Walsall Housing Group (whg) is one of the largest providers of housing in the West Midlands.
Owning and managing around 19,000 properties across Walsall, whg provides affordable and good quality homes to the local community.
whg, was originally formed after a stock transfer from Walsall Council. As an independent company, it needed to move away from council premises. At the same time, it was reviewing its materials supply and waste management processes.
With stores spread throughout the borough and an increasing demand on building materials as a result of investment in upgrading properties, whg undertook a review and tender process to decide whether to continue to manage the supplies in house or outsource them to a supply partner.
As a result, Wolseley’s Integrated Services was appointed to manage all materials supply and waste management including tool and plant hire. The specialist team took over the running of whg’s own building supplies stores for the first three months, before transferring existing staff to a new distribution centre from where all deliveries and collections are co-ordinated. As well as the large materials store, the site is also large enough to house whg’s own contract offices and provide overnight operative vehicle secure parking and manage the collection and transfer of waste.
Kate Copeland, Stores Contract Officer from whg, explains: “We had lots of different materials suppliers and we decided that there would be more benefit to ourselves and our tenants by outsourcing and working with a supply partner from a single modern facility. As a result we have gone from having offices and stores dispersed across the borough to everything being on one site. All of the building materials needed for ongoing repairs and maintenance to our homes are sourced from this one centre which Integrated Services manages for us, giving significant savings in back office administration, consolidated invoicing and economies of scale.”
whg was so impressed with Integrated Services that it nominated them for an internal supplier of the year award. Kate Copeland continues: “We originally had a four year contract with Integrated Services and since carrying out an exercise which demonstrated they were delivering real value for money, the contract has been extended for another three years. Our customers and the local community also benefit from the partnership because Integrated Services supports our Community Benefits Fund with the provision of free materials for our regeneration and improvement projects in the local area.”
Catherine Fenton, Area Trading Manager for Integrated Services, adds: “We manage deliveries on a just in time basis to whg’s sites, saving them from storing large amounts of materials on site. Accessing materials out of normal office hours for urgent repair work is also critical for whg as it houses almost 40,000 people, around a fifth of the borough. We provide them with a 24-7 service where they can access a container of materials needed for urgent work or we can open up the distribution centre if necessary. We also offer an out of hour’s service for emergency repairs, adverse bad weather or the needs of vulnerable tenants.”
In addition to managing all of whg’s materials supply, Integrated Services also manages disposal of waste through its national partner BIFFA and plant machinery and tool hire through Brandon Hire.
Integrated Services is a specialist division within Wolseley UK, offering bespoke integrated supply chain solutions, including stores management and procurement models, to clients responsible for large residential social housing estates, major construction projects and off-site construction.
