BUSINESS partners Nigel Burke and Dave Greenwood are flying the flag for hands-on DIY and building supplies traders.

The pair, who combined their surnames to launch Burwood Supply Ltd four years ago, are finding their willingness to engage with customers personally is part of a winning formula.

Burwood, based off Smethurst Lane, Bolton, specialised in procurement for the building and water industries, but has now tapped into the contacts of business development manager Wendy Malone to extend the portfolio of services to local authorities.

And a revamped web-site, burwoodsupply.com, also enables the company to sell DIY products direct to the public.

Mr Burke, aged 52, a former pupil of Hayward Grammar School, said: “We saw a gap in the merchant market four years ago.

"Smaller companies were being absorbed by bigger ones and were becoming very impersonal. Our strength is our interpersonal skills.”

Former Bolton County Grammar pupil Mr Greenwood, aged 47, said: “We go in places and people like us. We have a can-do, hands-on approach.

“We can dress in suits if we want to, but the next day we will be down a hole measuring a pipe. We pride ourselves in being able to get anything anyone wants. Nigel and I have vast experience in this sector and it is now paying off.”

That approach paid off recently when they were asked by three local primary schools to install bespoke flags on nine-metre poles at their premises.

The schools were Devonshire Road Primary, another of Mr Greenwood’s former schools, Haslam Park, Deane, which has a flag incorporating 21 nationalities of the children who attend the school, and The Ferns Primary Academy in Plodder Lane.

“When it was proposed by Bolton Council that all local schools should fly the union flag, we emailed them to offer our services,” said Mr Greenwood. “We were delighted to help out the three schools which were interested.”