NORTHAMPTON: Travis Perkins plans to offer integrated services for refurbishment contracts that improve energy-efficiency in existing housing stock.
The move would bring together manufacturers, small contractors, installers, and environmental specialists to create a retrofitting product for consumers, said Geoff Cooper, chief executive of Travis Perkins.
Travis Perkins would integrate these services into a single package providing sufficient scale of business to encourage manufacturers to innovate, Mr Cooper said.
"We have got to see something that will make vendors and manufacturers begin to develop their offering and work together to provide a systems approach. One of the issues we have is there are lots of individual applications and specialist installers but no one has put a system together," he said.
"If we had a systems approach, we could begin to motor. At the moment that system integrator does not exist."
The planned acquisition by Travis Perkins of BSS will not only make Travis the largest UK merchant but add the necessary scale to its plumbing and heating business allowing the company to provide the integrator role, he said.
The company's access to consumers and tradesmen means it is a good position to bring together the technical expertise of manufacturers, educate installers and market directly to the public, Mr Cooper said. "But we need the tools to do the job and a big part of that is having more certainty."
The expansion could come through acquisition or organically by recruiting new skills. "It's a very early stage and I am flagging it up as an opportunity. We have been tracking it as an opportunity for five years. Now we are prepared to make that move, and we would not have said that before," he added
