Stockgap rebranding

Stockgap has launched a ‘striking new brand identity’ which is being rolled out in a comprehensive programme including a new logo, packaging, marketing and merchandising materials. The new branding is said to have been designed to reflect the distributor’s continued commitment to merchant customers and is built around two of the company’s pledges — ‘Putting Merchants First’ and ‘Ordered Delivered Done.’

MD Mark Reid said: “We are really excited to launch this sharp new brand identity which expresses the energy and ambitions of the Stockgap proposition to its merchant customers. As a merchant-only business, we are looking forward to the new branding generating specifications and driving increasing sales for all our merchant customers.”

A number of individual merchant businesses, along with the NMBS, have secured spots on a large-scale materials framework for UK housing associations and local authorities, worth up to £1.42bn over four years.

Launched by Procurement for Housing (PfH), the sixth generation of this framework sees a complete restructure with sixteen different lots allowing housing providers to procure plumbing, heating and gas, electrical and building materials, aids and adaptations, through either specialist merchants, managed stores (set up for their sole use) or branch networks.

Featuring Huws Gray, Jewson, NMBS, Travis Perkins, City Plumbing Supplies, UK Plumbing Supplies and Wolseley among others, the framework has a number of regional lots, enabling Scottish and Welsh housing providers to procure from suppliers local to them whilst it also offers self-serve options, so operatives can pick up materials even when branches are closed.

An ‘on-demand’ category enables housing associations and councils to use merchant branch networks for ad hoc purchases, when needed. Social landlords can also procure a tech platform that allows direct labour organisations (DLOs) and subcontractors to manage van stock, source products locally and have oversight of all spend across the framework.

For a significant proportion of the social housing sector, buying materials for repairs, planned maintenance and retrofit accounts for over half their total spend. More than 450 housing providers used PfH’s previous materials framework.

Judy Ashcroft, Materials Category Manager at PfH, said: “Rising costs and severe shortages have made the last few years pretty turbulent for social landlords procuring materials. The costof-living crisis is compounding this with housing associations and councils seeing a spike both in demand for homes and their own costs.

“More than ever, certainty is needed so the sector can meet tough targets on improving stock, but social landlords also need flexible, forward-thinking ways to source materials and deliver insights so they can manage their spend effectively.”