JWD has partnered with Crystal Direct, a leading UK manufacturer of PVCU windows, doors and conservatories. The partnership provides JWD with access to Crystal’s unique and contracted routes to market, including the buying power of the NMBS, the National Merchant Buying Society, a centralised buying society for Independent Builders, Timber, Hardware, Plumbing and Heating Merchants, with over 1000 members and over 3000 national depots. Crystal is also the approved and contracted supplier to both the National Buying Group LLP and Fortis Merchants Ltd. These buying groups, themselves all members of the NMBS, represent approximately 600 outlets with combined revenues totalling £1.7b, coupling this with Crystal’s direct relationship with the two largest ‘regional’ merchants in the UK, who purchase independently of any buying society, genuinely provides unique access to the entire independent builders merchants sector of the UK   Via a further partner Crystal has NEW direct supply relationships with over 12,100 builders, as a result of Crystal products being embedded within this subscription estimating & specification software,  JWD have already completed several installation projects.   In addition, Crystal has recently been chosen to be the “voice of the merchant sector” – for PVCu products – within the BMBI report, a Builders Merchants Federation initiative, which in its early days is already influencing opinion and decision, aside from the platform and data this position delivers it also provides access -via common BMF membership –  to the national merchants – Travis Perkins, Jewson, Wolseley and Grafton Group, with whom supply (and installation) has already commenced.   Prior to the partnership, Crystal were able to provide the building trade with window, door and conservatory products, but unable to offer a survey or installation service. Thanks to JWD as their preferred partner, Crystal are now able to offer a full survey, supply and install service to all customers.   Through this new partnership, JWD are able to strengthen their position as the leading and preeminent installer of energy efficiency measures and services for trusted partners across all sectors and gain lucrative & potentially exclusive access to Crystal’s diverse routes to market.

Balfour Beatty has been fined £1m after a worker was killed by a crane while repairing a central reservation barrier. A team from Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering set out on 1st October 2012 to install temporary traffic management on a stretch of the A2 near Barham in Kent to repair barriers after a road accident had left them damaged. A truck-mounted loader crane was used in an improvised attempt to remove the footings of a post that had snapped off. There was no method statement. The crane slipped from the concrete footing, and swung back towards the barrier, hitting 37-year-old Larry Newman on the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Balfour Beatty Civil Engineering Limited, of Churchill Place, Canary Wharf, London, was fined a total of £1m at Canterbury Crown Court, and ordered to pay £14,977 in costs after pleading guilty to offences under Section 2(1) and Section 3(1) of the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974. After the hearing, HSE inspector Andrew Cousins said: “This was an entirely preventable incident that could have been averted by simply creating and implementing a safe system of work. If a suitably sized excavator had been used to remove the footing mechanically it would have prevented this tragic loss of life completely. “Employers have a responsibility to create safe systems of work for hazardous activities that their workers may be undertaking. The workers should be trained in safe systems of working and adequately supervised. Safety needs to be proactively managed and not just left to chance.” Balfour Beatty has since been working with the Association of Lorry Loader Manufacturers & Importers (ALLMI) on loader crane safety issues. ALLMI represents the entire loader crane sector, including users, and works to promote their safe use.