September 2017
Story Homes is leading the way in the housebuilding industry’s supply chain engagement, with programme that aims to improve the support offered to subcontractors and to help them grow their businesses.
We have collaborated with trade association, the Home Builders Federation (HBF), to pilot supply chain engagement events as part of a wider development programme.
More than 40 of our subcontractors attended the first event in Cumbria, which was held at Rheged and hosted by Story Homes’ Cumbria and south Scotland Managing Director, Ian Storey and his regional management team.
Subcontractors had the opportunity to learn more about Story Homes’ current performance and regional growth plans, feed back on working with the developer, and hear about the supply chain development programme that will be launching soon. The programme will include the option for supply chain partners to work with training providers to address any training needs within their businesses.
With a commitment to maintaining the high quality of its homes and customer service and retaining its five-star HBF customer satisfaction rating, we identified that our supply chain partners are integral to these priorities, so we looked at ways to engage with them more effectively.
We have sought feedback from partners in Cumbria and south Scotland around their forthcoming focuses, their confidence levels and the help they needed, and received a response rate of 70% which suggested that there would be a high level of interest for events and other support.
Fran Stott, Group HR and OD Director at Story Homes, said: “We believe that creating a sustainable future for ourselves as well as our supply chain is vital. Supporting and developing our valuable supply chain partners is now more important to us than ever, as we plan to build a landmark 1,000 new homes in 2017/18. In order to deliver high quality homes, we need to have a strong, reliable supply of partners who feel a genuine commitment to our customers, values and business.
“As well as the engagement events, we will also be working on a package of longer-term support as we know this is just as important to our supply chain. This could potentially cover areas such as health and safety, IT and customer service training, and assisting with the recruitment of apprentices by using our experience and established process.”
Lynn Wigglesworth from Fine Carpets and Flooring said: “I’ve found today very useful and informative. It’s been great to meet people from Story Homes and it’s been a good networking opportunity”.
Jay Williams also from Fine Carpets: “It’s great for Story Homes to engage with us and to offer training, services and facilities to grow our business. Training and development is very important to us as a business, so this is definitely something that we will be taking up.”
This event forms part of Story Homes’ programme of regular events across all of its regions; Cumbria, South Scotland, the North West and the North East.
