Who is your main supplier for materials

[Chri5]

As the header title says.

I tend to use either TLC Southern or very occasionly Screwfix. Both have local depots within 3 miles of home and since I want to keep work to my local area, both are quite handy.

Over a year I'd hope to spend about £10k on materials, would I be better setting up an agreement with one of the national suppliers such as CEF.

What sort of discounts and account arrangements do you guys have. At the moment I've kept to simply paying as you go via credit card.

On the subject of materials do any of you charge handling and add your costs on the materials or do you simply just add a few hours work cost for ordering fetching and delivery in to the job?

It was suggested that buying at discount / base cost such as via TLC I should add 25% to the materials, is that reasonable?

 

[ebee]

CEF would be the very last place I`d buy anything from.
as for mark up and labour rates there`s as many answers as there contractors.
At the end of the day only you can decide if you`re pricing is about right for the work you do.

 

[Lectrician]

We use Wilts and Edmundsons.

All materials are marked up by 25-40% depending what it is (and what discount we get on the said items). Discount varies from item to item.

It is a must to have accounts open - you can get in and out of a wholesaler quickly, and can have the stuff delivered direct to site ready for the start of the job, and while you are working on the job. Order before 4 quaranties next day delivery of most items before lunch the next day.

 

[jj4091]

It is well worth spending some time doing some leg work on this,as it is a very competitive world out there & you do not want to be estimating higher than necassary. Personally I would charge out supplies at cost, plus a charge for the time it takes to sort them, rather than a mark up.

 

[ppuch1]

The company I work for uses WF and Newey & Ayre. They are quite good with supply and price as far as I can see. But then if I worked for myself then I might make different choices.

 

[Chri5]

Thanks all-

I'll stick with TLC for bread and butter stuff for a while, they have already agreed a 5% 'special' discount on all my ordering and seem to be pretty competitive.

I also like the fact that they produce a very decent catalogue that I can give to the client when designing, this gives them the 'feel good' of getting involved with fittings styles, types and cost.

I'll just factor in a figure per job to account for handling, fetching and carrying.

The TLC invoice always show a rather pumped up "you have saved XYZ" by buying from us figure. Twaddle if you ask me, but again a great way to get a client / customer confident that your offering value to the job and not ripping them off by adding some insane margin to the materials.

 

[RF Lighting]

We tend to use ECS in Leeds. They are a small independant wholesaler, Their prices are good, always plenty of offers, and Colin & Gaz from the trade counter are always a good laugh.

We also use BCE (part of eddys) in york, and the local CEF in emergencies.

 

[davy_owen_88]

The TLC invoice always show a rather pumped up "you have saved XYZ" by buying from us figure. Twaddle if you ask me, but again a great way to get a client / customer confident that your offering value to the job and not ripping them off by adding some insane margin to the materials.

I buy almost all my materials from TLC as they have a depot about 15 minutes away.

Regarding the savings.... check this out:

Luckily I buy from TLC, because £245.12 for 100m of 2.5mm^2 cable seems a tad steep to me...

Davy

 

[Steve]

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