Jewson signs 12 year housing deal

Jewson, the UK’s leading supplier of sustainable timber and building materials, has signed a groundbreaking 12-year contract with leading housing group and long-time partner, Whitefriars Housing Group, following its integration with West Mercia Housing Group.

The deal, which was awarded to Jewson following a rigorous competitive tender process, will see Jewson deliver supply chain value throughout all response, void and planned maintenance activity across the 17,500 housing stock in and around Coventry. There will also be the potential to extend the service to the entire West Mercia Housing Group, which would see Jewson support the management of a housing stock comprising 24,000 homes throughout the west midlands.

Jewson is working with Whitefriars to support its strategy for meeting the sustainable retro-fit agenda and identify short, medium and long-term solutions that can be built into its ongoing repair and maintenance plan. Jewson is also ensuring that Whitefriars’ sustainability plan is delivered through the supply of Chain of Custody certified timber and ongoing sustainability reviews of the range of products supplied to the group, all of which are supported by Jewson’s ISO14001 accreditation.

Jewson and Whitefriars have also implemented on-site product training programmes to make sure that Whitefriars’ workforce remains at the forefront of current repair techniques and that operatives can deliver a first-fix approach every time.

Andrew Tait, Public Sector Director for Jewson, comments: “We applaud Whitefriars Housing Group’s decision to take a long-term view and believe that the arrangement will continue to deliver substantial value across the 12-year period. This contract provides a platform from which sustainability and efficiency gains throughout the Midlands can be met and on which significant cost savings can be made.”

The 12-year arrangement builds on Jewson’s current contract, which includes a bespoke stores facility and the stock management of over 100 of the Group’s vans under its repair and maintenance arm, Homeworks. Jewson and Whitefriars have already implemented consolidated paperless invoicing and are jointly developing an integrated electronic trading system, to enable 100% paperless transactions, in a bid to further reduce the organisation’s administration time and costs.