NEWS EXTRA RENEW, RESHAPE AND REBUILD: THE
BMF REVEALS POST-PANDEMIC PLANS BMF CEO John Newcomb’s opening address to the Builders Merchants Federation’s Annual Members’ Day Conference, looked at where the BMF is after the last year, and where it is going.
“IT WOULD BE good to think we can get over that 1,000-membership target,” said BMF CEO John Newcomb in his opening address to the Builders Merchants federation’s Annual Members’ Day Conference. Currently, the trade association stands at 770 members, a rise of 60 on the previous year and an increase of 38% in the eight years that Newcomb has been at the helm. The break down he said, is 395 merchants and 375 supplier and service members. “We remain the only trade association in the UK that represents the interests of both merchants and suppliers. I think that’s one of our great USPs, that we represent the entire building materials supply industry. In total, members turnover £39bn, and employ over 206,000 people across 6,000 branches.
Newcomb paid tribute to the 11 regional chairmen, all of them merchants, saying that without their support over the last 12 months, it would have been very difficult to do what the association has done. “I am especially pleased that we were nominated for six Covid related awards,” he said. “To be nominated for the support we have given you guys makes me really proud of what we have achieved.”
“Members are at the heart of everything we do,” he continued, “whether they be merchant, supplier or service member.”
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Newcomb explained that the board has reviewed the association’s strategy, recognizing that Felt necessary review the strategy seeing it not as a revolution but more of an evolution recognizing that each merchant member, each service provider, each supplier and, indeed, each individual is an essential member link in that materials supply chain. “Whatever the challenges we will face moving forward, we need to focus on that core strapline, how do you build excellence in materials supply?”
“Our vision has stayed the same,” he said. “Only the mission statement has changed and it is now about providing essential business support to merchants, supplier and service members through skill development, supply chain collaboration and government influence, to build a better future for our sector.”. These are our four key themes, he continued: Member value, skills development, supply chain collaboration, and government influence.
Member value as a trade association is key. We know we need to deliver value to our members on a constant basis. We are looking at ways of having further engagement with members. We have goals and we have KPIs for each of these areas. Absolutely key and at number one is ow do w continue o deliver member value. In terms of skills, we know there is a skills deficit in this industry and we find it difficult as sector to attract talented people into the industry. We’re not seen as a sexy industry and we need collectively to change this. We know that when we do get young people in, they tend to stay. We need to make this industry more attractive; we need to promote the building materials supply chain as one that people want to join. Absolutely part of this
is in last two years the construction industry alone as seen 20% decline in number of apprenticeships. In fact, since the Apprenticeship levy was introduced, it could be argued that the number of apprenticeships has gone backwards. Travis Pekins is doing a superb job in this area, with 1000 apprentices and they are best in class. We should all learn from them. What are they doing that perhaps the rest of us aren’t doing? Apprenticeships have to be at the heart of our skills development.
In terms of supply chain collaboration, Newcomb said: “We have to forge deeper relationships between merchants and manufacturers. One thing we have learned through dealing with the product availability crisis is how important we are to each other. have learned how much we rely on each other. We need to explore how we forge deeper links and partnerships in order to meet the challenges we face a as supply chain.”
We now have a seat at the top table, Newcomb said, It has taken nearly 18 months of the Covid crisis for us to be absolutely recognised as a core distribution channel and essential to the economy. Now we are there, we need to retain it, increase resources and continue to build those relationships. The Construction Leadership Council, which the BMF sits on, as unheard of two years ago
Newcomb continued, but the association is now heavily involved in it. “We are very proud to be part of the CLC over past 18 months. We have been working to support the industry, putting out lists of site and branches that are open, publishing an industry roadmap to recovery, managing information about products availability, guidance in government helps with covid, skills plans and the net zero plans. All of this is helping us as an industry to build back better.” Finally, Newcomb said: “We want to help you building your people, building your skills, building your business, we believe if you aspire and get to excellence that will reflect in the bottom line. We do all those things that will help us to achieve out aspiration of building excellence in materials supply. We are a huge industry, accounting for 9% of GDP, we deserve to be heard.” BMJ
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2021
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