Since appointing Jewson as its supply chain partner in 2012, Welsh registered social landlord Cartrefi Conwy has made significant improvements to its day-to-day processes. The merchant's involvement has helped to ensure that ongoing maintenance and improvements are carried out as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

Since appointing Jewson as its supply chain partner in 2012, Welsh registered social landlord Cartrefi Conwy has made significant improvements to its day-to-day processes. The merchant's involvement has helped to ensure that ongoing maintenance and improvements are carried out as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.

For the past 12 months Jewson has been supplying the company with a wide range of building products and materials, including critical van stocks.

"Thanks to the buying power and expertise of Jewson we are now able to stock more products, buy them in more cost effectively and ultimately improve the quality of our repairs service," said Kiera Vogel, head of building maintenance at Cartrefi Conwy. "Through working in partnership with Jewson we have been able to make sure we are using both materials and service that offers best value."

Cartrefi Conwy was established in 2008 and, over the last five years, has made a raft of improvements to its stock and systems including having met all its obligations under the Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS). These have included fitting renewable energy technologies such as air source heat pumps into some of its sheltered homes, as well as solar thermal installations and external wall insulation upgrades.

In addition to a large number of off-gas properties along the North West coast, Cartrefi Conwy has a further 500 homes tucked away in particularly remote rural locations along the valleys, where historically getting any utility or repair services in the past has been a logistical nightmare. As such, while its properties have all achieved the designated standards of 'decency', Cartrefi Conwy partnered with Jewson to bring these isolated properties and their internal underlying operational processes up to date.

Furthermore, Jewson is supplying Cartrefi Conwy with an essential van re-stocking service, ensuring the right tools and materials are available for planned and ongoing maintenance work. The vans are kept regularly stocked helping to save time, improve first time fix rates, and ensure repair work isn't hindered by the non-availability of materials.

Jewson is also providing Cartrefi Conwy with a field replenishment service, delivering materials directly to site from a dedicated store that was set up for this contract.

"We used to have our own stores, and additionally our tradespeople would source some 40% of the products needed from local merchants. All of this was done using a paper-based solution – including purchase orders and work orders. But now with Jewson's EDI (Electronic Data Interface) system set up and all of our purchasing consolidated under one roof, we are expecting to make significant savings," said Kiera.

Ken Burrows, sector director at Jewson, said: "We are delighted to be working with Cartrefi Conwy as their supply chain partner. Since our contract with them began in 2012, we have worked closely with them to devise a bespoke solution, which meets the registered social landlords exacting needs and we look forward to working with them in the future to deliver the improvements required."