PEOPLE


Kitchen appliance manufacturer Caple has appointed Craig Randell to the South West team as business development manager, covering Devon and Cornwall. He will focus on


developing customer partnerships, providing regional support, and driving brand growth throughout Devon and Cornwall.


The BMF has appointed Dave Castle, chief operating officer at MKM Building Supplies, as a Board Advisor with effect from May 27 2026. Castle previously served as a BMF board director


in 2024/25 but resigned upon leaving Travis Perkins. He replaces Martin Stables of IBMG.


RGB Building Supplies has announced the appointment of Jamie Webb as its new Porthleven branch manager. Webb started on the trade counter and has worked in


almost every department in the branch, most recently serving as kitchen and bathroom showroom manager.


Long Rake Spar’s new head of marketing is Tammy Tidmarsh She will lead marketing strategy across the business, strengthening brand consistency, improving digital


performance, and ensuring marketing activity remains aligned with commercial objectives.


Geberit has appointed Oliver Talbot as regional sales manager for Bathroom Projects – North. In his new role, Talbot will be responsible for driving sales performance across the


North, working closely with contractors, merchants and key project stakeholders.


Tom Broadhurst, son of Long Rake Spar owner and md Trevor Broadhurst, has been made a director. He is currently group maintenance engineer, with a key role in


maintaining and developing the company’s operational capability across its sites.


VIEWPOINT


COMBAT MARGIN SQUEEZE WITH PRICING AND REBATE STRATEGIES


Steve Peppler, VP of product and business transformation, Enable


FOR SIX YEARS and counting, suppliers and merchants have navigated near-constant supply chain volatility, exacerbated this year as the Middle East conflict disrupts shipping, pushing some material costs up by between 20% and 100%.


Industry leaders such as Travis Perkins are seeing margin pressure and spikes in material cost, and the co-chairs of the Construction Leadership Council have named supply chain upheaval as the “biggest risk” facing the industry. For most merchants and suppliers, reducing profit erosion now depends on more agile commercial strategies, with pricing and rebates emerging as the two most effective levers for protecting margins.


Precision pricing With elevated prices weighing on consumer confidence, the ability to assess impact immediately and adjust pricing has become a competitive differentiator. The shift is towards smarter, more nuanced pricing adjustments in the right areas.


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Managing pricing changes across thousands of SKUs, multiple markets and different customer tiers remains a significant challenge. The reason is largely structural. ERP systems, which most merchants and suppliers rely on for pricing, were not designed for the speed and complexity now required. Many have layered spreadsheets and homegrown extensions on top have to compensate. It’s a model that creaks under disruption.


A growing number of operators are turning to purpose-built B2B pricing platforms, which allow them to model cost-impact scenarios, run targeted price changes and execute across the business in hours rather than weeks. Deconstructed pricing, separating the core product value from volatile external surcharges such as freight or energy, is one approach gaining traction with merchants who have the tooling to support it. By making the “why” behind a price shift visible, merchants can protect margin while maintaining the trust of trade customers who are themselves feeling the squeeze.


Partnering on rebates Rebate programmes have quietly evolved from a back-office function into a sophisticated lever for margin defence. Rather than relying on simple volume-based discounts or adversarial annual negotiations, leading suppliers and merchants are using rebates collaboratively, incentivising partners to prioritise specific product lines, accelerate stock movement or support shared commercial goals.


Yet the tooling beneath rebates has not kept pace with the strategy. Industry estimates suggest that the vast majority of merchants and suppliers still manage their rebate agreements in spreadsheets, email threads or homegrown ERP modules. The result is fragmented contracts and a procurement function consumed by administrative work.


Centralised rebate management systems are changing that. With agreements, performance data and accruals visible in real time, finance and commercial teams can identify which deals are working, model the impact of new ones and align rebate


strategy with broader business objectives.


The gap between merchants running rebates on spreadsheets and those running them on dedicated platforms is widening into a measurable competitive advantage. Enable’s research puts numbers to that gap: more than half of distributors say they are not collecting all the rebates they have earned, with nearly a third still tracking performance in a spreadsheet.


Supply chain disruption is not a short-term phenomenon. When trade routes need reconfiguring again, as they inevitably will, commercial agility will be a defining factor in financial performance. For building merchants and trade suppliers, that means being able to manage thousands of distinct supplier agreements and adjust prices quickly without incurring revenue loss. By digitally transforming these two levers, pricing and rebates, merchants can respond to the next shift in trade policy or supply disruption before it reaches the bottom line. BMJ


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2026


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