Refurb Projects August 2017

SOCIAL HOUSING
Argos Business Centres helping Grand
Union Housing Group to furnish properties
At Argos for Business we are always looking to help busy social housing providers
achieve their objectives. Our latest success story comes through our work with
Grand Union Housing Group. Grand Union Housing Group is an innovative leading
provider and developer of affordable housing and related services in Bedfordshire,
Buckinghamshire and Northamptonshire, managing around 12,000 properties.
VISION FOR GROWTH
Grand Union Housing Group’s ‘2020
Vision’ is to build 1,500 new homes
by 2020, enabling more people to
rent or own a home that they can
afford. Its aim is to deliver an
ambitious, expanded programme of
high quality services that its
customers want, in the way that
they want to receive them, while
improving the wellbeing of those
who need extra support, particularly
the elderly.
The Group offers a range of
tenures and home types, ranging
from fixed term tenancies or starter
tenancies at social or affordable rent
all the way to shared ownership,
market rent and market sale.
This is where we at Argos for
Business comes in. We help furnish
Grand Union Housing’s properties to
a high standard, in readiness for new
tenants to move into.
The size of the product range we
offer gives the Group great choice
and availability; ensuring homes are
furnished with modern, quality items
throughout the properties.
Richard Pearce, procurement and
insurance manager at Grand Union
Housing Group, says: “When
choosing a supplier to help support
our work, great service and
communications are priorities. Argos
for Business provide both of these
through their Business Centre
Solution.
We have a day-to-day contact
in-store, which helps reduce our
administrative workload. Processing
orders, sourcing stock and managing
delivery deadlines is all taken care of
for us”.
IMPROVING SUPPORT SERVICES
We are also able to improve the
efficiency of the Group’s support
service, Encourage.
Encourage allows the Group to
provide housing and support for
adults with learning disabilities, as
well as providing homes for the over
55s. The service also supports older
tenants via its Lifeline and
Community Alarm and Support
Service (CASS). The CASS gives
customers the ability to maintain
their independence while living in
their own home.
With such varied customer
needs, the Group would ordinarily
need to work with a very large
number of different suppliers.
However, as Argos offers such a
breadth of product categories in one
place, Grand Union Housing is able
to minimise the number of suppliers
used.
Richard says: “Being able to
source thousands of items from
Argos means that we aren’t wasting
valuable time chasing around lots of
different suppliers and trying to
consolidate multiple orders. We have
a core range of items we know we
need for our homes, and whether its
furniture, furnishings or electrical
items or appliances, the Argos
Business Centre is able to source and
supply what each home needs.
“The Argos Business Centres’ real
strength is their communication to
us, ensuring we are aware of how
each order is progressing. For us,
having someone to be able to call to
discuss our needs and to fully
understand what we are trying to
achieve is refreshing and a real point
of difference. It helps us get our
homes ready on time for our
customers”.
Web: www.argos-business.co.uk
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REFURBISHMENT PROJECTS, AUGUST 2017 23