In light of the unprecedented price rises and difficulties facing construction in the house-building industry, we asked Alastair Gibson, Buyer at award-winning property developers Kebbell, about how the procurement market is shaping up in 2022 and how global changes, the pandemic and Brexit have affected his role.
As a Buyer what are the main things your role entails?
“I have worked at Kebbell for 21 years and my job is to source and buy anything that goes into the building, from bricks to fittings for each property and development. My main job is to find the best materials and goods for our properties, to negotiate terms for contracts and acquire goods and services, sometimes by tendering or a competitive bidding process.”
What skills do you need to be a Buyer?
“I have to focus on factors like securing good lead times so the right materials arrive at the right time, analysing the benefits and drawbacks of every deal for materials, and closely watch price changes every day, so negotiating and being good at talking to people is important. Having relationships especially at the moment is really key to getting things done. Flexibility, being good at evaluating and planning ahead are incredibly important but at the moment there is more than the usual firefighting to be done when things don’t go the way they are supposed to. I get a lot of phone calls where someone says: “Please can you get me out of a hole!”
What are you working on at the moment?
“Most of my work commences once the building of a development has kicked off. I am currently working on two projects in particular – a collection of 85 two, three and four bedroom houses in Petersfield in Hampshire, and a new development on the London Road in Ascot which comprises 18 luxury apartments.”
Do you work from home, the office or are you hybrid working?
“I am now mostly working from home. I have monthly meetings on each site and occasionally additional meetings with the site managers. I go into the office roughly fortnightly to meet with the HQ team. I think Kebbell adapted well to the constant changes in the pandemic and was able to stay very flexible and meet the needs of the individual staff members as well as clients and the trades.
“I find that I am starting work earlier than before as my son leaves for school at 8am and then rather than commuting I just start work straight away. Working from home has really worked out well for me overall, particularly having a positive effect on my family life and my personal wellbeing as well.
“I try to achieve a seamless service, so it doesn’t really make any difference where I work. I really dislike like travelling in traffic because it feels like such a waste of time so I feel I achieve more and can call the people I really need to talk to without too many distractions. However it is true to say you can develop a blurred work life balance because it’s harder to just pack up and finish at the end of the day so I need to watch that!”
What are the biggest issues facing the property industry at the moment from a procurement point of view?
“We have been struggling with a housing shortage for years, but things have got considerably harder than they were pre-Brexit and pre-Covid. Demand is incredibly high, but the industry has experienced additional major issues over the last couple of years, with the shortages and difficulties getting hold of materials, so there are very long lead times and short supply. Together this means the costs have multiplied; in fact they have gone through the roof.
“Roof tiles for example are taking up to 30 weeks to arrive. We have to plan well in advance which is where your relationships come in. You need to speak to everyone in the chain to find out what is going on, what is needed and then pass that information along and make changes if needs be.
“There was also a lot of scaremongering pre-Brexit so for example a couple of companies we worked with did pull of out of the British market but now it is more about negotiating through the loopholes and delays to imports into the docks etc.
“Companies have struggled to get drivers in to deliver things as well. Manufacturers are struggling to meet deadlines as production lines have slowed and they are understaffed with isolating workers or simply a lack of skilled people.
“Some of the issues may be starting to level out a bit, but it is still very strange times. It is a truly global issue though. These days in the UK we import most things, there are not a lot of domestic materials. All the components of an oven may for example come from China but are put together in Spain and then shipped here. The wedged container ship that blocked the Suez Canal for a week in 2021 had an enormous knock-on effect on global buying and delivery. Another good example of global supply issues is timber as the price has risen by over 100%. Sawmills closed down because of Covid or reduced production. America also had a huge problem with forestry disease so they couldn’t use their domestic timber for their own construction market, so they have been importing about a quarter of their timber from Europe which then affects the price for us. The UK industry is not just affected by what is happening regionally or nationally or even in Europe, it’s a global market.”
How important is considering environmental issues compared to 10 years ago?
“Considering the environment is important and comes now as a matter of course, for example many builders choose to use sustainable timber, we get ours from sustainably certified sources in Europe. Every company could do better and go the extra mile. We need more legislation because everything isn’t always as it seems. There is certainly work to be done.”
Do you have any predictions for the procurement market in 2022 and beyond?
“The housing shortage nationally is still going to dictate the market as will the supply and demand for materials, which means I think that it will continue to be difficult for the next 12-18 months. It is a strange time, but I think we are weathering it well as an industry overall.”
To find out more visit https://kebbell.co.uk