H+H has been a proud sponsor of the Lifetime Achievement Award for the past 17 years and Marketing Manager at H+H, Jenny Smith-Andrews, explains why the Builders’ Merchants Awards for Excellence continues to be a focus for the aircrete manufacturer.
The Builders’ Merchant Awards for Excellence gives us at H+H a platform with which to celebrate with the exceptional companies and individuals who set themselves apart each year. Those who clearly become leaders and give the rest of the industry a benchmark with which to align. Trust is a key attribute that every past winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award has at their core and it’s something that H+H prides itself for having in and with our merchant customers.
But the proof is in the pudding. The last 12 months were an exciting challenge for everyone at H+H as our Borough Green plant underwent the largest shutdown in its history in an effort to renew equipment and ensure that we continue to deliver quality products to our merchant customers. Our dedicated teams worked 24 hour shifts and weekends, in an icy, dismantled factory and in the coldest winter for years to make sure the new factory would deliver exactly as it should when we recommenced production.
We pride ourselves on our relationship with our customers, it’s something that runs through all levels of our business. During that shutdown we managed our stock to ensure a consistent supply to our existing customers and were open and honest about our ability to service the industry during that period. We continually updated our customers with newsletters and our merchant team were actively delivering our messages in the field.
A Trusted Partner
It’s this determination to go the extra mile for our customers that accurately personifies our brand, a brand that has recently undergone a small but significant change. As a company, we pride ourselves on the longstanding relationships that we have developed and the partnerships that have been created. The H+H brand is synonymous with aircrete blocks across Europe but increasingly H+H is about more than that. The building industry is changing fast and we need to make it clear that we have the solutions to meet that changing dynamic.
H+H has recognised the speed in which construction is developing and has ensured that we can provide a responsive, collaborative approach to meeting new challenges as they arise. That has given us a new focus which is summarised in our clear brand promise –
we are PARTNERS IN WALL BUILDING.
The first thing you might have noticed is our new logo but the first thing you will feel is the re-affirmed commitment to our customer partnerships at every stage of the building process.
For those with boots on the ground and behind the merchant counter, this brand promise means the reassurance that there is someone available to lend a hand when things go wrong or help is needed. Our Key Account Managers regularly call into merchant branches to check on customers and provide guidance on products, systems and customer support services.
We actively engaged with our customers and what was consistent in their responses is that they want fewer suppliers, working together in partnership toward a shared vision of efficient building processes. Merchants play a major role in this vision and the partnerships we have with all our customers reflects our philosophy regarding the service we provide.
Continuing to provide the same high-quality aircrete products, our customer support, technical expertise and genuinely innovative approach to problem-solving will continue to improve. Our new brand initiative is a group-wide re-evaluation, but we understand that here in the UK, great value is placed on the trusted partnerships that have been developed over time. Our new brand promise builds on that experience to support every stage of the planning, design, distribution and construction of high-performance, durable, structural and internal walls.
Ultimately, our merchant customers want to work with companies they can trust and that will be there for support. That’s our promise.
Article courtesy of Builders Merchant News, published 9th April 2019