The Company

Established in 1860, Charles Bentley & Son Ltd is now the UK´s leading manufacturer and importer of Brushware & household cleaning products including Brooms, Brushes, Mops & Floor care products together with a host of other cleaning essentials. We also manufacturer Equestrian grooming brushes under our Bentley Slip Not Brand & have introduced an Industrial brushware & cleaning range. With over 150 years of experience, Bentley Brushware is a 6th generation family company. From humble beginnings the company has grown to become a global enterprise, supplying thousands of different cleaning products to many of the top retailers around the world.
A fully managed service is tailored to meet the individual needs of each client, ranging from 1,000 to upwards of 250,000 wearers.

Dimensions has achieved the position of market leader by offering excellent products at outstanding value and providing an unparalleled service to its clients.

The Brief

In common with many organisations in today’s digital world, Charles Bentley needed to look at alternative business models to stay ahead of the competition and grow.

The online side of the business, BuyDirect4U had become established, and the traditional Charles Bentley B2B operation was still an important supplier to top retailers. However, with change and increased competition, came challenges around stock and ultimately cash availability.

BIAS were called in, having previously delivered solutions through Qlik, to prepare a full review and SWOT analysis of the business, appraising the current situation and providing consultative input to the potential solutions.

The company needed to uncover actionable insights, and derive key metrics aligned to stakeholder deliverables, understanding sales, margin and cost drivers quickly and efficiently.


The company needed one version of the truth, and a consistent view of performance for each customer.

The Solution

Through the expertise gained at a number of Blue Chip Retailers, fused with the ability to take disparate sources of data and create an interactive, visual solution for a variety of challenges, BIAS were able to identify the key issues, and develop solutions to address, avoid and grow the business.

A full commercial roadmap was developed with encapsulated stock management, buying best practice, margin analysis and trading insight.

In order to effectively implement the changes into the business, it was important that the developments were delivered with the organisation as part of the journey, which meant project management with key stakeholders, training and agreeing together how best to implement the new technology, to facilitate self-service and ultimately, ownership.

Commercial reports and interactive dashboards and scorecards, aligned to the key deliverables of the business were created, to ensure targets were always effectively adhered to.

The Result

Charles Bentley were able to reduce stock holding significantly, whilst also increasing sell through of products and drive additional sales. Margin analysis and predictive sales forecasting, at SKU level enabled an action-oriented range review, to focus on key lines, optimising stock to match more insightful forward forecasts, improving rate of sale and significantly reducing terminal stock, thereby also improving the margin along with other initiatives.

Cashflow forecasting became a reality, rather than an artform, and growth into exciting new markets enabled.

Charles Bentley continue to evolve, we are happy to be on the journey with them, and look forward to continuing to partner with a company company with a proud heritage and a very bright future.