Walk into any builders’ merchant in Britain today and you’ll see a business that looks resilient. Racks of materials, forklifts in motion, trade customers loading up for the day ahead. But beneath the surface of this dependable image, many suppliers are facing an uncomfortable truth: the systems holding their businesses together are no longer keeping up.
From outdated infrastructure to increasing cyber risks and disjointed data, 2025 is putting operational pressure on merchants like never before. The question isn’t whether building suppliers need to modernise, but how they can do so without losing the momentum they’ve worked hard to build.
At Six Degrees, we believe there’s a way forward. Not a total rebuild, but a thoughtful refinement. We call it RE:built.
The Gap Between Operations and Expectation
Margins have always been tight in building supplies. But the challenge now is compounded by volatile housing activity, rising labour costs, and fast-evolving sustainability demands. Despite the traditional face of the industry, expectations from both trade customers and regulatory bodies are becoming unavoidably digital.
Yet across the sector, many businesses are still relying on on-premises systems that are difficult to scale or integrate. Depot teams wrestle with slow devices and software that can’t support real-time coordination. Dashboards are often replaced with spreadsheets. And critical systems lack segmentation, exposing entire estates to unnecessary cyber risk. The result is a sector trying to move forward while its infrastructure drags behind.
A Patchwork That Slows the Customer Experience
Most suppliers didn’t get here by design. They grew through acquisition, regional expansion or necessity. But now that patchwork approach to IT is showing its strain. One depot might run different PoS software to the next. Wi-Fi coverage, system uptime, and staff tools can vary dramatically across sites.
This inconsistency hurts more than operations. It disrupts customer service, reduces staff efficiency, and limits strategic oversight. When leadership teams don’t have consistent visibility across their estate, making confident decisions becomes difficult.
RE:built. doesn’t ask suppliers to rip everything out and start again. Instead, it offers a structured path to standardisation — one where Azure-based hybrid cloud environments bring stability, control and cohesion across fragmented tech estates.
Cyber Security: The Operational Threat Hiding in Plain Sight
Five years ago, cyber security may have seemed like someone else’s problem. Today, it’s every supplier’s. With more digital interactions than ever before across trade portals, CRM systems, and mobile apps, the attack surface has expanded. Unfortunately, many companies still rely on legacy credentials, shared logins, or unmonitored networks.
When a breach happens, it’s not just data that’s at risk. Sales stop. Operations freeze. Trust is broken.
Six Degrees supports suppliers by embedding security from the ground up — with Defender for Endpoint-powered Managed Detection and Response and secure identity protocols tailored to busy, distributed operations. Cyber resilience is no longer optional; it’s essential infrastructure.
Data Without Insight Isn’t Useful
One of the loudest frustrations we hear from supply businesses is that they know the data is there — but it’s not usable. Finance teams want real-time margin control. Depot managers want clear stock intelligence. Sales leaders want customer trends. But the systems don’t talk to each other.
Through modern cloud-based integrations, it’s now possible to connect CRM, PoS, logistics, and finance systems into unified reporting environments. That means moving from end-of-month reporting to end-of-day insight. From gut feeling to data-backed action.
RE:built. is about turning disjointed data into usable, commercial intelligence — not through a giant platform shift, but by building around what’s already in place.
The Frontline Can’t Be an Afterthought
Depot teams are taking on more responsibility. They’re handling trade queries, coordinating deliveries, managing stock, and often supporting digital workflows. Yet many are working on slow terminals, with little support, and without tools designed for their daily reality.
Better enablement doesn’t mean more complexity. It means smarter, simpler systems that connect frontline staff to their customers, inventory, and colleagues — using intuitive interfaces, secure communications, and mobile-friendly design.
When staff are better equipped, customer experience improves and operational risk drops. It’s that simple.
Sustainability and Compliance Demands Are Rising
Today’s tenders increasingly ask for traceability and carbon reporting. If your systems can’t evidence product origin, environmental impact, or delivery mileage, you may find yourself excluded from frameworks that used to be reliable business.
Legacy infrastructure often can’t support this level of reporting. But modernising doesn’t have to be costly or invasive. By laying the right data foundations, compliance becomes less of a scramble and more of a differentiator.
Final Thought: Strength Through Refinement
The building supplies sector remains essential to Britain’s growth and resilience. But its own resilience now depends on its systems. Those systems don’t need to be scrapped — they need to be RE:built.
At Six Degrees, we work with national and regional merchants to modernise their infrastructure quietly, securely, and without disrupting day-to-day business. With Microsoft co-funding available, the cost of change is more accessible than many realise.
You don’t need to transform overnight. But you do need to prepare. Let’s make your infrastructure fit for what comes next.
Download the whitepaper Retail’s Big RE:think. and gain learnings from our retail roundtable held at Lord’s.
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