Build.March – May 2014 Products and services to reduce construction costs

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Peppard Building Supplies, Bishopsland Farm, Dunsden, Reading, RG4 8XA. T 0118 972 2028 F 0118 972 4559 E info@peppardgroup.co.uk W peppardbuildingsupplies.com

Increased traffic gives Peppard the edge

A unique service run solely by volunteers has upgraded its ‘wheels’ thanks to sponsorship from Peppard Building Supplies and other local businesses.

The community bus, which works around the Sonning Common area near Henley, takes the elderly and infirm to medical appointments, on weekly supermarket trips and monthly ‘surprise’ outings.

The service, run by the Fish Volunteer Centre, is now the proud new owner of a specially designed, built to order, £46,500 mini bus.

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“It is a super looking bus,” said Fred Nickson, one of 80 helpers at the Fish Volunteer Centre.

“It is a 16-seater and has a built in hydraulic ramp at the back which enables wheelchair access.

“We are very grateful to Peppard Building Supplies and all our sponsors.

“We offer more than 1,000 trips per year, it is a much used and needed resource. A visit to the supermarket is the only day out some of these elderly people get, and they enjoy it very much.”

Peppard Building Supplies sales and marketing director Ru Butler said: “The bus provides a much needed service in our community, and we take our hats off to the volunteers who do such an excellent job.

“It’s an honour to be able to

sponsor such a worthy project,

I’m very much looking forward

to seeing it on the road!”

For further information about

the bus call 0118 972 3986.

Peppard sponsorship helps community bus hit the road

The Peppard Building Supplies website is getting bigger, with more products, information and special offers.

Following our 2013 relaunch, we’ve had more visitors to our website than ever before and you were all looking for one thing — products!

In response to that feedback you will now find more than 70 new products and images, especially on our more popular lines such as timber, landscaping and aggregates.

We have also re-organised categories, making it easier to find the products you need, quickly.

There’s a newly launched offers section, which will be updated regularly and you can now set up and manage your accounts 24/7 and ‘Ask the Expert’.

Ru Butler, sales and marketing director at Peppard Building Supplies said: “We have listened to, and analysed, feedback.

“This feedback has helped us understand how we can improve on what we already offer. The new updates aim to give our customers not only more choice but more control online.”

Our research has shown that more of you browse our website on your mobile phone or tablet device, so we have adapted the website to make it mobile friendly. All of our pages will now automatically resize, making images clearer.

Promotional deals are held across all product lines and are

updated regularly at www.peppardbuildingsupplies.co.uk

Information and promotions can also be found through our social media pages including Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

We are keen to hear your feedback

on the changes, or any suggestions

on how we can improve the website

further. Comments should be sent

to our marketing contractor Tony

Crutcher at tc@tonycrutcher.com

Call Now 0118 972 2028or email info@peppardbuildingsupplies.co.uk

Left to right: John Pearman — bus manager, Mary Norris — office manager, Ann Butler–Smith — founder of the charity, Ru Butler and Fred Nickson — chairman.

A natural material used since Roman times is proving to be a popular choice with our customers, including the Natural Trust.

Flint is found in abundance in the Chiltern Hills and consequently has been used for thousands of years, on walls, buildings and even pathways across the South East.

Our ready knapped flints have been split by hand and finished to give a timeless, classic appeal.

Neil Bryant, associate director at Peppard Building Supplies said: “There aren’t many stockists of knapped flints in the area, which is why it is such a popular product here at Peppards.

“The knapped flints are especially popular, as this saves a lot of work for the builders and saves on wastage.

“Together with brick, knapped flints look attractive, so are used for decorative purposes as well as structural and historical reasons.

“It is an incredibly durable material but building with knapped flints is a slow process, due to the skills needed, but it does make for an impressive finished product.”

Knapped flints are available to purchase in bulk bags weighing approximately one tonne. Each bag will cover eight to ten square metres.

For further information about knapped flints, or any of our products contact Peppard Building Supplies on 0118 972 2028 or visit: www.peppardbuildingsupplies.com

New bricks are red–dy to go

The classic choice: Knapped flints

For those of you who are regular visitors to our yard you may well be familiar with the name PER Hire.

The plant hire company joined us on our Bishopsland Farm site a year ago, and since then we have been working together to offer our customers a broader range of services.

PER Hire primarily deals in plant hire — from dump trucks to fork lifts, agricultural tractors to trailers and tool hire to excavators (ranging from 0.8 tonne to 13 tonnes).

Matthew Munson, PER Hire’s managing director, set up the company three years ago, with a strong focus on quality.

“Over the last 12 months we have invested more than £4m in new equipment to ensure that our hire fleet is one of the newest in the business,” Matthew said.

