Buildpack.com expands Wilcon web

Wilson Connolly’s buildpack.com building materials supply operation has gone live in the South East.

Wilcon’s initiative to eliminate the middle-man from the supply chain and become its own builders’ merchant has been in operation for a month, and is destined to become the homebuilder’s prime procurement and distribution route.

“We feel we are in a position to do it ourselves,” said Giles Wilson, marketing technologist with Wilcon Homes. Buildpack.com has been established as a limited company.

Although it has been trendily branded with a dot.com name, the supply operation is not purely an electronic service - it is a physical entity with its own 55 000 sq ft distribution centre in Newmarket, Suffolk, and a stock of around 2000 items directly sourced from manufacturers. Wilcon Homes’ regional offices simply send buildpack.com working drawings for their schemes, and the supplier then produces materials schedules, assembles materials into packs, which are palletised in preparation for site call-offs, and delivers packs to site on a just-in-time basis.

The dot.com name relates to the communication method for transactions. “With communication both internally and externally the objective is for it to be paperless,” said Phil Ewing, managing director of buildpack.com, who has moved from the merchant sector.

The way in which the distribution centre packages materials is a key feature of the service. It has come up with a series of packs linked to the build sequence, ranging from a starter pack, for traditional or timber frame construction, to joist, first fix and second fix packs, and a finals pack. These are being complemented by a compound pack, which contains the essentials of site establishment, a ‘first-aid’ pack, containing products sensitive to on-site handling or damage, and a sundries pack. The company is also developing packs for metal stud partitioning, bathrooms and heating.

“The distribution centre will improve service and give us control over our own destiny,” said Ewing. “We will get cash benefits, but there are a lot of other benefits too. It will allow us to reduce the stock held on site, give sites a safer working environment, reduce the downtime chasing deliveries and give us access to manufacturers for research and development.”