Hybrid (heating) warfare
When it comes to the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and hybrid heating, Intatec CEO Stuart Gizzi argues that “grant rules are not the same as good advice.”
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Electric dreams for Joseph Parr Bradford
Joseph Parr in Bradford is running a Volvo FM Electric 6x2 rigid, believed to be the first zero‑tailpipe heavy‑duty truck in builders’ merchant operation in the UK. PBM l...
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AI “hands merchants time to do more”
Kelly Stafford, Regional Account Manager at Merlin ERP, shares how AI is helping builders’ merchants who are short on time and long on jobs.
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“Supplier price increases hitting merchants hard”
The latest update from MRA Reports on the general builders’ merchant market shows that merchants’ single biggest problem in Q2 2026 - by some margin - was supplier price...
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The new buying group that is “by the merchants, for the merchants…”
Since 2025, The Merchant’s Choice says that it has proved that a buying group for independent plumbers’ merchants and bathroom showrooms can run on a simple promise: no s...
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EchoPay toolkit “puts margin control back in merchants’ hands”
EchoPay's merchant toolkit pairs commercial card surcharging with pay-by-bank to give builders’, electrical, plumbing and timber merchants “two practical levers against r...
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Klipboard research reveals “98% of UK distributors deal with late payments”
An independent report commissioned by Klipboard has revealed that late payments have become “almost universal across the wholesale and distribution sector.”
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Burnham has the “opportunity to reset Britain’s approach to construction and infrastructure”
The incoming prime minister can “end a fifteen-year cycle of political churn that has held back growth far more than any shortage of funding or ambition,” according to Ho...
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Editor’s Viewpoint: Lucky number seven?
In the Viewpoint column of PBM’s July/August edition, editor Paul Davies discussed the most recent Prime Minister to fall by the wayside as political uncertainty once aga...
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“Subdued demand and ongoing challenges” outlined in latest CLC Material Supply Chain Group bulletin
The latest CLC statement highlights ongoing challenges relating to higher input costs, weak consumer confidence and ongoing economic and political uncertainty.
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