How Bunnings Trade delivers tailored business solutions

Whether you’re running a small business or working for a large organisation, keeping things ticking efficiently can be a complex balancing act. Finding trusted partners who understand your business needs and, just as importantly, treat your reputation carefully can help you run a tight ship. Here, we chat with a leading Australian property group and a well-known provider of vocational education about how partnering with Bunnings Trade sets them up for success by helping them deliver practical business solutions and value to their operations.

At a glance: What are some of the business solutions Bunnings Trade offers?

• Local sourcing of supplies and products, and being a reliable supplier;
• Streamlined purchasing by linking your Bunnings Trade PowerPass membership across several business units in one organisation, so everything is charged to one central account;
• Having a dedicated Bunnings Trade Business Development Manager to streamline and help manage a national portfolio;
• Offering access to expert advice, dedicated support, industry learning and industry facilities across the education, visitor economy and assisted living sectors.

Supporting the education sector

Melbourne’s Holmesglen Institute delivers education and training to more than 30,000 students and offers an impressive variety of trades-based courses. Elizabeth Jansz, Dean of Building Construction, Design and Electrotechnology, says the institute’s relationship with Bunnings Trade extends beyond supplying products to strengthening student learning. “There’s a shared commitment to supporting industry-ready training environments and scalable solutions for diverse educational offerings,” she explains.

• Access to learning: Through Bunnings Trade, Holmesglen trade students get access to industry facilities that help bring theory and classroom learning to life. Elizabeth says taking a group of students to a specialised manufacturer to see how trusses are made is a particular highlight. “We can talk about this in a theory lesson, but to be able to see that happening in a live demonstration workshop is super, super valuable to our students,” she says.

To foster growth and success in the education sector, Elizabeth and the Holmesglen team lean on the support services of the Bunnings Trade team. The key business solutions they rely on include:

Tip: Did you know Bunnings Trade can supply high-quality prefabricated roof trusses, wall frames and floor truss systems suitable for residential and commercial projects?

• Streamlined purchasing: Elizabeth says both her team and Holmesglen’s trade students have access to a PowerPass membership, which helps to streamline materials and learning across the organisation. “From a procurement perspective, Bunnings offers an efficient, reliable solution that meets our needs – it’s easy, it’s convenient and it ensures training activities don’t get disrupted,” she explains.
• Student support: The partnership between Bunnings Trade and Holmesglen goes beyond the classroom, actively supporting student awards, participating in trade-focused events and showing up at the institute’s annual Advanced Building Technology Expo. “They participate in a meaningful way and support our students,” Elizabeth says.
• Great customer service: What stands out for Elizabeth is the “exceptional customer service” her team receives from their Bunnings Trade Business Development Manager. “They tend to touch base with the team regularly – it’s consistently good service. The deliveries, the projects – everything is on track, and the responsiveness has been very good,” she says.

Supporting the visitor economy sector

With more than 100 holiday parks and lifestyle communities to manage across Australia in his role as Procurement and Integrations Lead at Ingenia Communities, Simon Illingworth has a big job. He says partnering with Bunnings Trade streamlines procurement and creates unexpected efficiencies. “It gives us one supplier who can service the whole of the business easily,” Simon explains.

Simon depends on the Bunnings Trade team for key business solutions that apply to the visitor economy and community management. Some of these include:

• Local products and material sourcing: Ingenia’s properties are spread across Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, with many in regional locations. Simon says most properties have a local Bunnings store nearby, which makes it easy for local staff to quickly pick up what they need. “Our properties have a key contact at each store who they can ring and who can visit the site. We run a largely decentralised grounds and maintenance system and Bunnings is fantastic for us because they are regionally distributed across Australia,” he says.
• Manage large accounts: Ingenia uses the support of the Bunnings Trade teams across all its properties, which Simon says makes it easy to keep track of the organisation’s spending. “We’ve set each of the properties up with a PowerPass card – the team can order online, click and collect or go into a store and obtain their necessary products and check out very easily. It all gets charged back to our account – we get the centralised account in the accounts payable team and it’s all sorted very easily,” Simon says.
• Find clever savings: Each month, Simon receives a report from Bunnings that lists every item purchased across each one of his sites. “It tells the team who purchased what, the supply category, the brand, the prices paid. It gives us full transparency around our purchasing history,” he explains. Simon then uses this data to search for savings. “Let’s say Ingenia is purchasing power tools from six different suppliers. If we aggregate that spend to one supplier and make a standard, we’re driving efficiencies. A grounds and maintenance person can go from one property to another and know exactly how to use that equipment from a health and safety perspective, and from a cost perspective I’m driving a better price by consolidating that spend.”
• Single point of contact: For Simon, having a dedicated Bunnings Trade Business Development Manager cuts through the complexity of managing a national portfolio. “We deal with the Queensland team, who are solutions-orientated – they will take requests, they’ll go and do quotes, and they’ll do projects for us,” he says. “They act effectively as a strong procurement team that helps me find solutions in a decentralised business.”

Frequently Asked Questions: How Bunnings Trade supports small business and organisations

How does Bunnings Trade deliver specific value to small and large-scale businesses?
Bunnings Trade provides end-to-end project solutions from quote to fulfillment, offers a wide range of products that meet Australian compliance standards, and employs dedicated teams capable of sourcing highly customised solutions. These could include procuring specialised hoists for those working in the assisted living space, or tailored materials for trade education or the visitor economy.

How does Bunnings Trade support the highly specific needs of the assisted living sector?
Unlike specialists who may only offer partial solutions, Bunnings Trade provides a complete project solution that includes both standard building materials and highly specialised equipment. They can source tailored items to meet individual participant requirements (for example, hoists specifically suited to a person’s height and weight), while ensuring all products meet relevant Australian standards (meaning they are certified and approved for Specialist Disability Accommodation, or SDA).

What specialised support does Bunnings Trade offer for the education sector?
Bunnings Trade provides educational facilities with a wide range of products in the maintenance and service space, but also for trade schools – supporting their entire trade offering. The Bunnings Trade team can also source tailored solutions for specific trade educational needs and can even provide dedicated support for campus events, such as Student Trade Expos and awards nights.

Is Bunnings Trade equipped to handle large-scale maintenance and operations in the visitor economy, education and assisted living sectors?
Yes, Bunnings Trade is fully equipped to support large organisations, from small-scale to large-scale projects. This includes supporting networks of holiday park sites across Australia with quotes, bulk ordering, delivery and more. Our aim is to deliver a premium quality service for park managers and owner-operators and by offering the widest range of products available, Bunnings Trade can assist with large-scale refurbishments and daily maintenance. This is also the case for the education and assisted living sectors.

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