SUPPLIER SUMMIT A
nother sold-out event, the 2025 NBG Conference theme of Building Partnerships was, according to Managing Director Mark Hughes,
particularly appropriate.
He told delegates on day one of the 2025 Supplier Summit: “Last year, the theme was Strengthening our Community. Community between Partners, NBG Central Team and, of course, Suppliers. That theme is as relevant now as it has ever been. In NBG, we really do live and breathe the concept of partnership.” NBG operates on three central pillars: excellence in buying, enhancing business performance and supportive community. Hughes said: “Excellence in buying, is why we exist as a buying group. We won’t apologise for that, and we’ll always look for new ways of creating more excellence in buying. I think I can safely say that NBG has the best systems and processes in the industry, providing a really efficient way of transacting with our Partners. It’s that supportive community that I think is the secret sauce of NBG.”
Hughes said there are some macroeconomic issues affecting everyone in the room. “Housing affordability is as tough as it’s been for a long time. The last government stimulus was Help to Buy, which was back in 2022. So, we’re desperate for a shot in the arm, but I’m not sure we’re going to get that anytime soon. We’re going to fall far short of the 1.5 million houses built by the end of the Parliament. RMI is heading in the right direction, but only just.” In short, Hughes said the industry, and NBG, need some self-help measures. “We can’t rely on the market to save our fortunes.” He explained that with the resignation in the past two years of two Partners in IBMG and PGR, that had particularly strong heavyside sales, NBG found itself with more of an imbalance than it had experienced for some years. “We’ve done a really good job of that turnover, thanks to Phil Bonar, Head of New Partner Development & Recruitment, and his efforts. We’ve replaced them with roofing merchants, plumbing and heating merchants who’ve gone from strength to strength in NBG. However, that doesn’t really help our brick and block, timber or workwear categories. In the end, it’s all about volume. You need to deliver more volume if you want to get improvements in your deals.”
Among the most recent initiatives were closer working relationships, and consequent spend, with certain Suppliers. That includes solus supply deals with Siniat and Keystone on, respectively, plasterboard and steel lintels. “We’ve reduced other subcategories to have fewer Suppliers, and that’s generally worked,” Hughes said. “However, we do recognise there is a balance to be struck between
January 2026
IF YOU BUILD IT, THEY WILL COME
NBG Managing Director Mark Hughes welcomed delegates from Partners and Suppliers to the Supplier Summit, where the theme was Building Partnerships.
concentrated spend and brand choice. It’s not all about price, price, price.”
Hughes was tasked by the Board to come up with other collaborations via which NBG’s heavyside offer could be developed to add more value for Partners and Suppliers. He said: “Whatever we did, it was important to NBG that it be the right cultural fit. We have some really strong values and beliefs in NBG that we didn’t want to compromise on. It had to be the right scale.”
What the next move needed to do, he explained, was create a win for NBG, a win for collaborative Partners and a win for Suppliers. “This led us to IBC.”
Hughes continued: “I’m delighted that we finally got it over the line and signed IBC as our latest Partner in October, and we’re really pleased that Vick, Paul and Ian are in the room with us.” Bringing in a football analogy, Hughes said: “We all get that biggest buys best, on the whole. While NBG and IBC were mid-table, if we could join forces, we would be real contenders. Instead of Newcastle and Leeds, we could be Sunderland and a Champions League contender.” In fact, the combined turnover of NBG and IBC would move NBG up to a £1.9 billion operation.
From NBG’s perspective, Hughes explained, IBC Limited has become an umbrella Partner. IBC members are not NBG Partners in their own right. “That’s an important thing to understand. IBC will adopt NBG Supplier deals as quickly as possible, and there is a transition plan. Each of the deal teams will speak to Suppliers and explain where they are in the transition. It will be between January and July, which is when we’ll press the button. We’re looking for a really smooth transition.
“Suppliers will load the IBC member data onto the Hub, just as they would any other NBG Partner. Rebates will then be collected by NBG and redistributed.“
Hughes emphasised the important point that only IBC Central Team will have access to the IBC details on the NBG Hub. “So, it’s really important that Suppliers and sales teams don’t talk about commerciality to IBC members individually. That will be a breach of confidentiality and we’d ask you not to do that.”
He added IBC is dedicated to driving maximum commitment across the whole range. “There’s about £300 million of spend we’re looking to capture, and IBC will only be promoting NBG deals going forward. IBC, like NBG, won’t purchase goods to distribute to members. It will all be directly transacted between the Supplier and the member, as it is with NBG.
He continued: “We think IBC is a great fit. NBG was founded on collaboration between Simba, Chandor and Prospero some 20 years ago, and IBC has a record of collaboration with IPG from a marketing perspective. We believe we have shared values, a very similar culture and, of course the right profile. We really believe it is a win-win-win.”
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