VIEW FROM THE TOP
organisation and all the key decisions are made by the Partners.”
There has been another shift in focus too, says Managing Director Nick Oates. “Our core has always been about buying, but NBG’s community has also seen an evolution from ‘let’s just have a great laugh together’ to ‘let’s use this great community to create business actions to help people to do business better’. Whether that be websites, data we are providing through PIM, aligning back-office systems or user groups, we are constantly trying to help people have better businesses. Naturally, the best way to do that is to connect. Get the Partners talking about common problems and common issues.” Fundamental to the continued growth of NBG will be the ongoing development of the Hub, NBG’s back-office intranet system. One immediate improvement will be to make it more mobile-friendly. Oates says that speed of use is a big factor these days in how user-friendly a system is. “We have to keep investing in it. At NBG we have always believed that we have to be at the forefront technologically speaking, and that means pushing the boundaries. That’s why we are looking at EDI ordering, something which is long, long overdue in this sector,” he says. “We have noticed that the customers who flocked to the websites to order during the pandemic because they had no choice, by and large have gone back to the older ways of ordering. Which just shows that it’s important to have all the channels open for customers “Sometimes merchants’ customers just need to have that bit of interaction, especially when they are working by themselves all day. That’s when you want to be able to pop out and pick up something from John or Barry at the merchant trade counter. Plus, of course, even with all the advances in technology, many end customers don’t always run like clockwork, and that’s why they need the merchants. When they go to the trade counter the guy there helps them out. The customer might look round the trade counter and think ‘oh yes, I do need some XYZ don’t I? And while I’m here I might as well have those’,” Oates says.
Moving forwards, the group will continue to grow, with five new Partners joining in 2022. “We want to make sure we have the right Partners in, the businesses that believe in compliance. Those Partners who want to participate and get involved in the deals. Aggressive businesses, that want to grow. It is a big chunk of personal time that the Partners have to commit to the group if they are to
6
play their part, so they need to be prepared for that.”
The benefit from that effort and hard work flows both ways, Oates continues. “For a lot of the Partners, it’s really good for them: the free and easy exchange of ideas can help to transform a new Partner’s business.” NBG starts 2023 on a slightly different footing, with the departure – on friendly terms – of the IBMG companies. This means founding brands such as Parkers and Grant & Stone leaving the group, however, both Oates and Szymanski stress that it is in the best interests of both parties. “This has always been a dynamic industry, constantly changing and diversifying. Our Partners’ businesses change, their needs change and our membership format is flexible enough to evolve alongside that,” Szymanski says. “Yes, we have slimmed down with the departure of the IBMG contingent, but we will continue to build and develop as a group for our Partners and Suppliers.
“In fact, I think we are set up to recruit better than we’ve ever been. We have Phil Bonar who is in charge of the recruitment side of things, undertaking due diligence, setting the whole thing up and getting the new Partners through all the NBG systems, which frees up Nick’s time to concentrate on other areas.”
A strong focus for the NBG recruitment has always been on specialist sectors, roofing is now very strong, for example, as is plumbing and heating. Oates says: “Geographically
we probably now need to work on building up again in the south and south-east. We’ve always had a view that we want specialists, and specialist merchants bring a lot of knowledge to us. One of our latest Partners is LMR, for example, who have a very strong civils background, so that will help us in that area, Woodstock are really good on the plumbing and renewables side. We want those Partners who have that specialist knowledge and can bring it to our party. “We have always been very proud of the fact that we have been really strong on compliance and strong in our support of Supplier. Of course, that was severely tested through Covid because our Partners had to get hold of products from wherever they could find them. This year return to compliance will be a big focus.”
He adds: “The sort of conversations that we have at events like our Conference and across the CMTs and the whole group means we can hopefully keep on top of all the challenges, and Partners and Suppliers can work together to move through, meeting the challenges together.
“Of course, tough times can bring opportunities as well as challenges, you only have to look at what happened during Covid to show that. If we go into a recession, which many are predicting, then previous experience tells us that the Nationals will take cost out, by for example reducing stock levels, and that brings opportunities for independents. NBG will be there to help them.”
January 2023
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 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68
