The government had a taste of its own medicine this week when the king of high street retail, Sir Philip Green, took it to task on its spending.
Describing Whitehall’s procurement process as “shocking”, Sir Philip’s report, which focused on the purchase of goods and services such as computers, travel, print, office supplies and the management of its property portfolio, uncovered a seemingly endless list of anomalies.
For example, he claims a staggering 40% of the government’s £2bn telecoms bill could be saved by negotiating an interdepartmental joint contract. And he’s really talking telephone numbers when he says more effective management of government property could shave a massive £2.5bn off expenditure.
Buying laptops direct from one supplier could potentially save £6m (current expenditure ranges from £353 to £2,000 per unit) while central purchasing of printing could save £10m – and so it goes on.
No doubt many a timber industry chief executive empathised with the Arcadia Group boss when he said that if he ran his business the Whitehall way, “the lights would go out”.
The lights were certainly burning brightly at the NEC in Birmingham last week where many of the exhibitors and visitors at the W10 Working with Wood show could have shown Whitehall a thing or two about business acumen.
Not only had they survived the recession but they were upbeat about the future and ready to invest in it. As our show review demonstrates, visitor numbers were up by 50% and orders and enquiries were also in the ascendancy.
Advanced Machinery Services probably made the quickest sale – just 37 minutes into the first day of the show. Cabinet Vision and Alphacam took £67,000-worth of orders during the event, while Gang-Nail already had £130,000-worth of enquiries to follow up on day two.
As SCM UK’s managing director Gabriele De Col said to TTJ, it’s an indication that “customers are preparing for a gradual upturn in business”.
It’s also an indication of how powerful a marketing exercise taking an exhibition stand can be – there’s simply no substitute for seeing products “in the flesh” before buying.
The success of W10 should be a good omen for the organisers of Timber Expo. The new exhibition, scheduled to take place at Coventry’s Ricoh Arena next September, has already got off to a flying start with an impressively well-attended launch event at the venue last week.
The aim of the show is to provide a forum for knowledge transfer, bridging the gap between the supplier and the specifier and demonstrating how timber products can bring building projects to life. The intention is for it to “inform and inspire” visitors and to be “more than an event where people walk up and down corridors putting product leaflets in a carrier bag”.
It is, in fact, designed to help specifiers make informed decisions when choosing what to spend their cash on. Perhaps someone should invite some buyers from Whitehall.
