Unimer has another record year

United Merchants plc, UK's largest merchant co-operative and leading clearing house for the building products trade industry has yet again posted a record year of trading growth.

Howard Grant, Managing Director of United Merchants plc, announced the annual figures to over 350 merchant shareholders and supplier guests at Unimer's annual flagship event, the Unimer Day, at the Celtic Manor Resort in South Wales.

Unimer has achieved another record year of growth in the value of transactions processed, achieving a total throughput of GBP768 millions (last year GBP701M), which represents year-on-year growth of 9.6%.

By successfully and efficiently processing all this transactional throughput, Unimer has generated GBP17.5 millions of added-value income for its' merchant shareholder members.

In generating record throughput figures, the volume of transactions only increased by 0.8%, but the average transaction value grew by 8.8%.

These figures reflect the changing mix of business towards a higher level of transaction value.

Net operating costs, as a percentage of turnover, continue to reduce and now only represent 0.23% of transaction value compared to 0.27% for last year.

This improvement reflects the increase in productivity throughout Unimer's operations and its' continuing search for process and system developments to generate operational benefits.

'We are also delighted to have signed an agreement with Procurement for Housing The framework structure for trading has been created by Unimer and PfH, and the arrangement is uniquely open to Unimer members only.

By developing this arrangement for 'responsive and planned repair' expenditure, we have enabled our members to maintain and build relationships with local public sector landlords, whilst offering them the efficiency benefits that come from PfH's central billing system and our competitive pricing", continues Howard Grant.

"Ron Walker joined the Unimer Board as a non-executive director on the 1st July 2007, and I am delighted that we will be benefiting from his knowledge and experience".

"At Unimer, our staff are, and always will be, our greatest assets and their commitment and support remains invaluable to our shareholders.

We will continue to give our staff the leadership, tools and confidence to serve our merchant members well.

I believe we are well placed to meet the opportunities and challenges of the current financial year".

Financial highlights:.

* Transactional turnover of GBP768M, up by 9.6% (from GBP701M last year).

* Distributions made to shareholder members totalled GBP17.5M.

* Net operating costs at 0.23% of transactional value, thereby maintaining Unimer's position as the lowest cost operator in the sector.

Operational highlights:.

* Restructuring of Unimer management team.

- Ron Walker, Managing Director, of HPS joining Unimer Board.

- Robin Beal joining as Supply Chain Director.

- Suzanne Millward joining as Marketing Manager.

* Strong trading performance.

* National Materials Agreement signed with Procurement for Housing.

* System developments to support business continuity and disaster recovery.

* More flexible capability for members EDI testing.

* Capture and verification of order numbers and delivery note numbers.

* 50% growth in email transmission of members invoices.

Howard, Grant, Unimer's Managing Director, says: "Our priority this year has been to further improve on our existing operations with new members of staff, and put in place a firm foundation for growth in electronic trading.

We can now move forward with the confidence and knowledge that we most certainly have the management capability and resources to deliver further added-value to our merchant members." Unimer is the leader in its field and the board and management team intend to maintain Unimer's position as the leading invoice clearing house for the building materials sector.

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