In 2022 we announced our three main suppliers for our repairs and maintenance teams to exclusively source materials. They are Travis Perkins for our main building materials supplies, City Plumbing to be our plumbing and heating materials supplier, and Rexel UK as our electrical supplier.
Abri is now one of the largest customers of Travis Perkins in the south of England with a contract worth in the region of £3million per year.
In June 2022, Travis Perkins opened a new managed store as a materials base, exclusive to Abri, in Yeovil, which brought about employment opportunities in our south west community.
All three suppliers have pledged social value commitments, supporting our teams and our communities to thrive.
John Watts, Associate Director of Customer Response at Abri, said: “We’re positive that our long-term strategic partnership with Travis Perkins will offer a high performing supply network to benefit our trades colleagues and our customers living in our homes.
“Our aim is to standardise our offer to our customers across our region by using the same quality products, at the same time as reducing our carbon footprint through making use of more sustainable materials, and implementing intelligent stock level technology to increase our responsiveness to benefit our customers.
“We’re delighted that Travis Perkins has also committed to significantly invest in Abri communities through supplying labour and materials for our community projects, as well as new employment opportunities.”
Travis Perkins’ social value commitments
By October 2023, we've utilised £19,606.36 of Travis Perkin's social value procurement funding. This has been a mixture of materials utilised for community projects (including The Room, next to Café 1759 and Old Sarum and Longhedge Community Fridge in Salisbury) and cash used for a slow cooker project where we purchased 10 slow cookers for hostels.