MKM Building Supplies has signed an exclusive contract with East Yorkshire housebuilder Midas Homes, 20 years after first starting work with the company.
Midas Homes, based at Raywell Hall Country Lodge Park, has appointed MKM as its preferred supplier of building, plumbing, heating products and materials, in a deal set to be worth millions of pounds over the coming years and also strengthening relations between the two firms.
MKM and Midas Homes first started working together almost 20 years ago, just as the builders' merchant was becoming established. It was founded by current executive chairman David Kilburn and Peter Murray in 1995 and has since grown to be the UK's largest independent builders' merchant.
David Coates, director at Midas Homes, said the company decided to go out to tender to streamline its purchasing activities and consolidate its supply of building materials. Although the contract is not limited to a specific timescale it will be reviewed on an ongoing basis.
Mr Coates said: "We have historically used a mix of builders' merchants, some local, some national, depending on the location of the development we were working on, but we found that this was not the most efficient way of working and didn't always result in best value. So we decided to go out to tender based principally targeting the key deliverables of product quality and quality of service.
"MKM fulfilled every aspect of the tender requirements in terms of product and service quality, price and the fact that the decision makers are here in Hull which makes life a lot easier for us, as we too are a local company. We were delighted to have been able to appoint them."
Midas Homes specialises in void work – restoring empty local authority housing to bring it back into use – and is a contractor to Kingstown Works Ltd (KWL) which is responsible for the maintenance and repair of Hull City Council's housing stock and other private sites.
The company also builds new homes and is currently working on a number of developments in East Yorkshire including Greenways in Driffield, a development consisting of 11 bungalows being built in conjunction with local house builders Quintor Homes.
Mike Thomas, joint branch director of MKM in Hull, described the contract win as 'great news' for the company, adding it would lead to an additional two members of staff joining the business. "Midas Homes have been a great customer to us over the years but this deal really puts our relationship on a whole new footing," Mr Thomas said. "Now we are acting as their one-stop-shop for all building, plumbing and heating products and materials and that will result in a significant increase in the amount of business we do with them in the future.
"Obviously, with us both being local companies and having worked with Midas for nearly 20 years we believed the contract was ours to lose but we are never complacent. We put together an extensive package that we think will bring a lot of benefits to Midas going forward and hopefully ensure the relationship endures for another 20 years and more."
MKM Building Supplies employs around 840 people at 42 branches across the UK ranging from Perth in the north to Deal in Kent in the south.
