About West Mercia Supplies
Who We Are
WMS is a Purchasing Consortium owned by four member authorities – Herefordshire Council, Shropshire County Council, The Borough of Telford and Wrekin and Worcestershire County Council.
As well as offering a ‘one stop shop to schools and colleges’, providing an extensive range of high use office and educational products we also supply local government offices and other non-profit making organisations.
Whilst WMS is renowned for providing extremely competitive prices we do not compromise on service.
History
Starting life as Shrophire's Supplies Division, a government review in 1981, judged Shropshire to be one of the top 10 performing purchasing operations in the country despite our relatively small size.
Building on these foundations WMS was formed in 1987 when Shropshire County Council and Hereford and Worcester County Council set up a joint committee to oversee procurement.
In 1999 WMS, having outgrown its original warehouse operation at Longden Road, Shrewsbury, moved to a new purpose built building at Oxon Business Park, Shrewsbury where we are currently located.
2004 was a year of dramatic change. The owning authorities appointed consultants to conduct a strategic review to help establish the future direction of the organisation.
The result was a significant restructuring of WMS and most significantly the appointment of a new Managing Director (previously Purchasing Director), Mike Phillips.
This appointment has given WMS a clear business focus. Significant improvements in the level of customer service have taken place and more development plans are underway to ensure that WMS continues to provide high levels of service to all its customers.
