MD’S OVERVIEW
really strongly. Our fundamental ethos is all about buying but you can’t buy anything if you don’t have any stock.”
He says he believes that those Suppliers who have stuck to their partnership promises are the ones who committed to provide ongoing support, to having good, constant dialogue and value relationships. “We’ve developed a whole new way of working, together. All of us. There are a lot of positives to take out from this year.” NBG is back on track for its plans for 2021, Oates says, albeit maybe one or two months later than it would normally be. “All our Category Managment Teams are working through Zoom and our negotiating teams are in place. We’re not conducting the same level of face to face meetings and we’re not bringing the Category Management Teams together, but, rather than meeting quarterly, a lot of them are getting together twice a quarter on Zoom. I think we’re as close to business as usual as we can be.”
The advent of online meetings has been a real benefit, Oates says. “If we go back to our annual survey that we do with Partners, the number one complaint was that they had to do too much travelling to fulfil their NBG commitments. Now, by default, we have found
If you sell landscaping and fencing or decking then chances are you had a great run in 2020, despite everything.
a way of avoiding that, and only meeting in person when we really need to.
“However, complicated topics that require a lot of discussion and input from a number of people, is where Zoom struggles. So those meetings we take offline and do them separately.”
Structured diary
It’s probably more important than ever to have structure and a routine, Oates says, so, every Monday at three o’clock, there is a 15-minute Supplier Showcase. “If anyone misses it, it gets recorded and posted on the NBG Hub
and Partners can watch it whenever they want. We’ve used these to cover new Supplier launches and new product launches too. It forces the Suppliers to be very clear in their message. It’s amazing how you get a really strong message over in 15 minutes. It works really well.”
The focus for NBG will, of course, Oates continues, be buying and buying well. “It’s a quite simple model. We work together, helping Partners to grow their businesses and helping Suppliers grow their businesses with our Partners. We’ve even been recruiting through everything that’s happened this year. In fact, we have a pretty active supply chain of new members, because we know that leads to better buying.
“We want a strong and growing community. And we probably have as many new threats coming now as we have ever had, maybe more. But if we don’t work together, then we won’t be successful. That means making sure we stick to our core principles. There are three things that we look for NBG Partners to do: Number one, support the deals; number two, participate in the group; and number three, share data. 2021 will be a challenging year but we are in good shape”
January 2021
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