about ABCO

A partnership onsite, and in procurement

Onsite, our focus is giving your engineers everything they need to maintain uptime and lower the TCO of equipment and systems.

For procurement teams, our mission is to save time each day on supplier negotiations and purchasing administration, by price-checking major brand products on your behalf and providing completely transparent costs, evaluations and reporting procedures.

What drives us?

Service standards

It’s why customers choose an independent provider over a national chain

Technical partnerships

Delivering value above and beyond product supply

Data

Making decisions that benefit our customers, based on transparent, measurable data

Reliability

Providing a solution every time to maintain uptime for customers

We save customers up to three hours per day on supplier negotiations, purchasing administration and delivery processing by price-checking big name MRO products on their behalf and delivering them quickly.

Our in-house technical and engineering skill, enables us to support customers in lowering the TCO of their equipment and systems with on-site operational support specific training.

Our sustainability commitment

Our sustainability pathway is externally assessed by EcoVadis for true accountability. This means our management procedures are robust and fully documented in the areas of environmental preservation, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement.

According to EcoVadis, we are a front runner in our industry, performing at an “advanced” level for environmental preservation and ethics.

Lowering supply chain emissions

By doubling down on being a truly reliable single-source provider of all industrial components, consumables and services, we are able to reduce the number of deliveries you receive each week, cutting transport emissions from your supply chain in line with your company’s sustainability agenda.

Eliminate three deliveries per week for an annual CO₂saving of 670kg —equivalent to planting between 15 and 20 trees per year
Eliminate 10 deliveries per week for an annual CO₂ saving of 2230kg — enough to fly from Paris to New York and back every year

In the independent industrial distributor marketplace, we rank:

Top

16%

in environmental preservation

Top

8%

for ethical responsibility

Top

18%

For ethical procurement

The UK’s only “service first” distributor of industrial supplies and services

ABCO is a proud member of IADA — a member-owned co-operative of successful independent distributors, working together to deliver major-brand industrial components, consumables and services throughout the UK.

For 25 years, this nationwide organisation has combined the buying power and distribution capabilities of a national provider, with the passion, service and staff-retention of independents in the market.

IADA has a national distribution centre in Leicestershire – conveniently located not far from ABCO. This provides us with an additional central stores facility and additional substantial stock profile for fast delivery across the East Midlands.

What our IADA membership means for you

Playing an active role in a national co-operative has two major benefits for ABCO customers – buying power and scalability.

Buying power

Historically, independent distributors have not had the buying power required to access major or premium industrial brands.

For members of IADA, our combined purchasing power gives us the same buying power of a national chain, meaning our customers can purchase major brand products, but retain the service standards of an independent technical partner.

National scalability

Many of our customers have sites outside of the East Midlands, that would benefit from the service standards, processes and partnership approach of ABCO.

As a member of IADA, we are able to work with other member branches to provide complete scalability, offering independent service standards, and national buying power to multi-site customers that don’t want to compromise.

leadership

Leadership Team

james gibson

Managing Director

James has more than 30 years industry experience. Starting in his teens, he climbed the ranks at ABCO before taking over from his parents in 2021.

He upholds our quality and service standards, working closely with manufacturing supply partners and governing bodies to ensure what we offer customers is always at the forefront of industry best practice.

marie hounslow

Sales & Marketing Director

Marie has worked at a global level in our industry for almost 20 years, improving customer experience and supply chain communications for many big name brands.

She works with new and existing customers at a corporate level, to implement strategic processes and transparent reporting procedures that save procurement teams time and money.