NEWS EXTRA ITALIAN INSIGHT


Daniele Moretti, general coordinator of the Italian distribution network 4BILD, shared his organisation’s experience operating across Northern Italy.


GENERAL COORDINATOR OF building material distribution network 4BILD, Daniele Moretti, spoke to the BMF conference on what he has learned from creating a healthy business ecosystem while operating across northern Italy. “On one side, big box retailers


offer bulk discounts and one stop shopping. On the other, specialists have a bigger market share. The traditional merchant gets squeezed in the middle,” Moretti explained. “What do you do to compete in this environment? You play a different game entirely! “The Italian building


materials market is worth 22 billion euros but is incredibly fragmented. We have 10,000 distributor companies in Italy, however 95% of them have fewer than 10 employees. Within this fragmentation was the opportunity to create an ecosystem which changed how they operate.” “4BILD’s 20-year


transformation journey is a story about the initiatives that kept us live and growing. 4BILD started as 4 smaller


companies which had operated since 1950’s. The group unified in 2006, with the original 4 companies now operating as 4BILD Point; for structural materials, 4BILD Casa; for finishes with a showroom experience, 4BILD Loft; for architects and designers, and 4BILD Colour; for colour specialists. The group has since expanded. “We became 4 specialists, each


having their own offering, but operating under one system,” continued Moretti. “The same data. The same logistics. 25 locations, 230 employees, distributing 500 brands. At the centre of everything was our 2600 sq. meter hanger in Milan.


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Data organisation Phase one was the


implementation of one ERP system. From there the company aimed to move into phase 2; service integration. However, in 2023-2025 , the company stopped adding features to their IT services and instead focused on cleaning up its data collection. Moretti said; “The same products don’t mean the same data. Each company had collected data differently, different descriptions, different categories etc. We couldn’t collate them. The software was unified but the data was chaos. So, between 2023 and 2025, we stopped adding new features and went back to basics, unifying everything”


When it came to digitization the separate practices of each branch mean that while the group had been using one ERP for all 4 companies, each had collected different data for different purposes.


“Good data quality is more important than updated technology,” said Moretti. “In order for the system to work, you must fix any data issues before adding new tools and functionality. Otherwise, they will not work together properly. “This process was hard as at first some people resisted, saying ‘this won’t work for us’, ‘our customers are different’, ‘we’ve always done it this way’. It is hard to argue with this, you need to show them the results. “Within 5 months, small constant quick wins that everyone could see, when the areas that made the data transfer began to show a 25% increase in spend, suddenly resistance melted.


“Get the data right first, technology second. Then and only then could we create


a unified business platform. Successful integration required going back to basics, and taking the time to consolidate the data each was collecting.”


The company spent 2 years to get its data standardised, going from an error rate of 20% to nearly zero.


Bringing it all together The group was then able to focus on Integration; ensuring the different elements within the network work with each other. This way, overarching logistics, recycling, training, installation and rental are all handled from within the group. This served to allow 4BILD to diversify; bringing together different brands for different offerings.


Then, in 2026 the group launched phase 3: orchestration. This meant the group was now prepared to specify from across the network, communicating between companies so that all 40 companies in the network could effectively be reached from any one point of contact to fulfil a client’s needs.


Moretti added; “Don’t try to be everything to everyone, be specific things to specific people. Your network should aim to build an Ecosystem, not to collect products that every branch can stock. Integration beats addition.”


“If a customer comes to 4BILD with a renovation project, the products all come through the 4BILD hanger, moving sand from our aggregate network, the materials from our 4BILD Point branches, waste management


through our recycling consortium, and training from our 4BILD academia learning platform.


“We are not just selling materials any more. We are orchestrating an entire supply chain. The customer has one port of call to access the entire network as 10 companies work in sync.”


Seizing opportunities The company also saw an opportunity to impact the renewables market by setting up recycling points across its 26 points of sale.


According to Moretti, in Italy construction accounts for 50% of industrial waste and the country rates last in the EU for waste management. To address this, 4BILD set up recycling collection points for recycling in merchant stores, to make the process as easy and accessible as possible.


“We made it convenient, that was the key.” Moretti said. “Installers would come to the branch anyway; we added another step without adding another destination to their day to day. Convenience drives adoption, and a system needs to be both economically and environmentally beneficial in order to be sustainable. “Merchants can lead change, and while people often resist change, the data convinces them. Products are commodities, it is your operation that sets you apart. A successful merchant needs to offer solutions, not just materials.” BMJ


www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2026


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