Materials site to cut costs

by John Leitch



Five industry heavyweights have formed Mercadium, an e-commerce site. It predicts savings of 5%-10% in building materials.

Members of the venture are aggregates and ready-mixed concrete supplier Aggregate Industries; contractor and housebuilder Alfred McAlpine; plasterboard manufacturer PBP; glassmaker Pilkington; and cement and ready-mixed concrete supplier RMC.

Each is putting between £1m and £5m into the venture. "More importantly, they have committed management time," said Robert Losson, a former strategist with Pilkington, who heads Mercadium. Losson has a team of 20. Mercadium, which was launched last month, will go live in the summer.

The European building materials market is worth £96bn and analysts predict that 15% of transactions will be conducted on-line in four years' time.