NBC held its Annual General Meeting on November 7 to review past and present performance of the group companies, NBC Limited and NDN Limited.
Member shareholders and members of the senior management team were invited, demonstrating a commitment to work collaboratively with suppliers by understanding how members’ businesses are dealing with the current challenges and opportunities within the channel.
Following the appointment of Mohsin Bootwala (MB Distribution, Blackburn) the group now has a full complement of Member Directors.
Managing Director David Lunt presented a financial summary and a trading update for all the shareholders, in addition to the financial benefits that NBC members gain from their membership through shareholding.
The last 12 to 18 months have seen strong revenue growth for the group companies, over £8 million year on year, and a significant investment in resourcing the company.
The appointment of key roles supporting suppliers, members and marketing activities are essential for the group to continue with its collaborations.
Commenting upon the journey, David Lunt states: “Since the group started, we have distributed over £12 million in member terms, 100% in full and on time which is a significant financial benefit of membership of NBC”.
The key topic for discussion was the current status of consolidation plans by NBC’s supplier partners and how this would affect independent businesses retaining access to brands. Ultimately, members provide a service to suppliers so that consumers can access great brands at the point of purchase or consumption.
Commenting upon this shifting landscape, David Longfellow, Chairman, states: “Whilst we understand the commercial challenges that our suppliers are facing, we wish to support them in providing solutions that benefit suppliers, members and consumers. By working collaboratively and developing our route to market solution – NDN – we can support them and provide our members with access to great brands, at great net pricing, in realistic minimum order quantities. Since the group started, NDN has delivered over £20 million worth of net pricing benefits.”
Members were also shown a demonstration of the NBC Toolkit, a free marketing services package for members that provides access to digital stationery, digital social media campaigns, print and email campaigns, and PDF tools to customise activation of activities.
A combination of these benefits has driven the new members that have joined this year and those that continue to enquire about membership.
Summarising the event, David Lunt adds: “We are focused upon delivering financial benefits for our members, but we should not forget that these are achieved by dealing with people. The financial benefits are clear – sales achieved by getting access to great brands; member terms delivered on time and in full; net pricing benefits from NDN; realistic MOQ’s; no annual management fees; and being a shareholder of the business. All of this is achieved by people working with people – we may not be the biggest, but we are here, we are approachable, and we consider ourselves to be The Alternative Buying Group for those that share our values.”
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