Andrew Gilliland
Andrew Gilliland
ANDREW Gilliland is a director and credit controller at the family
run Carryduff Building Supplies which originally opened its doors in
1984 under the name Farm Feeds and Supplies. The firm is headed up by
parents John and Shirley Gilliland, and Andrew's brother Richard. John
Gilliland
was originally a farmer and he started to sell agricultural supplies to
local farmers which then gradually expanded to include building
materials and supplies. As agricultural supplies started taking more of
a back seat, the name of the company was changed to Carryduff Building
Supplies in 1997. Andrew is married to Andrea and they have a daughter,
Kaya, aged 1. He graduated from Queen's University with a degree in Law
and Accountancy and worked for a solicitor's firm before being made
redundant in 2009. It was after this that the opportunity to join the
family firm presented itself.
I am office based most of the time and I usually start. about 7.45am. Most of my time is taken up with credit control, phone calls and pricing up quotations for customers. With a team of 16 staff and 7 lorries, the premises now covers a 6 acre site and sells the majority of products required for the construction, landscaping and DIY markets. I basically oversee the operations of the internal office and shop floor while my brother is responsible for the running of the yard and organising the lorry drivers. We all have our own individual roles to carry out each day.
The company ethos is "small enough to care, big enough to cope",
which we believe has helped us maintain our place as one of the most
reliable and proficient builders merchants that currently operates in
the area. The firm really has evolved to become one of the very few, or
even only, builders merchants to provide a one 5 op shop for customers
for all their building requirements. We supply everything needed for a
project from the ready-mix concrete for foundations right up to the
rooftiles, and then a full range of landscaping products to add the
finishing touches. We also manufacture our own concrete products
including blocks, heads, sills which we sell not only
hum 4, to our own private customers but also to other merchants within
the commercial market. On a daily basis I will be speaking to customers
from both markets so there's always plenty going on.
Most of the meetings we hold are carried out over the lunch table as we eat together everyday as a family - it really is very traditional. We are always thinking about plans for the future and running ideas past each other. We have recently erected two new buildings on the premises, totalling 1,200 sqm, and purchased new machinery to help us increase our manufacturing capacity for concrete products. We produce several thousand metres of concrete per annum at the moment and hope this will increase by 20% with our recent investment of two new lorries. In the afternoons I do most of my paperwork - go through emails, reply to customers and work on more customer quotations. I check the website to see if any updates are needed and I will be keeping an eye on stock levels too to see if any orders are needed to be placed with suppliers. When I've my work finished for the day I'll maybe chat with my family before heading home to spend time with my wife and daughter.
I really enjoy my job. It isn't something I envisaged myself doing but it has all worked out well and it is great to be part of the family business and see it go from strength to strength.
IT is great to be pan of a family business and to see it go from strength to strength
Ulster Star
24/08/2012
