Smart Build Supplies, a family-owned independent merchant in South West England, has become the latest merchant to graduate from the h&b Development Group into the main Group.
Based in Ottery St Mary near Exeter, the business has been established for over nine years and serves a mix of local trades, retail customers and both local and national housebuilders with a broad range of timber, heavyside and general building materials. The firm sees h&b membership both as having been fundamental to its growth in recent years and in moving forward, remaining focused on “the family and community customer service values that typify h&b independent merchant members.”
Smart says it joined the h&b Development Group primarily for its excellent buying deals but quickly recognised the other added benefits that h&b membership affords independent merchants across the UK, enabling it to match its “local company mentality and work ethic” with the resource and product range of a large one.
Director Stu Mainwaring explained further: “Being part of h&b offers us access to the buying power of a national company, but it’s so much more than that. It gives us the credibility of a national too, with all of the big brands that our customers want to buy, and that means we have better prices, better availability, plus all of the support and networking opportunities that a progressive buying group like h&b can offer.”
Indeed, being a member of h&b is said to have contributed significantly to Smart’s growth in the last two years with the single Devon branch turning over in excess of £6million in the past year. Now, Smart has joined the main h&b Group after fulfilling the organisation’s business criteria.
The h&b Development Group offers smaller independent merchants an opportunity to “power up their growth” and eventually join the main buying group which is reported to have a combined buying power of more than £1 billion with more than 100 merchant members across the length and breadth of the UK.
With a dedicated team helping Development Group members to graduate to the main Group, h&b asserts that membership offers merchants “a real chance to expand and develop their business quickly but with prudent management.”
