Two New Specialist Independent Merchants Join NBG

Two specialist merchants have set their sights on accelerated growth after joining National Buying Group (NBG).

Northamptonshire-based LMR Building Supplies and Hampshire-based Woodstock Plumbing & Heating joined existing members of NBG’s Partner community late last year.

Founded in 2018, LMR Building Supplies provides customers in the Northamptonshire area with quality building materials including timber, landscaping products, and civils and drainage supplies. Its 16-strong team prides itself on a customised, customer-centric service, which has seen the merchant establish itself as one of the region’s fastest-growing independents.

Woodstock Plumbing & Heating, meanwhile, has been supplying retail and trade customers with bathrooms, heating systems and plumbing fittings since 1987. Located in Andover, the merchant boasts a specialist showroom with the capacity to tailor bespoke bathrooms to a variety of styles, tastes, and budgets. The business is also looking to develop its renewables offering as demand for sustainable heating and plumbing technologies continues to grow.

Paul Londors, Director at LMR Building Supplies said: “Joining NBG was a very easy decision to make. Since trading started in 2018, we’ve seen steady growth within the business. To enable this to continue, aligning with a premier buying group that has transparency and a Supplier portfolio that would complement our current customers was required."

Scott Aldridge, Director at Woodstock Plumbing & Heating added: “As a small business we were looking for ways to improve our business model to streamline down our supply chain, be able to buy better and be in much better position for purchasing. With this in mind we were keen to join a buying group where we had “extra voices” to help us reach those goals.

“NBG were able to install confidence in us that we would no longer struggle to compete with ‘the big boys’ while being able to grow a good network of knowledge with the other members of our plumbing and heating group. We are very much looking forward to growing as a business both independently and as part of NBG.”

LMR and Woodstock are the third and fourth merchants to join NBG’s established network of Partners over the last 12 months. Amidst a challenging building products market, the strength of the NBG partnership of independent merchants has continued to facilitate knowledge sharing and forward-thinking business decisions.

We’ve already felt some of the benefits within a very short period which includes better Supplier relations and NBG Partners’ assistance. These benefits along with others we’ll no doubt enjoy as our journey with NBG continues have given us the tools and confidence to grow LMR organically in the coming years.

Phil Bonar, New Partner Development & Recruitment Manager at NBG, said: “It is with absolute pleasure we welcome LMR and Woodstock Plumbing & Heating to the NBG family. It is testament to NBG, and our community of like-minded merchants, that we can continue to grow and assist independents in their growth and pursuit of more competitive business activity. Our Partners continue to benefit from being part of our wider group, and we are excited to embark on what we’ve no doubt will be a long and mutually beneficial partnership with LMR and Woodstock.”