BUILDERS MERCHANTS: A-Z HUWS GRAY • RIDGEONS H Huws Gray (Including Ridgeons) HUWS GRAY
Llangefni Industrial Estate Llangefni Anglesey LL77 7QD
www.huwsgray.co.uk
Subsiduaries: Ridgeons
Branches: 105 (63 HUWS GRAY / 42 RIDGEONS) Employees: 1700
HUWS GRAY, FOUNDED in 1990 on Anglesey, Wales, with one location, now operates from 57 trading locations with almost 800 staff. Over recent years, the company has achieved strong growth organically and through acquisitions.
In the past year, the company has acquired sven businesses and an injection of funds from Inflexion Private Equity, which will help to fund further acquisitions and expansion.
The biggest of thos acquisitions was the transformative purchase of East Anglian family-owned builders merchant Ridgeons Ltd at the begining of October. . The purchase of Ridgeons added 40 branches to Huws Gray’s 62-branch empire which stretches across Wales and the north west of England, as far down as Hay- on-Wye in Herfordshire, Erdington in Birmingham and Derby. The group’s turnover in 2017 was £182.6m.
In 2017 the Ridgeons Group turned over £175m and as
HUWS GRAY THE NUMBERS
2015 Turnover £m Gross profit £m
Operating profit £k Net profit £k Staff
THE RATIOS 2015 Stockturn Gross margin %
Operating margin % Net margin % Sales/head £k Profit/head £
Return on capital % BMJ INDEX
3.7
34.9 12.5 12.4 218
27,105 21.7
2016 3.7
36.4 13.8 13.6 208
28,696 23.9
2017 3.7
36.7 14.0 13.8 234
32,623 24.1
1,173
122.0 42.6
15,206 15,109 493
2016
149.0 54.3
20,575 20,319 561
2017
182.7 67.0
25,511 25,255 651
well as Ridgeons Timber & Builders Merchants, the Group encompasses PlumbStock, which is dedicated to plumbing and heating; Ridgeons Forest Products, the timber processing operation; Anglia Tool Centre, specialist sellers of hand power tools and CRS Wholesale, a bathroom and sanitary ware wholesaler. This is Huws Gray’s fifth acquisition in six months and makes them comfortably the UK’s fifth largest merchant, behind Travis Perkins, Saint Gobain, Wolseley and Grafton and ahead of MKM. The deal came just a few months after Ridgeons’ high- profile move from its long-time Cambridge city-centre base in Cromwell Road to a brand new, purpose-built branch in Norman Way on the outskirts of the city. With the Norman Way branch being designed for fast and efficient service, the team is now able to collaborate more closely with the Nuffield Road branch to provide customers with a seamless service across both branches.
% CHANGE 2016 22 28 35 34 14
% CHANGE 2016 0 4
11 10 (4) 6
10
Terry Owen, CEO of Huws Gray, said: “The acquisition of Ridgeons represents a real milestone for our company as we become the largest independent builders merchants in the UK. Ridgeons is an excellent business with a genuine leadership position in its region and is a perfect addition to Huws Gray’s growing footprint. We were struck not only by the strength of the company, but also by the considerable similarities between our cultures and management style.”
Gordon Ridgeon, on behalf of the Ridgeon family, added: “Our priority was to find a new owner for Ridgeons with the same culture and values. We are confident that in Huws Gray we have found a like-minded owner who will further strengthen the Ridgeon brand and continue to build on the success of the past 107 years.”
Among the other purchases made by the Welsh merchant were Armstrongs Builders Merchants based in Lower Bentham, Lancashire. This came just six weeks after their acquisition of Penrith Building
RIDGEONS THE NUMBERS
2017 23 23 24 24 16
2017 (1) 1 1 1
12 14 1
2015 Turnover £m Gross profit £m
Operating profit £k Net profit £k Staff
THE RATIOS 2015 Stockturn Gross margin %
Operating margin % Net margin % Sales/head £k Profit/head £
Return on capital % BMJ INDEX
5.4
32.8 3.4 3.3
177
5,951 14.1
2016 5.0
31.7 1.9 1.9
192
3,724 8.4
2017 5.4
31.4 3.0 2.9
209
6,194 12.7 156
143.6 47.1 4820 4,772 810
2016
159.8 50.6 3098 3,011 832
2017
175.5 55.1 5197 5,087 839
% CHANGE 2016 11 8
(36) (37) 3
% CHANGE 2016 (7) (3)
(42) (43) 8
(37) (41)
CEO: Terry Owen Managing Director: John LL Jones
%Heavyside/ %Lightside/ % Timber Sales: 66.2 / 15.5 / 18.3
Members of: BMF, NMBS
TRAILBLAZERS
Supplies and further expands Huws Gray’s reach in the North West.
The companyy also purchased North West based Southport Timber, Wheelers Timber and Builders Merchants based in Erdington, north Birmingham, as well as PH Timber based in Poulton-le-Fylde, Blackpool and Stoke on Trent based Audley Builders Merchants Ltd.
2017 10 9
68 69 1
2017 7
(1) 53 54 9
66 52
24
A supplement to builders merchants journal April 2019
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