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If you suddenly find you鈥檙e in need of a caffeine kick while driving through Sunbury-on-Thames in Surrey, stopping off at Kem Edwards may not be your best bet. Not that the family wholesalers would purposefully send you away parched, but they do have a tendency to flog their own kettle to contractors every now and then.

Managing director Richard Edwards laughs: 鈥淲e鈥檝e had people phone us in the evening with a broken kettle and an important meeting the next morning, so we鈥檝e boxed up ours and couriered it over. That鈥檚 how you develop good will.鈥�

In total, Kem Edwards supplies 15 000 product lines, mostly to major contractors such as the Bailey Group, Spie Mathew Hall (formerly AMEC 黑洞社区 Services), Crown House Technologies and Haden Young. The firm has a strong relationship with its customers, so much so that it won this year鈥檚 NG Bailey productivity award.

The company鈥檚 turnover is set to hit the 拢10 million mark this year, and it鈥檚 not down to minor kitchen appliances. A devotion to innovation within the m&e sector is what really gives Kem Edwards the edge against competitors.

鈥淚t鈥檚 keeping us ahead of our peers in a commodity market,鈥� explains Richard. 鈥淲e tend to have a yes attitude that gets us involved in all sorts of things. It鈥檚 exciting and you learn something new every day.鈥�

As Richard talks, he is busy playing with various pieces of plastic conduit, slotting in spigots to create a host of different boxes. The snap-together system is one of at least 50 pioneering new products stocked by Kem Edwards, most of which are designed to help workers save time or reduce waste, storage space and safety risks.

鈥淚鈥檓 a frustrated inventor,鈥� he admits. 鈥淲hen they first come in, I feel as if I鈥檝e devised them myself and sit trying them out for ages.鈥�

Richard certainly knows his stuff. Before joining his father鈥檚 business, which has now been up and running for more than 40 years, he gained a qualification in engineering and has always been passionate about introducing value-added services into the industry.

鈥淲e supply low-value commodity products into a service-orientated industry, so we have to be quick and competitive. But what we鈥檝e tried to do in the last few years is make our service to customers more strategic, so that they consider savings on labour costs and not just the prices of products,鈥� he says.

Persuading buyers to step up their initial investments is not always an easy mission. In an ideal world, the sales team would prefer to offer their products to engineers, but many contractors do not allow this.

鈥淥ften, we鈥檙e not allowed on site by the purchasing manager, which is unfortunate as it means people aren鈥檛 buying into the technology. A lot of purchasers only consider short-term costs,鈥� says Richard.

The big wholesalers are lazy. I always think, 鈥楩or God鈥檚 sake, do something. The answers are sitting in front of you.鈥� But they just let us find the innovations

Kem Edwards is planning to open a showroom area next year, so that customers can view new products in action. As we enter to take a look at what is on offer, Richard is admonished by account manager Les Robinson for referring to the gas nailer as a 鈥渘ail gun鈥�. Apparently, this isn鈥檛 very PC, and the odd enterprising bank robber has used this type of tool in the past to break through bullet-proof glass.

Yet as Les darts around blasting brackets onto concrete and steel, one suspects he might well be busy picturing himself in the opening scenes of a new heist film. 鈥淗e sometimes forgets there鈥檚 another 14,999 products to sell,鈥� Richard jokes.

Richard feels the UK m&e market is aeons behind that of mainland Europe, when it comes to innovation. He holds up Datwyler鈥檚 Ecobus modular power system. The product has been available on the Swiss market for 40 years, yet Kem Edwards claims to be the first wholesaler

in this country to get hold of it, and has only done so recently.

鈥淭he big wholesalers are lazy. I always think, 鈥楩or God鈥檚 sake, do something. The answers are sitting in front of you.鈥� But they just let us find the innovations and create the demand, then price us out of existence,鈥� says Richard. 鈥淲e鈥檙e like the second division championship bringing in the young players and nurturing them for the big teams.鈥�

One of Kem Edwards鈥� greatest successes came from tapping into the increasing popularity of pre-assembled goods in 2004. The firm realised that when customers were cutting the 6 m-long pieces of Unistrut they stocked, there was a common range of lengths that could be standardised.

鈥淵ou get a better-quality product as it鈥檚 made in a controlled environment. There鈥檚 none of the health and safety risk associated with doing it on site. And with the shortage of labour in the market at the moment, we鈥檝e hit a major artery,鈥� explains Richard.

Pre-cutting the Unistrut also reduces waste, an important factor in the light of the government鈥檚 site waste management plans.

The company professes a commitment to sustainability. It was awarded the ISO 14001 Environmental Standard four years ago, and was the first distributor member of the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council. And if you鈥檙e at a loss as to what to do with all those boxes, Kem Edwards is currently setting up a recovery and recycling programme for the palettes in which its products are delivered.

Staff are encouraged to uphold the green philosophy and drive around in Toyota Prius hybrids instead of the usual slick company gas-guzzlers. But one can鈥檛 help feeling they may be suffering from a bit of an inferiority complex 鈥� the business next door specialises in Panther sports cars.

Take a tour through the Kem Edwards showroom with the company鈥檚 top five innovative products