Merchant Exchange
Three independent builders’ merchants have joined forces on a new procurement partnership, though all three are keen to draw a line between this and the traditional buying group model.
Bradfords Building Supplies, Lords and JT Atkinson have confirmed a collaborative alliance aimed at improving buying power across a range of product categories. All three companies have buying group experience already: Bradfords and Lords were previously part of h&b, while JT Atkinson was aligned with FORTIS. But the businesses are positioning this venture differently, describing it as a targeted alliance rather than a replacement for the buying groups they’ve left behind.
Bradfords will keep one foot in the traditional model regardless, continuing to source plumbing and heating products through its existing membership of PHG.
Bradfords CEO David Young pointed to the wider pressures squeezing the sector as the driving force behind the alliance. Flat growth forecasts from the Construction Products Association, combined with climbing employment costs, energy bills, business rates and inflation more broadly, have left merchants searching for sharper ways to operate.
According to Young, the alliance grew out of informal conversations between the three companies’ leadership, who realised they were wrestling with the same set of problems. Those talks pointed to clear areas where the businesses could combine forces commercially while still operating independently.
Young said trust with suppliers would be central to how the alliance runs, with the group aiming for open, fair conversations rather than a one-sided push for savings. In his view, the arrangement only works long-term if suppliers see value in it too.
JT Atkinson managing director Jamie Atkinson said the three businesses were drawn together by common goals around growth and development. He framed the alliance as a way to preserve what makes independent merchants distinctive, notably their speed of decision-making, while still teaming up where it makes sense.
JT Atkinson’s commercial director, Keith Wright, has been appointed Alliance Procurement Director to lead the initiative.
Rather than setting up a standalone central team, the alliance will run on the commercial expertise already in place across the three businesses. Wright said existing staff at Bradfords, JT Atkinson and Lords would carry out the strategy directly, with the goal of driving collaboration without piling on extra bureaucracy or cost.
Procurement teams from all three companies are currently reviewing which categories are best suited to a joint approach. Wright was clear that this won’t mean a blanket strategy applied everywhere; the focus will stay on categories where working together genuinely benefits all parties.
Lords CEO Shanker Patel said the three companies had deliberately built something distinct from a conventional buying group, with no plan to route all purchasing through the alliance. Instead, the emphasis will fall on specific areas of clear mutual value.
Patel described the model as pro-competitive, open, fair and efficient, qualities he said matter more than ever as rising costs push merchants to rethink how they buy and sell.
