Grafton Group, Jewson, Wolseley and PTS secure materials framework contracts

Grafton Group, Jewson, Wolseley and PTS are among 12 merchants that have secured spots on a large-scale materials framework for social landlords that is worth up to £250m over four years.

The framework has been developed by Procurement for Housing (PfH) - a procurement consortium of over 900 housing organisations that collectively manage 75 per cent of the UK’s social housing stock.

The deal consists of ten national lots, allowing any UK social landlord to choose from tens of thousands of building materials, plumbing and heating materials, gas spares, renewable products, tiles, electrical items, aids and adaptations, stair lifts, tool and plant hire and maintenance services from national and local merchants.

For a large proportion of social landlords, buying materials for new build or repairs and maintenance projects accounts for over half their total spend. Just under 280 landlords used PfH’s previous materials framework, spending £100m over two years.

A number of the merchants who supplied products on PfH’s former materials framework have bid for this tender at a highly competitive rate due to the value generated from the previous deal. This has led to significantly reduced prices across all ten lots.

As a result of better prices, wider choice and new cost control measures, PfH estimates that the volume of spend going through the new materials deal will increase significantly over the next four years with more landlords starting to use the deal and existing framework customers increasing their spend.

Prices on the new framework are set either quarterly or annually and if suppliers increase prices then PfH will assist landlords to obtain justification and manage the impact. This process also helps suppliers as the evidence they present to justify price rises often helps landlords to see that there are genuine reasons behind cost increases.

Steve Malone, managing director of PfH said: “Materials represents a huge spend area for social landlords and we’ve worked closely with merchants and manufacturers to create a framework that will help landlords save but that also works well for suppliers. There are examples of merchants on our previous deals seeing spend grow from nothing to £10m in just five years. This new deal brings added flexibility and security for both suppliers and social landlords.”

Source : IndustryToday.co.uk
www.industrytoday.co.uk/Construction/twelve-merchants-win-places-on-250m-materials-deal/34990