MERCHANT FOCUS: SOVINI TRADE SUPPLIES
ROOTED IN THE COMMUNITY
Fiona Russell Horne meets a north west merchant that is about people, profit and paying back.
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ovini Trade Supplies was set up in 2014, initially to serve as the supply arm to Sovini Property Services, both being part of a group, the Sovini Group, that takes a seriously holistic approach to its supply chain.
Sovini Trade Supplies, a partner of The Sovini Group, was established in 2014 to supply materials to the Group’s social housing providers, who manage 14,000 homes across Liverpool and the Northwest.
The wider group is made up of different but complementary businesses that take an innovative approach to its end-to-end supply chain. These include One Vision Housing and Pine Court Housing Association, Sovini Waste Solutions, Teal Scaffold, Sovini Property Services, Sovini Construction and Amianto Services who specialise in asbestos removal. In the 10 years it has been operating, the company has expanded, opening its first trade
store at Heysham Road in Bootle in 2016, and a branch in Speke in 2022. The Bootle branch was moved to a new purpose-built site on Heysham Road in 2021 as they expanded. It is now the Sovini Trade Supplies flagship branch and distribution centre for the rest of the five branches which span across Liverpool, Merseyside, Cheshire, Manchester and the northwest.
External growth
This year Sovini Trade Supplies will turnover around £28m, a growth over the last five years from around £8m, and director of operations, Alan Evans says the bulk of that growth is accounted for by the external sales. He says that developing the Bootle branch has allowed the company to start making the most of the opportunities within the wider market, like joining the NBG buying group. He says: “Joining the NGB buying group, gave us the
facility to put the right products on the ground at the right price to allow us to go and secure external contracts.”
Mark Stuthridge, head of hommercial, joined the company five years ago, having always worked for national and independent merchant companies; the remit was to expand the sales to external customers. He says: “Being part of the wider Sovini Group is great for us as it opens doors to customers that we might not get to otherwise. The contractors that work on Group projects have their own subcontractors so we can fulfil their material supply demand. The branch we opened in Speke is testament to that. Almost from the day I joined, it was obvious that we would need a new branch to cope with the new business. The fact that we took what was an old DPD depot and turned it into a builder’s merchant with a £6m turnover in the first year confirms that we were right to open it. It also
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2024
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