PARTNER PROFILE W


hen you’re really, really proud of something, it’s good to get someone really, really important to acknowledge it.


And so it came to pass that Scottish builder’s merchant Cartmore Building Supply saw its new hard landscaping display area – one of the largest in the land – opened by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown.


Gordon Banks, Director and Co-founder of Cartmore, says: “Having a display like this is fundamental for any landscaping business, and after we moved to new premises in May 2021, we wanted to ensure ours was state-of- the-art. We are very proud to now own one of the biggest such displays in Scotland and were very honoured that Gordon was able to officially declare it open for business. “Our continued upwards trajectory would not have been possible without our involvement with NBG. Being an NBG Partner is a crucial part of our business model, as it allows us to compete at the top table with nationals when it comes to pricing. This is why we are the group’s longest continually serving member in Scotland and we look forward to our future in collaboration with NBG.”


Banks believes the area’s size, scale and the fact it is accessible 24/7 will allow local contractors to better show to customers what completed works will look like. “Landscaping is highly visual by its very nature, so being able to demonstrate how a project will look when it is finished is extremely important. As such, we anticipate the fact contractors now have a highly effective and accessible tool here at Lochgelly will lead to more work in the area.”


Banks says that about 12 years ago, the company opened a landscaping centre which showed them the benefits that an extensive


IF YOU BUILD IT,


THEY WILL


One of the UK’s biggest merchant landscaping displays opened in Scotland last year, and membership of NBG was key to making it happen.


BUY


landscaping display could bring. “However, for many years Lochgelly was far too small for us, and restricted us in terms of what we could do and how we could do it. When we were looking to move it wasn’t just a case of wanting a bigger footprint, fundamental to all our thoughts was having the right space to allow us to have a substantial landscaping display,” he says. “As a company we had developed more and more into supplying landscaping products, and had done that on the back of a very small 100sq m display. We used to update that and found that the more people could see and feel and walk on the product the more likely they were to buy it, so when we were looking more new premises it was fundamental to our search that we find the right space to be able to do that.


“Size isn’t everything but we knew that if we had the size and space, we could provide real quality displays. Yes, we could provide a top-quality level of display in a smaller space, but really, we wanted to have the best of both


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worlds: the top quality and the space to really do it all justice. That’s what we have ended up with,” he says.


Cartmore now has a display of over 1,000sq m, with the capacity, should it be required, to double that. The ability of the premises to meet the company’s step one objectives with the outside space was a key factor in the decision to move to the location, Banks says, irrespective of how good the inside space or the rest of the yard was. He continues: “The landscaping potential was the key because we knew that it was that that would be driving the business forward.”


Work started on the display in January 2022, and it opened in May, with the Cartmore team having spent some months planning it. “We were working not just with the people who were creating our display area, but also the Suppliers, in particular Tobermore and Digby Stone, who have had a really big supporting hand in helping us to create what we have. “It’s our display but it is their products down


January 2023


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