VIEW FROM THE TOP
NBG HOUSE W
DAY 596 IN THE
BMJ called NBG Managing Director Mark Hughes to the Diary Room to chat about his first 18 months in the hot seat.
hen I joined NBG, I thought I already had a fair sense of what to expect, as I’d been a Supplier for many years.
So, the fundamentals were familiar. Even so, I was impressed by what I couldn’t see from the outside. The systems were more refined, the processes more sophisticated and the organisation more disciplined than I expected. Much of that was down to my predecessor, Nick Oates, whose leadership ensured the way NBG uses its Hub and administrative infrastructure is genuinely second to none. What also impressed me was the quality of people within the organisation. It’s a relatively small team, but they are all really, really good at what they do: exceptionally capable, motivated and aligned with the group’s purpose. That strong internal foundation has been important because the first 18 months brought some big challenges.
Within weeks of my arrival, the group had lost some big members. IBMG had already departed and PGR was in the departure lounge. Those changes naturally prompted questions about what the group needed to do to maintain its strength and relevance to Suppliers.
How could we maintain our strength and relevance? We had made up some lost turnover, but it was via our new plumbing, heating and roofing Partners. That expansion has been extremely successful for the group, but didn’t really help our core heavyside merchants nor our Suppliers as effectively as we needed it to. We needed to replace that critical mass.
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So, that need meant there were some conversations across the sector. Some of them went further than others, but all gave us valuable insight, and the one that ticked the most boxes was working with Vick Patel and the team at IBC Ltd. The potential alliance with IBC ticked two vital NBG boxes. It would rebalance our heavyside mix and would enable us to retain our identity. Other options could have been mergers in all but name, diluting or even erasing NBG’s established position in the market. NBG itself, after all, started out as three separate organisations – Prospero, Chandler and SIMBA – with those legacy brands disappearing. That wasn’t the right future for NBG.
IBC, of course, came to the conversation with its own challenges around its value proposition, and ability to recruit and retain members. From both sides, then, the opportunity looked like a genuine winning one. NBG could strengthen its heavyside capability, while IBC could gain access to a more compelling commercial proposition. Actually, it’s more like a win-win-win scenario, because it also includes Suppliers. The benefits of a larger, more consolidated buying group are significant. In a flat market, which seems to be what we have at the moment, where volumes remain lower than two or three years ago, Suppliers often have spare capacity. A group capable of moving large volumes, consistently and in a committed way, is a good proposition for them. Biggest does buy best, usually, and I think the football analogy fits really well
“One of the core strengths that I believe NBG brings into this alliance is its approach to compliance. Within NBG, compliance isn’t optional, it’s mandatory. It’s embedded in the LLP and Partners understand their obligations clearly.”
Mark Hughes, Managing Director at NBG
January 2026
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