BMJ
SUPPLIER SUMMIT BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL
NBG: MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF CHANGING TIMES
W
e are in a time of intense economic and political upheaval with changes taking place at breakneck speed both
domestically and internationally. Of course, there are threats and opportunities posed by Brexit, but that’s not really the important B word that our conference is focusing upon. Our conference gives us the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and build relationships and to listen to what is impacting your businesses, to ensure we provide you with a buying group that is responsive to the challenges your businesses face. In an increasingly competitive world it is important that we adapt: and that brings me to that B word: Brands. Brands that we thought would always be with us - MFI, Ratners, Blockbuster, Woolworths... none of them learned the importance of adapting their historical presence. So our conference this year is all about building strong brands. Your brands, our brands with an integrated approach we are stronger together. To gauge the climate we operate in we recently undertook our first industrial barometer to understand what keeps our Partners awake at night. What do they see as the challenges ahead and how are they future proofing their businesses?
We asked our Partners to rank the importance of a number of statements, taken together, we believe they represent a roadmap to a continuing and prosperous future. Number one is: that a strong local brand is vital to attracting local customers. From our research it is obvious that building strong brands is not only something our Partners are aware of, they know it’s also a prerequisite of the long term future of our businesses. A strong brand is more than just a logo or a piece of headed paper. Above all it’s what makes us different, it’s what makes us unique. This is why NBG does not have and will not have an own brand programme. Unlike Kingfisher, who are using an own brand programme to drive costs down by a reported 15% on key lines, or Persimmon, who are
January 2019
NBG managing director Nick Oates told the 2019 Supplier Summit that the organisation is gearing up to support suppliers and build brands along the supply chain.
Nick Oates
building brick and roof tile factories that cut out not just merchants but manufacturers as well. No, we want to work with you, our suppliers to help us develop and support your brands. We need you to provide us with the products and the prices to make us competitive in all channels. So when you have an agreement with NBG, we want to be working with you not against you. This is why we are still rolling out our account management programme to agree joint sales plans to work to grow businesses together. We have had some tremendous successes but there is an awful lot more than we can do. A great example of partnership is NBG working with Quinn. We supported their investment in a new plastic cement bagging line by making a commitment on volume. This gave NBG access to an exclusive product, extended now for a second year, because of great support by Partners and great sales together.
Building a strong brand requires commitment and focus and since we last
met, NBG have been executing our strategy. As a result we have strong purchase growth of 8.6% for the last 12 months. At NBG we manage our brand by adapting to the environment and, importantly, by facing change. We believe that in a fast moving market our status as independents means we are best placed to meet the changes and the challenges ahead. Brexit is one of those challenges and, while we can’t affect the outcome, I believe the changing landscape will represent great opportunity for NBG merchants. We need suppliers to support us and provide us with the products and the stock that we need.
According to our Partners barometer this is challenge number two. With regards to Brexit, this means manufacturers having flexible plans in place to ensure we have the products we need. If you have made plans please share them with us.
Times are changing though. For the first Continued on page 12 11
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