April’s new BHETA members are:

Instarmac, the specialist in the manufacturer of cement and bitumen-based products. Its brands include Ultracrete, Ultrascape, Ultra Tile and Ultra Floor and the recently acquired Wondertex drylining and decorative texturing range.

Sugru is the award-winning self-setting rubber that can be formed by hand. It moulds like play-dough, bonds to almost anything and turns into a strong, flexible silicone rubber overnight. Perfect for fixing or customising ‘almost anything’, it’s been called one of the “inspiring ….businesses that are changing the UK for the better”.

Fermacell is a high performance multi-purpose building board that when installed combines the properties of solid blockwork with the speed and flexibility of conventional drywall techniques. It is recycled and recyclable, sustainable in its use of natural resources and complies with strict criteria in terms of environmentally sound construction.

The Solar Centre, formed in 2005, is another eco brand, using the latest battery, LED and solar technology to ensure year round reliability across a range of solar garden, security, shed, wall and fairy lights as well as fountains and ponds, solar panels and accessories.

Phoenox Textiles is a family owned business established in 1954 and manufactures and imports a range of home textile products, in particular rugs and mats. It is probably best known for its Hug Rug and Mrs Mat brands.

Specialist Group was established in 1970 and supplies DIY retailers, builders merchants and garden centres with a comprehensive range of hardware, ironmongery, fastenings, decorating and gardening products under one brand. There is also the Builders Brand range of professional tools and a Builders Basics (tool box essentials).

Dossil makes a range of patented gadgets for keeping plug and drain holes in sinks and bathroom sanitaryware clear of waste. Products include Sink Strainers small Sinkie®, Hair trap Shower Sinkie®, the Sinkie® Mat keeping for keeping chips off the porcelain or protecting stainless steel from scratches and the Sinkie® Glass Mat.

Commenting on the new DIY members, Peter Stone added, “It is great to see such a diverse range of product categories, all interested in the services that BHETA now has to offer. It just goes to show that the organisation can make a really positive difference to all kinds of business from the established and family owned brands, to worldwide players to entrepreneurial start ups and patented inventions. Whether it’s driving members’ sales opportunities, introducing them to new markets or providing general advice on compliance issues, the BHETA formula is proving very appealing.”

April 2013

Dr. Douglas Gurr, Vice President Amazon has been confirmed as a keynote speaker in the 2nd Global DIY Summit being held on 6 – 7 June in Rome. With many years of experience in the retail industry, Dr. Gurr will tell retailers and manufacturers Amazon’s success story. Not only this, but there are record numbers of top retailers attending so the networking opportunities are first class. The message from BHETA – to all members, not just DIY – is sign up now to make the most of this unique occcasion
CEOs/and or senior executives from all the major home improvement companies globally will be represented in Rome including Bunnings Australia, Sodimac and Easy in South America, Cashbuild in South Africa, from the Home Depot and Lowes in USA, and from almost every major home centre companies operating in Europe such as Group Adeo, Kingfisher, OBI, Hornbach, Homebase, bauMax, Epicentre, Woodies, Bricoking, Nomi, and two Russian companies Stroy Arsenal and Baucentre.

For more information contact Peter Stone or member services at BHETA.

April 2013

Watch this space for more details of the launch.

April 2013

French DIY & Building market update
The French DIY market recorded sales up by 2% in the DIY stores including new openings and increased sales areas whereas like-for-like sales went down by 2.1%. DIY sales increased by 1.5% in the builders merchants in 2012. However hypermarkets DIY sales contracted by 1.1%.

The French DIY market is now suffering a sales decline from the beginning of 2013. It has decreased by 9.03% in value and by 10.20% in volume in the first quarter (source: Banque de France / FMB). Those negative results are mainly due to the economic environment and the bad weather conditions.

New housing building permits have increased by 1.1% in total from January to February 2013 whereas new housing starts have declined by 16.8% (-20.4% for individual housing and -13.3% for collective housing) in the same period.

GERMANY/AUSTRIA/SWITZERLAND (Source: DIY Global)

Mixed results
DIY retailing experienced a slightly negative trend in 2012. As a result, the combined gross sales of the German DIY stores achieved a figure of €18.6 bn, which indicates a nominal sales decline of 0.6% year-on-year (figures from the BHB industry association). Combined gross sales of the DIY stores in Austria increased to €2.2 bn, nominally by 1.7% year-on-year. The DIY retail sector in Switzerland can also look back on positive progress. After a relatively restrained year in 2011, the combined gross sales of the Swiss DIY stores achieved a figure of €1.85 bn, which amounts to a nominal increase of 4.6% on the previous year.

