Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Merchant co-operative United Merchants held a joint event with Procurement for Housing , the UK ‘s largest buying consortium for social housing.
The event, called Win more business with Social Housing Providers, was aimed at Unimer merchants who all wanted to win additional public sector business.
Suzanne Millward, marketing manager at Unime says: “The event was geared around our framework agreement with Procurement for Housing but also to provide practical tips on how to secure more public sector business and how to put together a successful strategy for targeting and trading with social housing providers.”
Due to government changes in procurement practises, many merchants now find themselves competing for business by completing mini-tenders and competitions. The Unimer & PfH event aimed to provide an update on EU regulation and procurement, as well as practical examples on how to successfully respond to tenders and completing mini-competitions.
Millward says: “With the right knowledge and approach, responding to a tender or mini-competition need not be a complex process.
“We would like to think that our merchant members’, who attended the event, came away with the right information to now target PfH members and other public sector organisations. We have a large number of merchants who are trading on the PfH framework agreement with housing associations, councils and their contractors across the UK, and for many (if not all) this is business they never had access to before.”
