Customer and Product

The products that Grafton sell are a big contributor to its Scope 3 GHG emissions. Grafton sells to sole traders, small companies, large construction companies and house builders, to the public and private sector, and to DIY enthusiasts.

Value for money is incredibly important for a just climate transition, but this shouldn’t come at the expense of quality, traceability and responsible sourcing. Customers are increasingly interested in products that will help them use energy more efficiently so we need to consider how to best support this as well as offering product options that extend the life of products by rental and repair.

A large proportion of our customers are professionals who need to have confidence that if they introduce a new product, it will perform as well as their existing product, so it is important to work closely with customers to introduce, test and review new products.

Product sustainability

Grafton has a product sustainability framework which continues to evolve and develop. The attributes include responsibly sourced raw materials, low impact manufacture, reduction in fossil fuel consumption in use and more. 

Circular economy

Across our business units there are some strong examples of circular business models in action. Chadwicks’ Sam Hire brand provides high quality construction equipment on a rental basis to customers in the Republic of Ireland. At any one time it has approximately 6,500 pieces of equipment from diggers, dumpers, generators, scissor and material lifts to concrete cutting saws. 

TG Lynes also operate a plant rental service.

Raw material traceability

Gaining greater traceability of priority raw materials is an important focus. CPI Mortars has strong traceability of the sand, cement and additives used to make its mortars. It has long-standing relationships with its UK-based suppliers and works closely with them to ensure the extraction sites have restoration plans in place.

Timber is an important raw material for a number of the distributors within the Group. The Group Timber Sourcing Policy outlines the legal requirements, responsible sourcing and due diligence guidelines.

Read the Sustainability content in our Annual Report and Accounts to find out more about our targets, progress and plans.