ITALY (Source: DIY Global)

DIY sector under pressure
Last year for the first time the Italian DIY sector suffered a sales decline. The total volume of some €13 bn in 2012 contracted by around 2% compared with the previous year. The number of DIY stores went down as well. The total came to 708 at the end of the year, 28 fewer than the year before.

Poland (Source: Baumarktmanager & DIY Global)

Poland greatest European DIYer!
Poland is the country with Europe’s greatest proportion of DIYers (29 per cent) willing to undertake demanding renovation projects themselves. They are followed by Belgium (25 per cent), Austria, Switzerland and Germany (24 per cent each) and France (22 per cent). That is one of the findings of the European Home Improvement Monitor. This survey, by USP Marketing Consultancy of Rotterdam, is based on interviews with 12 000 consumers in 13 countries and updated monthly. It divides the consumers into four groups according to their DIY skills: renovators, consumers able to carry out minor DIY jobs, decorators, and consumers with no DIY experience.

SPAIN (Source: CdeComunicación.es)

Bricor will launch five stores in the coming weeks
Bricor, the home improvement retail store of the Spanish group El Corte Inglés, continues its growth and expansion in the Iberian Peninsula. In the forthcoming weeks, Bricor will launch five new stores in Galicia, Alicante, Zaragoza, Las Palmas and Madrid. So far, Bricor has eight street shops located inside the department stores “El Corte Inglés” and “Hipercor”. These stores will have an area of around 1,500 sq. meters and an assortment divided in seven sections: painting, tools, hardware, electrical, plumbing, carpentry and garden.

April 2013

Offer Letter:

There has been a minor change made to the Offer Letter template, which is located under the category “Recruitment”. Reference to the ‘Criminal Records Bureau’ has been changed to read ‘Disclosure & Barring Service’.

Contracts of Employment:

The following Contracts of Employment have been updated for April 2013. The updated contracts have been uploaded to the Contracts and Service Agreement Templates section of the website, which is located under the category “Contract and Service Agreements”:

Contract of Employment – Standard Contract
Contract of Employment – Fixed-Term
Contract of Employment – Zero Hours Contract
Contract of Employment – Term-Time Only

Director Service Agreement
A colour-coded version of the April 2013 Standard Contract of Employment can be viewed in the Bi-Annual Updates section of the “Contracts and Service Agreements” category (the same change was made to all the contracts listed above), along with a summary document which lists the changes to both the Employee Handbook and the Standard Contract of Employment.

Employee Handbook:

A colour-coded version of the April 2013 updated Employee Handbook can be found on the website under the Employee Handbook category and within the section heading Bi-Annual Updates.

The required amendments to the Employee Handbook have been colour-coded in red (compulsory/best practice changes) and the original text has been retained in black font. The Table of Contents is also colour-coded to reflect those sections where amendments have been made.

A clean, non-colour coded version of the updated Employee Handbook has been uploaded into the Employee Handbook Template section of the website which is again located under the Employee Handbook category.

There is also a summary of the April 2013 biannual updates for the Employee Handbook and Standard Contract of Employment and this can be found under both the Employee Handbook and Contracts and Service Agreements categories in the section heading Bi-Annual Updates. This document is entitled ‘Summary of amendments to April 2013 Bi-Annual Update’.

Individual Policies:

As a result of the above, the relevant individual policies stored on the ESP website, have been updated as follows:

-Notice Periods and Termination of Employment Policy
-Parental Leave Policy

LiveHRDocs Customers:

If you are a customer with LiveHRDocs functionalityyour Employee Handbook and Contracts of Employment have been automatically updated with the necessary changes. To download your amended Employee Handbook simply click on the LiveHRDocs tab within the Customer Zone of the website, select the Handbook tab and then double click on the Employee Handbook PDF icon.

Notifying Employees of Employee Handbook Changes:

There have been amendments made to Part One of the Employee Handbook and therefore all changes made to this section are contractual. Please ensure that you advise your employees of the changes made to the Employee Handbook (in particular the changes made to Part One) and give them an opportunity to view an updated copy.

For further information on this or any other employment issues, or for more information on how ESP can update documentation on your behalf, contact Katie Benham on 01483 229199 or email katiebenham@espltd.info