MERCHANT FOCUS: NMBS
with Tony Nicholas, then-NMBS’ business development manager, who helped him to create a business plan for the fledgling merchant. It was Nicholas who introduced Sharkey to Julie Langford, NMBS’ finance and operations director, who has supported Sharkey and the business ever since. Sharkey says: “Right from day one Julie has been a really big supporter of ours, and I will be forever in her debt. When I first set out, it was difficult to open accounts without a credit rating, but being a part of NMBS gives you a lot of credibility with suppliers and instantly opens up a huge number of potential suppliers. And you have a credit account, which for me was a huge benefit, because it would have been very difficult to trade otherwise. So being an NMBS member was hugely significant in the growth of JTD Building Supplies.”
Supplier kudos
WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS
Go beyond the invoice clearing, the exhibition and the dinner dance and there’s a whole raft of services that NMBS can offer to up and coming merchants to support their growth as BMJ finds out.
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byying group exists to help its members get the best possible deals from suppliers, through exclusive offers and terms to independents via centralised purchasing. NMBS, the National Merchant Buying Society, is no different. Except it is. To its centralised purchasing benefits, NMBS can add invoice clearing, marketing and event activities as well as behind the scenes support for members. That includes new up-and-coming merchants as well as older, established ones.
JTD Building Supplies’ managing director Tony Sharkey has just moved into new premises, having only set up in January 2011 in Holmfirth, West Yorkshire with little more than
a mobile phone and a laptop. He’s since grown into a successful one-branch independent builders’ merchant with an estimated turnover of £3.7 million, making waves across West Yorkshire and believes that the help and support he got from NMBS played a pivotal role in helping him get started.
Joining NMBS was one of the very first things Sharkey did when he started the business, becoming a member within just one month of starting to trade.
“We worked very closely with NMBS, particularly at the beginning. We grew very quickly and we were constantly having to look at expanding our credit limits,” he says. Back in 2011, Sharkey was in contact
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2018
Langford adds: “JTD Building Supplies came to us when they first formed. We worked with them to help them grow and establish themselves as an independent merchant, providing them with the same support we give to all our members. Being an NMBS member gives you kudos with suppliers, and Tony was able to go to suppliers with that badge – it opened doors for him. We were also able to provide JTD with a line of credit, which grew as the business did.
“It’s lovely to see someone grow from almost nothing into a successful business that’s the size it is now – JTD has been a real success story.”
The independent merchant has enjoyed sustained growth ever since, operating primarily as a heavyside stockist with a lightside offering. While JTD stocks a wide range of products from cement, lintels and building aggregates to plaster, insulation and civils, it has also strengthened its product offering within the roofing and timber sectors in particular, investing in staff and expertise. “We’re expanding our product range all the time,” Sharkey explains. “This is what we do – we identify gaps in the local market and then find expert and knowledgeable staff in those areas. Recently we identified that our local area could benefit from a strong roofing merchant,
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