Wolseley is the world's number one distributor of heating and plumbing products to the professional market and a leading supplier of building materials.

Across two continents Wolseley are the trusted partner of contractors, construction companies, industry and governments; supplying them with the materials they need for building, remodelling and repair work. They rely on Wolseley for their boilers and their flues, their pipes and their air-conditioning units, their timber and their bricks — and much more besides. By providing the products and services they need, when and where they need them, at competitive prices, Wolseley plays a key role in helping their customers. Enable works with one of the largest distributors of building equipment in the world. Wolseley is also a leading distributor of building materials, lumber products and industrial pipes, valves and fittings, with operations in the US, Canada, the UK and Mainland Europe. The Group breaks down into two broad operating divisions, Europe and North America. As a World leader, Wolseley is number one or number two in most of the markets where it operates. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, the company had revenues for the year ended 31 July 2007 of approximately £16 billion. Their main deals include:

Annual terms

They purchase substantial quantities of products and materials from hundreds of main suppliers for distribution and sale via established brands. Each year they strike retrospective payment deals with these suppliers based upon spend levels. These can be categorised as:

Special deals

Retrospective rebate payments accounted for millions of pounds worth of Wolseley's annual revenue, however, this entire process was managed in an Excel environment with a separate spreadsheet built for each supplier. This presented countless problems to Wolseley with regards to accessibility for its purchasing staff, accuracy of data and the ability to run management reports on the rebate payments that Wolseley would expect to receive from suppliers. To counter these problems, Enable developed a rebate management system to improve the management, visibility and tracking of these payment terms as well as providing clear time savings in the administration of such complex deals.

Our system has helped provide:

• Increased levels of rebate and overall benefit achieved from suppliers
• Accurate reporting of all Rebate, Special and Net Price deals
• Accurate reporting on expected rebates and record payments
• Alerts prior to the expiration of deals
• Improved visibility of when rebate thresholds are approaching to maximise benefit
• Supplier + category performance measurements
• General Manager + Product Sourcing Manager performance measurements.

To find out more about how Enable helps building materials companies like Woseley, download our guide "Putting the merchant in the drivers seat".