Buying materials in bulk

[ukpc]

Hi everyone.
New to the forum

I'm interested to know if anyone buys materials in bulk and how you go about it. Either buying in bulk direct from local merchants with discounted prices or buying online. My local merchants don't seem too interested in offering better rates buying in bulk, how easy to set up a merchants solely for you plumbing business and buying direct from suppliers... is that even an option

 

[rpm]

Welcome to the forum ukpc. Take a short scroll up and take a look at Williams (trade only), Ray`s your man to start talking to.

 

[Masood]

Another vote for Williams and Co. Very competitive and totally transparent pricing.

 

[PlumbBobBob]

vote three for Williams you will be looking for a very long time to find a better merchant

 

[quality]

Got to and another vote for Williams price and next day service

 

[SimonG]

Yep, Williams. Other end of the country but order today, get tomorrow. No one on my doorstep provides me with that service. Good pricing as well.

 

[oz-plumber]

If a Plumbing supplier doesn't offer you a greater discount for buying in bulk, then I would go to another supplier.
I found the trick is to put a bulk order in close to the end of the month.
Some manager may want to boost or rectify their monthly turnover.

Generally I always buy in bulk - due to the savings incurred in doing so.
Make a list and email to as many suppliers that you can think of - someone will take the bait

 

[Geyser]

Ive got to get more organized and get around to using Williams.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Thanks for all the kind remarks guys - much appreciated.

The OPs original question was two-fold.

1) How best to organise bulk buying
2) Whether its practical to set up as a merchant in order to reduce your materials prices

They are very different questions!

1) depends on a few factors. Do you have secure storage? Do you have the capital free that you can afford to tie up in stock? Is your material usage sufficiently predictable that you can be reasonably sure of using what you buy? Is your material usage sufficiently high that the time and effort that you put into setting up and running the system will be less than the savings?

2) is an entirely different kettle of fish. Its easy to set up as a merchant, just like its easy to set up as a plumber after a 6 week course. Doing it is easy. Doing it successfully - thats a different question. It takes expertise and capital - I would say that asking the questions that the OP is asking, then he doesn't have the expertise. To open a plumbing merchant branch probably needs £100k in capital. If you want to do heating as well, then you can double that.

 

[Ray Stafford]

If a Plumbing supplier doesn't offer you a greater discount for buying in bulk, then I would go to another supplier.

You wouldn't like us then Oz. We work on a different basis. We drive the price as low as we can go, and then charge the same to every customer, large or small. Our customers benefit from the collective bulk buying of the whole Williams customer base, but they all benefit equally.

If you have the capital and some storage, the best way to take advantage of us is to cane the online deals that we periodically do.

 

[oz-plumber]

So are you saying Ray, that if I spent 20k a month with your business, I would be on the same pricing structure as someone who spent 1k a month.

 

[Ray Stafford]

So are you saying Ray, that if I spent 20k a month with your business, I would be on the same pricing structure as someone who spent 1k a month.

Yes. Every tradesman pays the same price. We publish it 3 times a year. Sometimes we do special offers, but they also apply to all customers. Retail customers are not allowed, and we don't make any effort to woo large contractors, although they are very welcome if they are happy with our way of doing business.

Our core customer is the self-employed tradesman, up to businesses employing about 5 people.

Just think of the time saved, no haggling, no invoice queries, no getting overcharged because you go into the wrong branch, or because you don't have terms set up on a particular product. And the savings that we make by not having people negotiating and adminstering complex pricing structures goes straight into price reductions or service enhancements.

 

[plumben]

I Think Rays got the best price structure, I've been into merchants and bought full bathrooms and pipe+fittings gone back in to get a few extra fittings and paid double for the few fittings because I wasn't buying a large amount

 

[Ray Stafford]

I Think Rays got the best price structure, I've been into merchants and bought full bathrooms and pipe+fittings gone back in to get a few extra fittings and paid double for the few fittings because I wasn't buying a large amount

It works for us and our customers.

For someone like Plumb Centre, who deal with everyone from retail to massive contractors, I guess its necessary to have much more complicated systems, as they are trying to be all things to all men.

 

[ukpc]

Thanks for all the help, we currently use Plumb center and HPS, although have started with Williams this year and must say they are better priced and more helpful than most others.
We have storage to keep bulk materials, we generally use the same items from a month to month basis so ideally trying to avoid time driving to stockists to collect orders as our jobs are not always near a Williams branch. So the idea of buying 3 months bulk and collecting from our yard once a week is what I'm looking to achieve, along with some slightly better prices for spending 8-12k a month! For now a bulk order with Williams looks like the way forward most of their prices can't be beaten..

 

[Ray Stafford]

Thanks for all the help, we currently use Plumb center and HPS, although have started with Williams this year and must say they are better priced and more helpful than most others.
We have storage to keep bulk materials, we generally use the same items from a month to month basis so ideally trying to avoid time driving to stockists to collect orders as our jobs are not always near a Williams branch. So the idea of buying 3 months bulk and collecting from our yard once a week is what I'm looking to achieve, along with some slightly better prices for spending 8-12k a month! For now a bulk order with Williams looks like the way forward most of their prices can't be beaten..

Glad to see we have discovered each other!

If you aren't registered at our ecommerce site, Williams & Co | Trade Only Plumbing & Heating Supplies it would be worth looking at. We periodically do offers that would make it worth your while to stock up - particularly on things like Magnacleans, Grundfos and that sort of product.

 

[Millsy 82]

Thanks for all the help, we currently use Plumb center and HPS, although have started with Williams this year and must say they are better priced and more helpful than most others.
We have storage to keep bulk materials, we generally use the same items from a month to month basis so ideally trying to avoid time driving to stockists to collect orders as our jobs are not always near a Williams branch. So the idea of buying 3 months bulk and collecting from our yard once a week is what I'm looking to achieve, along with some slightly better prices for spending 8-12k a month! For now a bulk order with Williams looks like the way forward most of their prices can't be beaten..

Not meaning to sound funny but 8-12k a month is nothing to the likes of plumb center, if it was more like 30k+ a month you will have a good sway with them but as it stands you are just another customer with a bit of work on.

If you fit a lot of particular brands like grundfos for pumps, stelrad for radiators etc get onto your local reps as what they may be able to do is set up terms on your behalf so you use there products instead of others. 1 company used to get grundfos pumps for the same price that plumb center were getting them and grundfos gave them money back, Another company I worked for I accidently got them a better price with stelrad as I went in and ordered a couple of radiators in front of the rep, when she asked why we didn't use them I said too expensive within about 20 mins we were told to use stelrad radiators as they phoned my boss and dropped the price for them. But again to the likes of grundfos and stelrad you are still small fry like myself.