For years, the building materials sector has been held back by fragmented, inconsistent and manually managed product data. Multiple formats, duplicated effort and legacy systems created inefficiency across the supply chain.

The Builders Merchants Federation (BMF) had already taken a vital first step with the creation of an industry Product Data Template — but confusion persisted:

Data Yard was launched to provide the pivot: a digital, platform led approach to product data standardisation that the whole sector could align behind.

Established in April 2025 and managed by Building Materials Digital Services (BMDS Ltd — a joint venture between the BMF and NMBS), Data Yard now serves as the centralised data platform for the industry. Manufacturers can submit product data once, while buying groups and merchants access a single, reliable source of structured information.

CMDi’s involvement spans more than three years – supporting the development of the sector’s product data strategy, facilitating Working Group 2 for data standardisation and helping embed transformation as a core part of the BMF’s supply chain collaboration agenda.

Most recently, CMDi was appointed to sharpen the strategic narrative and position Data Yard as the authoritative brand leading industry transformation.

Our work focused on four imperatives:

1. Remove confusion

We clarified the relationship between the Template and Data Yard — repositioning the Template as the Standardised Product Data Template (SPDT), the governance framework underpinning the platform.

2. Establish clear leadership positioning

We defined a bold, ownable territory: Data Yard as the centralised, trusted, industry backed platform driving the shift to smarter product data.

3. Sharpen branding

We strengthened the identity with a more digital, modern look and feel, refining the logo and creating a simple, scalable visual system applied across the website and key touchpoints.

4. Create urgency and traction

We developed a communications strategy to accelerate supplier onboarding – building clarity, momentum and visible endorsement to trigger a “domino effect” among leading manufacturers. The narrative shifted from disruption and complexity to guidance, support and commercial gain.