The National Buying Group (NBG) has announced that all of its partners will become members of the Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) following a landmark group membership agreement between the two organisations.
The agreement, which runs from 1 August 2013, will see all BMF fees centrally billed and paid by NBG, who will in turn invoice its partners through an enhanced service fee. There are currently 42 NBG partners in the BMF membership and the remaining 39 will join the BMF in August. Any new NBG partners will be auto-enrolled into the BMF membership during the period of the agreement.
John Newcomb, managing director of BMF, said: “I have made it my personal mission to develop the membership of the BMF in order to strengthen the merchant’s voice both within the wider construction industry and with legislative bodies. I am naturally delighted to welcome all NBG partners to the BMF. The BMF’s role and services are complementary to those provided by the major buying groups and together we can represent every facet of the merchants’ business needs.”
Nick Oates, managing director of NBG, added: “As a buying group the NBG acts as a unified single collective and the benefits afforded by this agreement are well suited to the strengths of the organisation and its future plans. The NBG executive board was happy to recommend the deal to partnership and it received its overwhelming support, demonstrating a strong desire to move forward with the BMF.”
The group scheme means that all NBG partners will reap the full benefits of BMF membership from subsidised industry specific expert training and networking opportunities to parliamentary lobbying of legislation. Most importantly BMF membership will deliver real commercial benefits, the most immediate of which will be access to the BMF’s new Trade Credit Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, which goes live during August. NBG members will also have full access to the BMF’s new office and conference facilities in Coventry, with five NBG meetings already booked during August and September.
