FINANCIAL TABLES
PROFIT PER HEAD: TOP SIX FAR AHEAD
1. AW Lumb 2. Huws Gray 3. MP Moran
4. Beggs & Partners 5. Grant & Stone 6. HPS
7. James Hargreaves 8. Beatsons 9. Lawsons
10. JT Atkinson 11. C&W Berry 12. Walter Tipper 13. Sydenhams 14. Williams
15. MGM Timber 16. Joseph Parr
17. Rembrand Timber 18. Chandlers 19. Crossling
20. John A Stephens 21. Travis Perkins
22. Rawle Gammon & Baker 23. J T Dove
24. Elliott Bros 25. Covers 26. Lords 27. LBS
28. Haldane Shiells 29. Kellaway
30. Builder Depot
31. Grafton Merchanting GB 32. Alsford Timber 33. Ridgeons
34. John Nicholls 35. James Burrell 36. Carver
37. Beesley & Fildes 38. Markovitz 39. EH Smith 40. Kent Blaxill 41. Boys & Boden
42. Howarth Timber Supplies 43. Myers Building Supplies 44. Frank Key
45 Robert Price & Sons 46. Jewson
47. AW Champion
48 Parker Building Supplies 49. Nicholls & Clarke 50. Wolseley UK
51. Bradford & Sons 52 MKM
£47,000 £32,623 £28,812s £23,830 £23,174 £20,736 £18,305 £16,754 £16,262 £16,110 £16,021 £14,202 £14,071 £13,034 £12,604 £12,525 £12,431 £11,952 £11,945 £11,876 £11,779 £11,258 £10,166 £9,903 £9,641 £9,445 £8,572 £8,322 £7,381 £7,165 £6,989 £6,523 £6,194 £6,060 £6,026 £6,019 £5,698 £5,550 £5,456 £4,557 £4709 £4,392 £4,306 £4,297 £3,993 £2,925 £2,601 £1,958 £1,224 £-1,082 £-1,128 £-5,350
GROSS MARGIN: BIGGEST ISN’T BEST
1. AW Champion 2. MP Moran 3. Sydenhams
4. Nicholls & Clarke 5. Lawsons 6. Huws Gray
7. Alsford Timber 8. Frank Key 9. Covers 10. LBS
11. Beatsons
12. Grant & Stone 13. John A Stephens 14. JT Atkinson 15. Kent Blaxill
16. Rawle Gammon & Baker 17. Ridgeons 18. HPS 19. Lords
20. Chandlers
21. Builder Depot 22. Travis Perkins 23. C&W Berry 24. John Nicholls 25. Walter Tipper 26. Bradford & Sons
27. Howarth Timber Supplies 28. J T Dove 29. MKM
30. Beggs & Partners 31. Robert Price & Sons 32. Haldane Shiells
33. Parker Building Supplies 34. James Hargreaves 35. Joseph Parr
36. Myers Building Supplies 37. Grafton Merchanting GB 38. MGM Timber 39. Crossling
40. Rembrand Timber 41. Boys & Boden 42. Carver
43. Williams 44. Markovitz
45. Wolseley UK 46. EH Smith 47. Kellaway
48. Beesley & Fildes 49. James Burrell 50. Elliott Bros 51. AW Lumb 52. Jewson
43.4% 41.9% 40.4% 38.6% 37.2% 36.7% 34.9% 34.5% 33.6% 33.2% 33.0% 32.8% 32.4% 32.4% 32.1% 31.9% 31.4% 30.8% 30.6% 30.4% 30.0% 29.6% 29.1% 29.0% 28.9% 28.9% 28.1% 28.0% 27.9% 27.9% 27.7% 27.4% 27.1% 27.1% 27.0% 26.7% 25.8% 25.7% 25.2% 24.9% 24.5% 23.5% 23.3% 23.2% 22.8% 21.0% 20.8% 20.8% 18.3% 16.5% 11.8% 11.1%
GROSS MARGIN GROWTH: UNDER PRESSURE
1. Rembrand Timber 2. Elliott Bros
3. Grant & Stone 4. Walter Tipper 5. JT Atkinson
6. John A Stephens
7. Rawle Gammon & Baker 8. Beatsons 9. Williams 10. MP Moran
11. Grafton Merchanting GB 12. LBS
13. Huws Gray 14. Chandlers 15. J T Dove
16. Myers Building Supplies 17. MGM Timber 18. Lawsons
19. Joseph Parr 20. AW Champion 21. Travis Perkins
22. Nicholls & Clarke 23. Beggs & Partners 24. Ridgeons 25. MKM
26. Builder Depot 27. Frank Key
28. James Burrell 29. Beesley & Fildes 30. Crossling
31. James Hargreaves 32. HPS
33. Sydenhams 34. Jewson 35. Carver
36. Robert Price & Sons 37. Alsford Timber 38. John Nicholls 39. Wolseley UK
40. Bradford & Sons 41. Covers
42. C&W Berry
43. Haldane Shiells 44. Kellaway
45. Parker Building Supplies 46. Markovitz
47. Howarth Timber Supplies 48. Kent Blaxill 49. EH Smith 50. Lords
51. AW Lumb 52. Boys & Boden
19.2% 7.4% 6.4% 6.0% 5.3% 4.0% 2.0% 1.9% 1.5% 1.2% 1.1% 0.8% 0.7% 0.3%
-0.1% -0.1% -0.1% -0.2% -0.4% -0.4% -0.5% -0.8% -0.8% -0.9% -1.2% -1.4% -1.5% -1.6% -2.0% -2.2% -2.2% -2.3% -2.3% -3.0% -3.0% -3.5% -4.0% -4.0% -4.0% -4.8% -4.9% -5.6% -6.3% -6.5% -6.5% -7.0% -7.4% -7.4% -9.9%
-12.2% n/a
-32%
Profit per head: This table reflects the company’s current level of profitability rather than a measure of the effectiveness of the staff. If the management have decided to plough the profits back into the business and the stated operating profit declines as a result, then the profit per staff will inevitably suffer no matter how good they
Gross margin: We assume that some of the merchants at the bottom of the table use accounting practices under which more is charged to the cost of sales line than the cost of goods for resale alone. And as always, it’s striking that sheer size clearly isn’t accompanied by an automatic buying edge; the big four are notable only
for their very run-of-the-mill performance. With such a wide spread of gross margin figures, it’s not easy to draw firm conclusions – except to comment that any merchant achieving a gross margin of 30%-plus is well ahead of the game
Gross profits: And here’s the sting in the tail: 43 out of our 51 merchants improved their gross profits in the latest financial periods – but only 11 out of 51 improved their gross margins. All the rest of the profit growth was attributable simply to increased sales, and those extra sales can’t hide the fact that for most merchants,
margins are under pressure. The trend may be partly attributable to increased online competition (it is beyond doubt now that the internet relentlessly drives prices down); but we suspect also that in a growing market, suppliers have seized the opportunity to force some price increases through, and merchants may not have been able to pass all of those increases on. None of which need bother the trade right now, when demand is still healthy – but when the sales curve next turns downward, continuing pressure on margins could cause merchant headaches.
April 2019 A supplement to builders merchants journal 9
are at their jobs. Even so, we bet that there will be merchants looking at AW Lumb, Huws Gray, MP Moran, Beggs & Partners, Grant & Stone, and HPS, and asking themselves: how do they do it?
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92
