Branch stock and pricing rollout
Replacing branch price files and manual stock counts across all eighteen Thorne & Ridley branches.
Parties and term
- Registered
- 4 Wellgate Yard, Manchester M4 5JR
- Company no.
- 09 442 118
- Lead
- Priya Raghunathan
Engagement principal - Delivery
- Two consultants and one data engineer, named in Appendix A
- Registered
- Oakwell Trading Estate, Halifax HX1 2RS
- Company no.
- 03 117 620
- Sponsor
- Mark Ollerenshaw
Operations director - Approvals
- Commercial director for pricing, IT manager for access
Term: 5 October 2026 to 26 February 2027, unless extended by a signed change note under clause 08.
Background
Thorne & Ridley operates eighteen builders' merchant branches across West and North Yorkshire. Branch prices are published weekly as a spreadsheet, emailed to branch managers and keyed into the till system by hand. Stock counts are taken on paper and reconciled centrally, usually a fortnight later.
Two consequences drive this engagement. The first is margin: the September sample found 1,340 lines selling at a price other than the one the commercial team had signed off, worth an estimated £212,000 a year. The second is time: branch managers told us they spend between three and five hours a week on price and stock admin, which is roughly one full working day per branch.
The Merlin ERP already holds the catalogue and the supplier feeds. The work below configures its pricing and stock modules, migrates the catalogue into them, proves the result in two branches, and then rolls it out. It does not replace Merlin, and it does not change how Thorne & Ridley buys.
Scope of work
The scope is fixed by the two columns below. Anything not listed on the left is out, whether or not it appears on the right; the right-hand column names the exclusions we have been asked about most, so that nobody has to infer them.
- Data audit of the current catalogue, 41,600 active lines, including duplicate and dormant line reporting
- Pricing rule set: nine customer bands, contract pricing, branch overrides and the approval matrix behind them
- Catalogue migration into the Merlin pricing module, with a reconciliation report line by line
- Stock count configuration: rolling counts, variance thresholds, handheld scanner profiles
- Pilot at Halifax and Keighley, including cutover weekend and two weeks of on-site support
- Rollout to the remaining sixteen branches, two branches a week
- Training: two sessions per branch, plus a one-page guide per role and a recorded walkthrough
- Handover: runbook, rule documentation and four weeks of hypercare
- Till hardware, scanners and network upgrades at branch level
- Merlin licence changes or module purchases, which the client contracts directly
- Supplier feed reformatting beyond the four feeds named in Appendix A
- Trade counter and web pricing alignment, which we have proposed separately as AK‑2417
- Finance and nominal ledger mapping, owned by the client's accountants
- Historic stock valuation restatement for closed periods
- Out-of-hours support outside the pilot cutover weekend and the four hypercare weeks
Anything here can be brought in under clause 08, priced at the rate card in clause 06.
Deliverables
Table 1 · what is handed over, and who signs each item off
| Ref | Deliverable | Format | Due | Accepted by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| D1 | Data audit and cleansing reportDuplicate, dormant and mispriced lines, with a recommended action per exception | PDF and CSV exception file | 23 Oct 2026 | Operations director |
| D2 | Pricing rule set and approval matrixNine bands, contract overrides, and who may change what | Configured in Merlin, plus a signed summary | 27 Nov 2026 | Commercial director |
| D3 | Migrated catalogue41,600 lines loaded, with a line by line reconciliation against the source | Live system, plus reconciliation report | 11 Dec 2026 | Operations director |
| D4 | Pilot report and defect logHalifax and Keighley, two weeks of trading, with severity and owner per defect | PDF and shared defect log | 8 Jan 2027 | Project sponsor |
| D5 | Rollout and training packPer-branch schedule, role guides, recorded walkthrough, sign-off sheets | PDF pack and video | 12 Feb 2027 | Regional managers |
| D6 | Handover pack and runbookRule documentation, escalation routes, and the changes we would make next | PDF and repository access | 26 Feb 2027 | IT manager |
Each deliverable is accepted on the criteria written into it, under clause 09.
Milestones and timeline
Twenty-one working weeks, with the trading freeze between 21 December and 8 January left clear. Nothing goes live in a branch during the freeze, and no branch cutover falls on a Friday.
