NEWS EXTRA FORTIS FOCUS ON THE FUTURE
After the hiatus of the Covid years, independent merchant group Fortis managed to hold its Building and Timber Conference and Supplier Awards in person.
FOUR YEARS IS a long time between conferences in an industry that thrives on personal relationships. Which is why merchant buying group Fortis was so pleased to be able to hold its heavyside conference at the Celtic Manor Resort in Newport at the end of the April. The event, which comprises an update on the organisation from members of the Executive Board, as well as 3,440 supplier meetings across two days, was originally scheduled for March 2020 but was cancelled when the country went into Covid lockdown.
“Video conferencing is fine, it’s very efficient and doesn’t involve you hacking up and down the motorways, but you don’t get
the same connections, you don’t build up the relationships in the same way you do when you meet face to face,” said Fortis chairman David Berry.
The heavyside event - there is a separate one for the lightside members - was split into two sections, Timber and Joinery and Bricks , Blocks and Cement, with 34 specially selected suppliers attending in each of the two categories. It was, Berry emphasised, very much a business event, rather than a jolly, with the Supplier Awards evening occurring in between the two days Fortis has 40 members, 27 of them are mixed merchants, 4 are building and timber focused and nine are fundamentally light-side
orientated. Members between them operate from 459 branches and employ over 8,000 staff and there are 420 supplier agreements. “That number has grown since our last conference in 2018,” he continued. “It’s not because we have greatly expanded the membership either, we haven’t. It’s because our members have grown over the period, both organically and by acquisition.” Fortis members, he said, are strong stable businesses that all share a long-term business horizon. The deals that the group seeks to set up with suppliers are about strategic partnerships with those suppliers, which work to mutual benefit, and do so in an atmosphere of trust and
integrity, something that Berry said is massively important to the group. “We’re not about beating up on our suppliers for a low price one year , and then coming back to do it again the following year, and threatening to go to someone else. “
Honor and commitment Honouring the terms of the agreements and commitments is pillar of the Fortis business that Berry said the Executive Board and the trading and category directors take very strongly indeed. “These principles matter to us. Even when Covid first hit in March 2020, we were determined that we would stick to our agreements, and pay our suppliers on time and in full.
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net June 2022
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