Vertical integration proves popular

Three more of the UK’s leading house builders have signalled their support for vertically integrated materials sourcing with a switch away from multiple roofline supply partners to GAP’s ‘Power of One’ model, the company has announced.

In September, Taylor Wimpey committed exclusively to GAP for three more years, and the following month Persimmon moved its entire roofline supply contract to GAP in a new two-year solus agreement. In early November Redrow handed the GAP Nationals team joint responsibility for its PVCU fascia, soffit and ancillaries supply.

As well as the three major players, GAP’s end-to-end manufacturing, logistics and 112-depot distribution system is already the building materials source of choice for Lovell Homes, Miller Homes and Keepmoat.

Paul Sowerby, GAP’s director of group sales and marketing said: “It’s all very exciting but let’s face it, we’ve all seen this movie before: Ikea grows wood in its own Baltic forests; Shell and BP extract, refine and retail fuel that starts life in their own oilfields; and Zara can launch a new clothing range in three weeks instead of the nine-month norm because it makes pretty much everything itself.

“For house builders, the chance to engage quickly and effortlessly with every stage of the supply chain via a single point of contact is obviously important, but the big difference is the commercial transparency and financial clarity that come with it.

“Gone are the days when pricing needs to be distorted by complex, bewildering and time-consuming contract support and rebate schemes. And in a modern, competitive trading climate, when relationships and mutual trust have never been so success-critical, it’s just not good enough to expect professional buying teams to negotiate with a manufacturer and then be told that their day-to-day operational dealings must be with a random mish-mash of sub-stockists.”
The goal for GAP was to provide customers with one point of contact and one invoice. Following the acquisition of the SIG Building Plastics and SIG Windows businesses in August 2017, Blackburn-based GAP became the UK’s largest distributor of PVCU roofline, cladding and trim products to the UK’s new home building sector.

Taylor Wimpey’s divisional head of group procurement and supply chain Nick Dyke said: “We enjoy simple net pricing with no complex and time consuming retrospective rebates, a full scheduling service and trouble-free invoicing – together with a fully enabled UK wide network of wholly owned distribution points. GAP has quickly become one of our top tier providers who consistently rank highly in our performance monitoring programme.”