here in Norwich – between us, we share over 120 years of industry experience, with an incredible range of knowledge and perspectives.
From our longest serving member of staff, Alan Bailey, HGV Driver, who has worked at Keyline for 20 years, to our newest employee, Paul Pulford, Yard Assistant, who has worked here for just seven months. It’s a friendly branch and everyone pulls together.
If I had to describe us in three words, they would be: seasoned, loyal and teamwork.
You clearly invest a lot in people. How important is that to you as a manager?
It’s probably the biggest part of the job.
You can teach systems and processes, but managing people is different. Everyone’s an individual, and you’ve got to understand what motivates them.
I believe in empowerment and giving people opportunities to grow. We’ve had apprentices progressing really well, team members stepping into new responsibilities and people developing confidence in their roles.
My door is always open. We talk about work, but we also talk about life outside work too. That’s important.
This is the second time you’ve won Branch of the Year as a manager. What advice would you give to aspiring branch managers?
People skills are massive. You need to be able to communicate with everyone – your team, customers, suppliers and senior management. Every person is different, and you’ve got to learn how to get the best from them.
The operational side comes with experience, but good management is about understanding people and building relationships.
How do you build relationships with customers and suppliers?
Regular contact makes a big difference. If customers and suppliers know you, trust you and see you consistently, relationships become much stronger.
We always encourage suppliers to come into branch regularly and spend time with the team. The stronger those relationships are, the better service we can all provide to customers.
Finally, what’s next for Norwich?
We want to keep improving and keep growing. As a branch, we’re looking at how we continue to develop — we’re looking to move to a bigger premises, which will help us broaden our product offering and bring in new ranges for customers.
In five years, hopefully I’ll be retired! But I think Norwich will be in a fantastic place – a world-class branch offering exceptional service.
Congratulations once again to Ray and the whole team at Norwich.