The end of 2016 was a period of significant success for Long Rake Spar with the announcement that they had been selected as the preferred decorative aggregate supplier for the industry’s five major buying groups, NBG, Fortis, IBC, H&B and CBA.
Sales Director, Richard Maughan commented, “Securing partnerships with the leading buying groups allows us to continue our support of the independent merchant sector who are central to our strategy. These agreements are built on the important relationships and trust that we have developed with our customers who recognise that we supply a comprehensive range of high quality products which is underpinned by our good service offering.”
Long Rake Spar’s commitment to their customers saw them expand their operations with a new 23 acre, quayside site in Rye, East Sussex. The site took its first large shipment of aggregate in April and is now a fully functioning depot, increasing the efficiency of deliveries to merchants, especially in to the South East and Southern markets. The strategic position of Rye along with their other operations around the United Kingdom, ensures that Long Rake is able to provide a sustainable supply chain solution to their customers.
As the UK’s largest distributor of both imported and nationally sourced decorative aggregates, Long Rake Spar are able to offer the buying group members an unrivalled product selection, including 16 new products being launched for the 2017 season. All products are supported by a wide portfolio of marketing tools to assist in the selection process for both the merchants and their end user customers.
The company continues its ongoing commitment to customer service with the appointment of Graham Boyd as Joint Managing Director. The existing Company Managing Director, Trevor Broadhurst, commented: “Graham has held senior commercial positions within Hanson and Knauf Insulation and joins Long Rake at a very important point in our 150 year history and his knowledge of the construction industry will be invaluable. Given the scale of our business, it is crucial that we have a strong team and Graham’s drive and dedication to customer satisfaction will ensure that we will continue to offer a market leading proposition in a competitive market.”