Member Article

Henry Boot Construction bucks national trend and improves payment terms during lockdown

In a bid to further support its supply chain, Henry Boot Construction has improved its payment terms during the lockdown period.

The company works with a wide variety of local and national sub-contractors and highly values the ongoing contribution they make to the business.

“We are very pleased to report that our supply chain payment terms have improved again this year, reflecting both our commitment and loyalty to ensuring prompt payments to our partners,” comments Ryan O’Loughlin, Director at Henry Boot Construction.

Continues Ryan: “Our average payment terms over are now 28 days and during the critical early stages of the pandemic, many of our partners were paid within 14 days.

“According to figures from Build UK, the average payment time for its members is 36 days with some companies taking over 50 days to settle. We have set an ambitious target of reducing our average payment time to 21 days.

“At the start of this challenging and uncertain period within the industry, Henry Boot Construction made an unprompted offer of early payment on one of our key contracts. In turn, we were able to utilise this gesture to make early payments to our own supply chain partners, providing a much-welcomed boost to confidence and financial stability throughout the supply chain.

Explains Nigel Pollard, Managing Director, HE Barnes: “This serves as another great example of why we value Henry Boot Construction as one of our key customers and look forward to continuing to work together to deliver projects to a high standard for our end users.”

Adds Shane Oldroyd, Managing Director, Oldroyd Flooring Limited: “We have found Henry Boot Construction’s concern for its subcontractors has been nothing short of excellent during the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent lockdown period. Being a relatively small company, forward cashflow was of great concern to us as our regular suppliers were unfortunately on shutdown through the initial lockdown period.

“The unexpected and kind offer of temporarily improved payment terms from Henry Boot has helped immensely during this period of uncertainty and has allowed us to use alternative suppliers and remain gainfully and productively employed on The Glass Works project until its successful completion. We cannot thank Henry Boot enough for this consideration and would sincerely hope to continue a great working relationship in the future.

Concludes Ryan: “Our supply chain is key to the continued success of not just our company, but hundreds of others. It is, therefore, extremely important to us to continue to enhance our payment terms for the benefit of the entire UK construction industry.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kirsten Howells .