The British Independent Retailers Association (Bira) represents thousands of independent retailers across the UK, from single stores to multi-site businesses and specialist merchants.

As the voice of independent retail, Bira works to create a fairer trading environment, influencing government policy and supporting members through regulatory change. Alongside this advocacy, Bira provides practical, day-to-day support to help retailers run and grow their businesses, including access to expert legal and HR advice, preferential rates on essential services such as card processing and insurance, and discounts across utilities, finance and business services, helping members reduce costs and operate more efficiently.

Bira Direct, the association’s buying group, further strengthens this support by helping independent retailers improve their profitability and competitiveness through a carefully curated network of over 120 approved suppliers.

Bira Direct gives members access to exclusive pricing, preferential terms including 30 days end of month credit, and a growing programme of promotions, events and supplier offers. With the opportunity to earn annual rebates and benefit from negotiated terms not typically available to independents, Bira Direct enables members to buy better, save more and compete more effectively.

By combining strong representation with tangible commercial benefits, Bira and Bira Direct are committed to helping independent retailers thrive.

Our mission is to supply independent retailers with quality products and services, to provide them with programmes to operate efficient and profitable stores, and assist them in serving the customer with competitive prices and superior service.

The company’s philosophy is different to some conventional distributors whose basic objective is to maximise their own profit. We are firmly focused on the needs of our retail customers.

In essence, Home Hardware is about ‘people helping people’ – our staff helping retailers and retailers helping their customers, working together to secure their future. Our significant purchasing power, together with the use of efficient systems enables us to provide our customers with excellent service and value.