Bowens growth is beyond the building boom of the pandemic

Bowens, a fourth-generation, family-owned Australian business and market leader in supplying the largest variety of quality timber and building supplies in Australia, is projected to show a 13 per cent increase in revenue jumping from $367 million in FY 2020 to a projected $416 million in FY 2021.

Part of the growth is due to the pandemic response from the Morrison government’s HomeBuilder scheme, which proved more popular than originally predicted. As of January 2021, over 75,000 applications for the grant had been received nationwide. For Victoria-based Bowens, the state led the way with 21,525 grant applications submitted.

“Part of the growth is due to the pandemic response from the Morrison government’s HomeBuilder scheme, which proved more popular than originally predicted.”

This led to Bowens seeing a significant uplift across all product categories in the last year – despite the challenging market conditions felt across most timber-based products, which are still in limited supply due to manufacturing and supply chain issues worldwide.

The other area of the business which aided the growth of the company and helped support Australian tradies during the pandemic, is the shift towards a digital marketplace and the creation of in-house digital marketing and e-commerce teams.

“The other area of the business which aided the growth of the company and helped support Australian tradies during the pandemic, is the shift towards a digital marketplace and the creation of in-house digital marketing and e-commerce teams.”

“The building boom has helped in the everyday growth of the business, one aspect that will keep driving growth is the digital transformation of Bowens and the launch of our e-commerce platform,” Andy Bowen, Chief Investment Officer of Bowens said.

“As a result of our investment in digital marketing and trading online, we’ve seen a significant uplift in website traffic and an online shopping share of voice within our industry.

“As a result of our investment in digital marketing and trading online, we’ve seen a significant uplift in website traffic and an online shopping share of voice within our industry.”

“The addition of e-commerce might seem like a no-brainer and just keeping up with times, but Bowens are different to the average building and construction online platform. We offer everything online, even bulky building products like, cladding, decking, doors, plywood, flooring, plasterboard and cement based lining with the ability to control the delivery to the trade market.

“We control our own logistics, maintaining a large fleet of vehicles delivering to over 850 sites per day. Our ability to deliver to the trade market is the best in the industry,” Bowen said.

Trade professionals can choose the exact date and time they’d like their deliveries to be made on site, helping take the guesswork out of when key supplies will arrive. As more and more millennials and younger generations join the industry, the need to keep up digitally will be essential and Bowens is ensuring that they stay up to date and keep growing with the times.

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