PEOPLE 10 MINUTES WITH: TONY NEWCOMBE Marketing Manager, IBC Buying Group


What is your current role and how long have you been doing it? I have started with IBC Buying Group as Marketing Manager towards the end of last year, so I’m still the new boy, but with loads of enthusiasm. It is an exciting time as IBC moves forward and continues to expand.


What does your role entail? I am responsible for the expansion of all aspects of marketing for the Buying Group, its Members and Supplier Partners.


How did you get started in this industry? I fell into it. Computer programming and system analysis was my career path at first, but after starting a role with JT Edwards, I then moved into Buildbase after they were acquired. How lucky I was to fall into an industry that was more about people dealing with people, and that offered such diverse opportunities. Thank you to JT Edwards and Buildbase!


What roles were you doing before and how did they prepare you for this one? My time in the industry has included shovelling sand, driving, counter work, admin, management and, finally, marketing, with many roles in between. All in all, it’s been a


ON THE MOVE


• Aaron Frogley is the new merchant sales director at SIG, having previously worked at Pavestone UK Limited and at Vado. Rob Negus takes up the post of national accounts manager. Negus was previously national sales manager at Easy Trim.


• Margaret Talbot, marketing manager for VitrA bathrooms in the UK, has been promoted to Regional Marketing Manager – Europe.


great apprenticeship in the merchant sector, so I understand both the customers’ and merchants’ needs.


What would you like to achieve in your role?


My goal with IBC is to create marketing solutions that IBC members can embrace and that will drive volumes and profitability in the independent merchant sector, which in turn strengthens IBC’s position as a rapidly expanding buying group.


What has been the highlight of your career so far?


It has to be the part I played in Buildbase’s growth from seven branches to 160, working in unison with a dynamic management team who all had the same ‘work hard, play hard’ ethic.


What do you see as the main issues for builders’ merchants and for the construction industry at the moment? COVID-19 cannot be ignored but, to the industry’s credit, it has made massive strides to protect colleagues and customers so that merchants and suppliers can continue to trade. The disruption has caused shortages, however, and managing the availability of core product will continue to be an issue into 2021.


• The Lawsons Group has appointed John Griffiths as a non- executive director. Griffiths was md of SCA Timber’s UK Building


Supply Solution business, and md for many years at Alsford Timber.


• Andrew Harrison, formerly CEO of the P&H division of Travis Perkins is to join Lords Group Trading Ltd, parent company of


Lords Builders Merchants as a Non- Executive Director from 1st March.


• Electrical wholesaler ERF has appointed Andy Laycock as its new managing director.


8


If you could go back to the start of your career, what piece of advice would you give yourself?


How important it is to listen and never to think you know it all, because you never will – every day is a school day.


Football, rugby, cycling, golf or gardening – which one’s more likely to keep you busy at the weekends?


Gardening, unless there is a rugby match on.


If you’re at the bar – what are you drinking? A pint of real ale is always good at the end of a good week.


What’s your favourite book? Favourite film? I enjoy autobiographies, but my favourite film has to be ‘A Shining Season’ – a film about American athlete John Baker who, in the 1960s, despite being diagnosed with a terminal illness, showed determination, courage and strength to give hope and success to others through his positive approach to sport. He was truly inspirational.


If you could be a superhero, what super- power would you choose?


Mind reading – communication is not always what it should be. BMJ


• Aggregate Industries has appointed Andy Swinnerton as the new Managing Director of the firm’s Aggregates division.


• Graham Copson is the new technical manager for Pitched Roofing and Breather Membrane at Cromar Building Products.


• Travis Perkins plc has appointed Jasmine Whitbread to the post over chairwoman, from the end of March, taking over from Stuart


Chambers who leaves the group after three years.


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net February 2021


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40