Shout out for building materials

This much we all know. We also all know that the mainstream media – the ‘grown-up’ papers and the BBC – has a habit of lumping builder’s merchants in with builders, or with the wider construction industry.

What I hadn’t really picked up on though, was the fact that much of the construction industry, who really should know better, haven’t always been that sure where in the process a builder’s merchant sits.

This, apparently, came to light when the Builders Merchants Federation joined the Construction Leadership Council just before Covid hit, and played merry hell with supply chains, and the ability of the building industry to, well, build.

All of a sudden, it became clear that those building sites that were remaining open would have to get their products from somewhere, and that those suppliers who could supply would need someone to deliver their products. Who better than the businesses whose very existence is to buy, stock and distribute materials? And who very often had the space to do so within the Covid-19 social-distancing restrictions?

So, if even the construction industry wasn’t that sure what a builder’s merchant was, how could we expect the wider world, the school leavers, the potential apprentices, their teachers and parents, peers and friends to know as well?

And so was born the germ of an idea which got the softest of soft launches yesterday.

The BMF’s Sector Awareness Campaign – which will use Building Materials Careers as its strapline – is about positioning the industry as a vibrant, diverse, forward-thinking sector, one where a huge variety of people, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation can find a career.

Crucially, it also positions this sector as Making a Material Difference to the world around us. And that doesn’t just include the merchants, it also includes the manufacturers and suppliers and service members. This programme is subtly shifting the emphasis, positioning the sector as Building Materials. Building Materials, you see, require making, moving, storing, selling, designing, driving around, supporting, financing, publicising, writing about: all the things that the 950 members of the BMF do all day, every day.

It’s not ready yet, but there will be a new careers website, and a proper launch of the programme, probably in the Autumn. It will include a real focus on apprenticeships, on career progression, on the benefits, tangible and intangible, of working in this sector. What is needed now though, is for more of you to get involved. There’ll be a Toolkit, to allow companies across the sector to get on board, packed with loads of info on how to get their message out to schools and colleges, and more downloadable marketing collateral than you can shake a stick at. I perked up considerably when I spotted t-shirts. Everyone likes branded stash, after all. The team behind the programme – brand specialists CMDi, the BMF executive and a working party of BMF members – wants members to appoint a Campaign Manager, someone to champion their company’s role in the wider programme.

This is something that is needed, has been needed for many years. You know it, I know it. We all know it. Belonging to the building materials sector is really rather special, it’s time that we shouted it, loud and proud, from the foundations to the rooftops and beyond. This is your, our, industry, and it needs everyone’s input to make it work.

This particular programme won’t get its full launch until the Autumn, but if you’re really itching to get the message out to younger people about the benefits of this incredible people-orientated industry, especially as we’re about to head into school-leaver season, head-on over to the Maddie Rose Campaign website, and get involved there as well.

Read the original article on the Builders Merchants Journal >