BIRMINGHAM: The British Home Enhancement Trade Association (BHETA) has secured an opportunity for DIY and housewares suppliers to interact with kitchen, bathroom, furniture and homewares retailer, Homebase outside of the usual buying channels.
The opening event of the new initiative, which is entitled ‘Drive for Growth’, is a ‘meet the buyers’ day on 31 August, taking place adjacent to the Homebase head office in Milton Keynes. This first of its kind event is exclusively open to BHETA members on application and is dedicated to finding mutually beneficial trading opportunities which might not otherwise have been recognised so quickly.
The new ‘Drive for Growth’ initiative is the result of negotiations over the last 12 months between BHETA’s Vice President, John Grayson and David Robinson of Homebase, following the latter’s appearance as a keynote speaker at one of BHETA’s regular industry seminars.
At this event, Mr Robinson undertook to explore ways of working more closely with the industry trade association in its quest to deliver added value business driving initiatives to its members in addition to back office services. The ‘meet the buyer’ event is seen as the first in a series of steps to enhance and drive the retailer/supplier relationship.