“We know that our customers need reliable plant hire. We use only the best machines including Kubota, Cat and JCB, none of which are more than 18 months old.”

The emphasis on reliability also means that PER Hire promises deliveries will be made on time and with minimal fuss. An approach, which Matthew explained, has helped the business develop.

“We have grown so much over the past three years, going from nothing to having 120 machines,” he said. “It is definitely thanks to word of mouth and recommendations, so we are very proud of the customer service we provide.”

PER Hire has also recently launched a new website, where customers can compare all the plant and tools available, including dimensions and weight. “We work really well with Peppard Building Supplies, we have the same ethos and share a lot of customers,” added Matthew. “It is a really good marriage.” To view the PER Hire range go to: www.perhire.co.uk

PER Hire is the perfect site partner for Peppard

With the recent surge in house building, builders and members of the public are finding it increasingly hard to find suitable bricks to fit the job.

Here at Peppard Building Supplies we work hard to ensure we stock the products you need, when you need them. With that in mind we have added two new bricks to our range.

We are pleased to unveil the Rotherfield Red and the

Dunsden Red Multi, which we are adding to our already wide stock of bricks.

Named by Neil Bryant, associate director at Peppard Building Supplies, the imported, perforated, sand faced, facing bricks are sympathetic to brickwork already found in the area.

The Rotherfield Red is a blend warm orange to red hues with a fine sanded face and a delicate rolled crease.

Whilst the Dunsden Red Multi is a mix of autumnal colours with a coarser sanded face and the same rolled texture.

“They are particularly suitable for any brickwork in an exposed situation, for example a garden wall, as they have a high durability rating which we call F2 for frost resistance and S2 for soluble salt,” said Neil.

“They also lend themselves to renovation and new build work. We have been assured of a continuous supply for the year and we will be stocking in quantity, so customers can have confidence of a good supply.”

The bricks are competitively priced at below £400 per 1,000 for full packs. They are supplied on wooden pallets of 520 and are shrink–wrapped to keep them clean and dry.

For further information, samples or site pricing contact Peppard Building Supplies on 0118 972 2028 or visit: www.peppardbuildingsupplies.com

We want your feedback

Site reorganisation in full swing Peppard Building Supplies customers will have noticed that our site is in the middle of some improvements.

For the past few months we have all been busy reorganising the site, giving delivery areas more space, moving similar products together and ensuring that customers can get what they need, when they need it, safely and quickly.

The work began last October when we demolished our steel barn, which was used for storage, to make more room for the delivery and uploading area.

Operations director Nic Butler said: “The extra space has really made a difference, resulting in an improved layout for our trucks with more scope to manoeuvre.

“The reason behind all this work and reorganisation is quite simply, our customers.

“We know they have a job to get back to, so we wanted to enhance the customer

experience, meaning that every person who comes to collect goods from us does so quickly and with minimum fuss,” he added.

The reorganisation includes categorising products, to ensure Peppard Building Supplies’ customers can easily find what they need for the job in hand.

Health and safety has also been at the forefront and part of the aim of the reorganisation has been to ensure customers have plenty of space to manoeuvre, even at peak times or when there are deliveries being uploaded or unloaded.

The Dunsden site has also added customer designated walking areas to further improve safety measures.

If you have any suggestions on improving our site, please do get in touch by dropping Nic Butler a line at: Nic.Butler@peppardgroup.co.uk

Over the past two years we have been working to improve the way we do business. We have engaged external sales and marketing support from Tony Crutcher Ltd to help us identify how we can improve our services to customers.

As a result of that collaboration, we have launched a new website, a blog, customer newsletters, regular information on our special offers and, more recently,

a physical site reorganisation. Several times a week you will find Peppards Building Supplies updates on Twitter, Facebook and Google+ social media channels.

But in order to ensure that the changes we have made are having an impact, there is only one group of true experts to ask — our customers.

Over the coming weeks, we will be sending out

a customer survey, asking for your opinions on how we do business, the services and products we offer.

We would like to hear customers’ honest opinions of where we do well, and where we have room for improvement.

The survey will ask not only for feedback about our services, but also

try to get your thoughts

on how we compare

with other builders’

merchants in the area.

This helps us to benchmark

our products and services.

If you take the time

to complete the survey,

you have our assurance

that we will use the

information to make our

services better.

Why not look at our special offers at www.peppardbuildingsupplies.com/promotions View your account at www.peppardbuildingsupplies.com/content /my-account-details

This steel barn was taking up space in our busy yard.

Removing the structure has created far more room for lorries to get in and out and improved access for customers during busy times of day.