NEWS EXTRA: BMF CONFERENCE
BMF: MEMBERSHIPS REACH 28-YEAR HIGH
There are now more members of the Builders Merchants Federation than at any time since 1992. That’s according to CEO John Newcomb, who took online delegates through the BMF’s activities over the past year at the Virtual AGM and Conference last month.
THE BMF HAS continued to build on the foundation of that was first laid down eight years ago, despite the severe impact of the Covid- 19 pandemic on the industry, and as a result, the membership has continued to grow. BMF CEO John Newcomb said: “Membership has now reached 751 member companies...a growth rate of over 130% in the last 8 years and represents our highest numbers since 1992.” Newcomb thanked the board members and regional chairmen who “give up their time as busy merchants to head up each of our 11 regions”, and also paid tribute to Paul Sexton, who passed away earlier this year and who, as chairman of the London and South East Region, was responsible for gathering the largest number of members to a regional meeting ever when he held it at the new Tottenham Hotspur Football Stadium. Newcomb discussed the
progress of the Building Excellence programme, which strives to achieve much greater engagement from members who currently don’t engage with the BMF at all. “Membership engagement is probably the single most important KPI for all membership bodies but few actually do it really well. From our research we know our merchant membership
comprises six district types of member, each with their own requirements for membership. So, for example, plumbing and heating merchants will have very different types of needs from a heavyside merchant. Unignited Advancers don’t really use any of our services so they remain members but not active users and Aspiring Progressors might use our services but on an adhoc basis in a minimal way. The biggest users of our services are Focussed Improvers who engage with a wide range of BMF services to poactively drive their business forward and the Active Influencers, those who engage with a wide range of services to drive the industry forward. Finally, there are the four national brands, the publicly listed companies who require a different type of service from the BMF again.” Newcomb said that three groups - Plumbing and Heating, Unignited Advancers and Aspiring Progressors - have little or no engagement and account for around 74% of the membership. “We have to address these groups first and provide better reasons for them to engage with us and deepen the relevance of our offer.” This, he said, will start with a range of targeted marketing material for each sector, using current member advocates.
Newcomb wrapped up his session with a piece on the Construction Leadership Council, something that he said has ‘dominated my mind for the last six months’. In particular the BMF’s input to the Road to Recovery.
“This is a published document that can be found on both BMF and CIC websites and is effectively a roadmap on how we collectively see the industry emerging from this crisis. The plan is broken down into three parts: Re-start, which is what we have been doing over the past three or four months, looking at ways we can get the industry back up and functioning. Then there’s Reset which is the stage the industry is at now, where we are looking at a number of ways of stimulating the construction sector - including for example the Green Homes Grant which the BMF is very actively involved in and finally, Reinvent which is really about how does the industry need to transform itself to meet the challenges particularly in terms of zero carbon and digitisation?”
In order to deliver the road map to recovery the CLC has set up for working groups: housing, local social and commercial sector group; domestic RMI and
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infrastructure and Newcomb explained that the BMF is currently represented on three of those groups and he personally sits on two of them.
“One of the major outputs has been the Talent Retention Scheme and I am particularity proud that the early adopters to sign up to that scheme four of them were BMF members: Aggregate Industries, Bradfords, Polypipe and Travis Perkins,” he said. The Talent Retention Scheme aims to retain jobs within the construction industry. It is not just an online jobs board; it enables businesses to find skills and expertise from within the industry and it allows candidates to showcase their talents and expertise to the wider construction sector. There are 650 companies signed up to the scheme and posting jobs. “We really need everyone to get fully involved to make the scheme work,” Newcomb said.
“There is no doubt that together we can strive to achieve and sustain excellence throughout our industry. we should all be incredibly proud of the journey we have been on over the past eight years but equally excited about what the future has in store for the BMF.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2020
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