TTF and BMF strike membership deal

From September for six months TTF members can join the BMF at a discount of 10% on its current annual subscription.

"There is a great deal of synergy between the two organisations and a number of our members are also members of the BMF," said TTF chief executive John White. "We hope that this promotion will demonstrate the benefits of dual membership to many others who currently belong to just one organisation."

"We are not competing organisations and if you look at what has happened in recent years, a lot of pure timber merchants have ventured into other materials, and it is the same in the other direction," said BMF managing director John Newcomb.

"Together the two organisations involved in the timber supply chain will undoubtedly benefit from dual membership."

The BMF this month sealed a landmark agreement with the National Buying Group in which all NBG partners become members of the BMF. The BMF will bill and be paid by NBG, which will in turn invoice its partners.

There are currently 42 NBG partners in the BMF and the remaining 39 joined the BMF from August 1. Any new NBG partners will be automatically enrolled into the BMF.

A similar deal was signed in the summer with the Independent Buying Consortium, the group formed four years ago and which now has 150 members and 80 approved suppliers.

"The combination of these should lead to an increase in members by 100-150 in the next 12 months and we will be talking to other buying groups," Mr Newcomb said.

"Clearly we are trying to increase the number of members and increase the authoritative nature of our voice - in fact our mission statement now is 'one industry, one voice'. To that effect we need to have as many merchants and suppliers as possible."