Affording delegates the chance to pause and reflect by stepping away from the maelstrom of day-to-day business, the NMBS All Industry Conference took place recently in Cyprus. PBM catches up on some of the key talking points.
With a parade of thought-provoking speakers from all corners of the industry and beyond taking to the stage across two days at the well-appointed City of Dreams resort hotel in Cyprus, a number of recurring topics neatly underlined the ‘One Industry’ theme of this year’s NMBS All Industry Conference.
From MD Chris Hayward’s opening address and Commercial Director Andy Hextall’s early summary, the mission statement was clear: despite the headwinds of economic and political challenges, “unity and collaboration can help drive the building materials industry forwards” whilst the event itself offered delegates “opportunities for reflection, adaptation and growth.”
Chris explained that NMBS’ focus remains on improving its services, developing its membership pipeline and continuing to embrace the advantages of digitisation with Andy stressing the importance of talent retention and development, facilitated by boosting the profile of the sector through initiatives such as the Maddie Rose campaign and support for the BMF’s awareness programme.
“Unity and collaboration can help drive the building materials industry forwards.”
Net zero and the ensuing market for sustainable retrofit represents a huge opportunity as these upgrades “will all need to be served by this sector” whilst the efficiencies that can be delivered via digital advances including AI, product data standardisation and developments such as NMBS OnePlace.
Indeed, these key topics — which can be summarised as staff recruitment and retention, an extended range offering to meet changing customer expectations (with particular focus on sustainable retrofit) and digitisation, from product data and ecommerce to cyber security and business efficiency — were referenced throughout the duration of the event and will underpin how successful the sector will be in meeting the challenges it faces.
For example, NMBS Head of Sales & Marketing Dean Hayward and Marketing Co-ordinator Charlie Smith tackled the subject of skills and recruitment with Charlie offering her own unique perspective as a recent apprentice herself, whilst h&b Commercial Director Glenn Paddison outlined how “the retrofit revolution an unmissable opportunity for builders’ merchants.” Business analysist Steve Collinge urged delegates “don’t sit back” in the face of industry disruption while Bradfords CEO David Young informed the audience about how the 254-year old business has continually reinvented itself and adapted to an ever-evolving market.
Offering the wider context, Noble Francis, Economics Director of the Construction Products Association, highlighted a number of emerging ‘green shoots’ of recovery as inflation slowed and interest rates appear to have peaked — however, with consumer confidence vital to growth, he cautioned that a further 1.5million households are still to face the impact of higher rates as they come off fixed mortgage terms.
Anticipating that activity in private housebuilding and domestic RMI will remain difficult for the next 6-9 months before picking up again in 2025, in common with a number of the other speakers, Noble cited the main challenge for the sector is the question of “Who is going to do the work?” The industry is “rapidly” losing older workers, whilst the sector is also contending with a large number of firms going out of business — his main takeaway, therefore, is to consider both the short- and long-term impacts of skills shortages and recruitment.
With the essential, intensive ‘Meet the Merchant’ session facilitating a host of concentrated discussions between merchants and their supplier partners, Conference also once again provided a vital conduit to develop new and existing business relationships alike through ample informal networking opportunities beyond the business programme itself.
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