Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Holiday Builders Paints Sherwin Williams as a Partner

Unless you are an HGTV designer or an aspiring Matisse, paint might not be that exciting to you. But today, Barry Holland, director of purchasing and national accounts at Holiday Builders is excited.

"We are thrilled about our new partnership with Sherwin-Williams," he says.

Today, September 29, 2010, Sherwin Williams announced an exclusive agreement with Holiday Builders. With 3,300 stores in North America, Sherwin Williams is a giant in the paint, stain, coating, and wall and floor covering business. Those are products regularly found on the shopping lists of Holiday Builders, who is known for their quality residential home building in the United States' southeast.

Paints and coatings provided by Sherwin Williams will be of strategic importance to Holiday Builders. By taking advantage of Sherwin Williams' National Account program, Holiday Builders expects operational efficiencies including: consistency, standardization, consolidation, customized specifications, and simplified supplier transactions. Holiday Builders expects to see cost savings too, by partnering with a supplier that can provide national buying power. Yet with 1,400 reps nationwide, local service is a top benefit of the relationship as well.

HGTV and Matisse aren't alone, such a list of benefits and and advantages to the relationship with Sherwin Williams, seems more than a valid reason for Barry Holland's excitement over paint.

Reference press release: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sherwin-williams-now-exclusive-paint-and-coatings-supplier-to-holiday-builders-103993218.html)

Sample Test Question: Task 1-F-1

Based on information from the article above, Sherwin Williams is best described as what type of supplier to Holiday Builders:

A) Approved supplier

B) Certifiable supplier
C) Partnered supplier

D) Pre-qualified supplier

2 comments:

Satyam Jakkula said...

The answer is option C)

The relationship between two is of "strategic importance" and thus Sherwin Williams is a "Partnered supplier" of Holiday Builders.

Title of the article itself is a hint :-)

Deborah Gamble, CPSM said...

Satyam,

Yes, there was a hint, a big one. Your answer is correct.

Sherwin Williams is a partnered supplier because of their close relationship with Holiday Builders and the single-source relationship for strategic goods.

Based on the information, Sherwin Williams was probably an approved supplier before they were a partner, but that is not the best answer.

We have no information that Sherwin Williams is able to pass a test to be come a Certifiable supplier for Holiday Builders. We don't even know if Holiday Builders classifies theirs suppliers in that manner. So B is not the best answer.

While it may be likely that Sherwin Williams passed a review/approval process and was a pre-qualified supplier before they became a partner, again, pre-qualified is not the best answer.

Debbie