CONTENTS / WELCOME
Communication is everything
THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS have been a year like no other. Yet throughout everything that has happened, one thing has stood out: the way that merchants and suppliers upped their games in order to continue to build their brands and their businesses, together. NBG has always been about building strong merchant and Supplier brands by making and maintaining solid, close working partnerships, both between Partners themselves and with the Partners and Suppliers. Once again, BMJ was asked to prepare this special supplement on behalf of NBG to highlight the hard work and dedication that the entire group and its Suppliers have put in this year to buy better and build the brands. Never before has communication been so important. Never before has it been so apparent that the flexibility of independents and their commitment to, and focus on, their local markets is what will bring them and their Suppliers through the tough times Fiona Russell Horne Group Managing Editor Builders Merchants Journal
CONTENTS
4 View from the Top NBG Managing Director Nick Oates looks at what NBG has been through in the past year and how it is building for the future
6 Category Management A chat with Grev Coomer, Chair of NBG’s Civils & Landscaping Category Management Team and NBG Buyer Paul Duff
10 Data Development Last year, NBG began developing a Product Information Management system. Managing Director Nick Oates looks at what the latest stage is and why it is important for NBG’s continued development and future growth.
NBG IS A FAMILY of independent businesses all working together. This has never been more apparent than this year. Our main purpose, of course, is buying better together and building strong brands for our Partners and Suppliers by working together. When we are thrown a curve ball like the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown, it opens up an opportunity for Suppliers and Partners to work together like they’ve never had to before. We couldn’t hold our Conference and Exhibition this year, nor the many face-to-face meetings that our Boards and Category Management Teams hold, so we had to re-think how we continue to communicate with each other. When all this is over, we will be in a strong position because we have held our nerve, rolled our sleeves up and got on with doing what we do best, which is working together to build our Partners’ businesses through better buying, building the strong brands which will help all sides of the Partnership maximise sales. Nick Oates,
NBG Managing Director
Published by BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL, on behalf of NBG, the National Buying Group.
Datateam Business Media, London Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 8LY Tel: 01622 687031
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net EDITORIAL
Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell-Horne 01622 699101
frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk
Assistant Editor:
Catrin Jones 01622 699186
cjones@datateam.co.uk
Production Controller: Phil Hammond
ADVERTISING
Advertisment Manager: Dawn Tucker 01622 699148
dtucker@datateam.co.uk North & Midlands Sales: David Harman 01772 462596
david.harman@talktalk.net Southern account manager: Burim Osmani 01622 699174
bosmani@datateam.co.uk
Publisher: Paul Ryder,
pryder@datateam.co.uk
12 Partner Survey The results of NBG’s Annual Partner Survey, looking at what Partners need from their buying group.
16 Partner Focus County Building Supplies, the self- styled Happiest Builders Merchants in the World, has continued to grow.
18 Lockdown Hero Award The winner of the special 2020 Award for the Supplier who went over and above in its quest to ensure NBG Partners got what they needed this year talks about what they did.
20 New Partner A chat with 3Counties Building Supplies, NBG’s latest Partner.
23 Supplier of the Year Awards
NBG’s Partners voted for the top companies in each of the commodity areas as well as for the overall Brand of the Year.
© Datateam Business Media Ltd 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the express prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall.
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