Freefoam has released the final short film (see below) in its ‘Fireside Chat’ series, which discusses how vertical integration has changed the building products market.
Colin St John, commercial director, explains how Freefoam operates a traditional supply model, with manufacturer providing products to an independent local stockist or merchant and subsequent sales to a local installer customer base. He also illustrates the newer integrated supply model and discusses the challenges and control this can bring to stockists.
Colin explained: “At Freefoam, we’ve always believed in a free marketplace and the ability to grow our customers is our main aim. We want customers who are partners in our business and we’ve always strived to develop and manufacture products to help our customers win more business.”
Freefoam says it developed this series of informal videos so installers, stockists and the wider market can learn more, and agree or disagree, about important issues and trends that affect them.
Aidan Harte, CEO, summarised: “This final video highlights an important issue – how a vertical integrated model can have significant detrimental implications for independent building product suppliers.
“Freefoam has taken a different approach to other roofline manufacturers who sought to take control of the supply chain. Instead, we focus on developing customer relationships and adapting our product range and service offering to help our customers sell more.”