Table 2 · milestones, and what each one releases
| Ref | Milestone | Date | Evidence | Releases |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1 | Data audit report issued | 23 Oct 2026 | D1 accepted | £12,675 |
| M2 | Pricing rules signed off | 27 Nov 2026 | D2 accepted | £16,900 |
| M3 | Pilot live in two branches | 18 Dec 2026 | Trading on the new rules | £16,900 |
| M4 | Rollout complete, eighteen branches | 12 Feb 2027 | Branch sign-off sheets | £12,675 |
| M5 | Handover accepted, hypercare ends | 26 Feb 2027 | D6 accepted | £8,450 |
Fees and payment
Fixed price for the scope in clause 03. Fees are quoted excluding VAT and are held until 26 February 2027.
Table 3 · fixed fees by workstream
| Workstream | Effort | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Mobilisation and data audit | 14 consultant days | £9,750 |
| Pricing rules and catalogue migration | 38 consultant days | £28,400 |
| Branch pilot | 19 consultant days | £14,200 |
| Rollout, sixteen branches | 33 consultant days | £24,600 |
| Training, handover and hypercare | 11 consultant days | £7,550 |
| Total, excluding VAT | 115 days | £84,500 |
Payment schedule
| Invoice | Raised on | Date | Share | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| INV‑1 | Signature of this statement of work | 9 Oct 2026 | 20% | £16,900 |
| INV‑2 | Milestone M1 | 30 Oct 2026 | 15% | £12,675 |
| INV‑3 | Milestone M2 | 4 Dec 2026 | 20% | £16,900 |
| INV‑4 | Milestone M3 | 8 Jan 2027 | 20% | £16,900 |
| INV‑5 | Milestone M4 | 19 Feb 2027 | 15% | £12,675 |
| INV‑6 | Acceptance of D6 | 5 Mar 2027 | 10% | £8,450 |
| Total | 100% | £84,500 |
Payment terms 21 days from invoice date. Travel outside Greater Manchester is charged at cost against receipts, capped at £3,200 for the engagement and agreed in advance.
Rate card for additional work
| Role | Day rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Principal consultant | £1,150 | Engagement lead, commercial decisions |
| Senior consultant | £780 | Configuration, branch delivery |
| Data engineer | £690 | Migration, reconciliation, feeds |
| Trainer | £540 | Branch sessions and materials |
A day is 7.5 hours. Half days are billed at 60 percent. Rates hold to 31 March 2027.
Assumptions and dependencies
The fixed price rests on the following. Where one of these turns out not to hold, we raise a change note rather than absorb it quietly or discover it at the end.
- One named decision-maker for pricing, available to answer within two working days. Pricing questions that sit unanswered for a week move the M2 date.
- Read access to the Merlin database and the four supplier feeds by 12 October 2026, with a test environment refreshed from live.
- Branch connectivity meets the 20 Mbps minimum in Appendix A. Three branches are currently below it; the upgrades are the client's to arrange, and Keighley is in the pilot.
- Supplier files arrive in the agreed layout. Reformatting beyond the four named feeds is chargeable at the rate card.
- Branch staff are released for training, two hours per branch, scheduled by the client at least ten working days ahead.
- No branch acquisitions or closures complete between 5 October 2026 and 26 February 2027. A nineteenth branch is a change note, not a surprise.
- Work runs 08:00 to 18:00 on working days. The pilot cutover weekend of 12 and 13 December is the only out-of-hours work included.
- The client owns the decision to go live in each branch. We recommend; the sponsor decides.
Change control
Any change to scope, deliverables, dates or fees is made by a change note signed by both sponsors. Work described in an unsigned change note is not started and is not invoiced.
Raised in writing
Either party raises the change on the standard note, describing what is wanted and why.
Impact assessed
We return the effect on cost, dates and risk within three working days, including the option of doing nothing.
Signed, then started
Both sponsors sign. The change note is appended to this document and the schedule is reissued.
Changes we assess at under half a day of effort are absorbed and logged, not charged.
Acceptance
Measured from the working day after a deliverable is issued.
A deliverable is accepted when the named approver in Table 1 confirms it in writing, or when it is put into live use, whichever comes first. If the approver instead returns a written list of defects against the criteria in that deliverable, we correct them within five working days and reissue once. A second review window then runs.
If no response arrives within ten working days of issue, the deliverable is deemed accepted, and the milestone it supports is invoiced. Accepting one deliverable does not accept the engagement; the engagement is accepted at M5.
Defects found after acceptance that trace to our configuration are corrected at no charge for ninety days from 26 February 2027. Defects that trace to a change made by the client after handover are chargeable at the rate card.
Sign-off
Signature below commits both parties to the scope, dates and fees set out above, under the terms of the master services agreement dated 14 March 2025. This statement of work does not vary those terms.