Lock-In: CTD

For the last few years, we’ve been searching hard for a tile manufacturer that completely suits the needs of the landlord market. Recovering from the demise of BCT, we’ve finally met our match with CTD – these tile manufacturers love their acronyms!

CTD are very true to their namesake, as the acronym quite literally stands for Ceramic Tile Distributors. Ahead of the official launch, this was the perfect time to introduce them and to help us, we were joined by their Regional Sales Director, Chris Lawrence.

Who You Know

They’re the biggest company you’ve never heard of – that’s their words, not ours. Although you may not initially recognise the CTD brand name, you’ll know Saint Gobain – the group that Jewson are a part of. It’s this partnership with Jewson that’s allowed us to make the initial contact with CTD and put together this brand-new offering for members.

In their 50 years, CTD have made a name for themselves mainly amongst the trade industry, but this is their first foray into the contract market, and we’re thrilled to be taking this leap with them.

You’ll never be too far away from a branch (unless you’re from Northern Ireland), as they have 89 of them – but our best bit of advice for using them is to go into branches to get a feel for the product, but order through our Account Manager Stephanie (who was also introduced) to ensure you’re getting the correct pricing.

There’s a few I’s to dot and T’s to cross, but we’re just about ready for the big launch!

Stocked Up

In this day and age, it was perhaps a bit optimistic for Chris to say that CTD were always fully stocked – Nick thankfully allowed him to retract his statement. However, stock is one of the strengths of CTD, with them claiming to have 98% stock availability at all times. The reason why they’re so efficient with stock is because they use procurement analytics and demand forecasting – talk about being ahead of the curve!

How else do they do it though? They’re backed by 4 strategic ‘hubs’ housing over £13m of tiles and accessories, a dedicated central sales office, and how could we forget – an extensive branch network.

Despite a bit of back and forth, we’re pleased to have agreed free delivery for LNPG members when they spend £50 on tiles. Realistically, CTD have a business to run and don’t want to be using extensive amounts of labour just for a few tiling accessories, which is why this minimum was put in place – but all in all, it’s a delivery offer that we’re really pleased with.

It’s All in the Range

Tile manufacturers are by no means rare, you’ll see one in most industrial estates across the country. But the reason CTD stood out for us was because of their extensive product offering.

We know that there’s a range of properties amongst the membership with there now being 25,000 LNPG households – and let’s face it, you’re not going to be installing the same tiles in Serviced Accommodation as you would in your student let.

We paid particular attention to the core range during the webinar because of its affordability for the landlord market, and with the extensive portfolios that some of you have, you need to be budgeting effectively to ensure the maximum return. Whilst the products are cheap, by no means are we skimping on the quality of the products – we get these prices because they’re contractually agreed, and you won’t find better anywhere else!

The Offer

We’ve purposefully cropped the prices out of this image for contractual reasons, but you can see below the full collections that are available.

With regards to the full range, we get the same rate of discount for all the products below APART from on the outdoor porcelain. However, we’re delighted to announce that the indoor porcelain is the still the same discount level as the rest of the indoor tiles that are offered.

Porcelain was the talk of the Facebook group leading up to the webinar, but there’s an important distinction that needs to be made between porcelain and ceramics. Porcelain tends to be placed on the floor, and ceramics on the wall – this is because porcelain is denser, less porous, and more durable, which means they’re much more suited to high footfall areas.

One of the most popular porcelain products was the Aspenwood tile, which is an example of glazed porcelain with a wood effect printed on. If you’re looking to exhibit a bit of a rustic aesthetic in your property, then this is the tile for you!

Navigating the Brochure

With the huge range of tiles that are offered, there’s no way that we could’ve got through all of them within an hour. We gave you a bit of a crash course of some of the major products, but everything will be truly revealed in the brochure when it’s live on the website!

In the presentation slides, each tile has a V rating, which helps people understand the variants and patterns of each tile. The lowest rating is 0 and this is more evident in the core range. In contrast, the highest rating is 4, which is shown through the likes of the Havana range.

The Havana range is what Chris termed as ‘funky designs, which admittedly aren’t to everyone’s tastes, but they’ve definitely come into fashion over the last few years, and are perfect for the more aspirational Serviced Accommodation properties.

And that’s your lot! Keep your eyes on our social media for the CTD launch within the next few weeks.