TRAILBLAZERS
STAFF NUMBERS: GROWING STEADILY 1. Travis Perkins (merchanting) 15,700 2. Jewson
3. Wolseley UK
4. Grafton Merchanting GB 5. MKM
6. Bradford & Sons 7. Ridgeons 8. Huws Gray
9. Haldane Shiells 10. Nicholls & Clarke 11. Howarth Timber 12. Lawsons 13. EH Smith 14. Sydenhams
15.Covers
16. Builder Depot 17. JT Atkinson 18.RGB 19. LBS
20. Grant & Stone 21. Lords
22. James Hargreaves 23. Elliott Bros 24. Williams
25.Parker Building Supplies 26. Robert Price 27. Joseph Parr 28.JT Dove
29.MP Moran 30. Crossling 31.C&W Berry
32.Walter Tipper 33. Kent Blaxill
34. Alsford Timber 35. John Nicholls 36. Frank Key 37. Chandlers
38. James Burrell 39. Beesley & Fildes 40. Kellaway
41. AW Champion
42. Rembrand Timber
43.MGM Timber 44.HPS
45. Markovitz 46. Carver
47.Myers Building Supplies
48.Beggs & Partners 49. Beatsons
50. John A Stephens
51.CRS
52. Browns 53. AW Lumb
9,094 5,734 4,729 1,348 962 855 847 639 546 500 461 460 440 432 402 393 354 342 329 326 315 312 285 282 272 264 262 261 252 246 242 236 233 222 217 214 210 209 206 206 205 200 197 192 163 152 130 129 112 109 78 76
STOCKTURN: ENORMOUS VARIATIONS 1. AW Lumb 2. Browns
3. C&W Berry
4. Builder Depot 5. MKM
6. MGM Timber 7. CRS
8. Parker Building Supplies 9. EH Smith 10. Lords
11. Joseph Parr 12. Kellaway
13.Myers Building Supplies 14.HPS
15. John A Stephens 16. Chandlers
17. James Burrell 18. Bradford & Sons 19. Frank Key
20.Beggs & Partners 21.RGB
22. Grafton Merchanting GB 23.JT Dove
24. John Nicholls 25. Lawsons
26. Elliott Bros
27.MP Moran 28. Markovitz 29. LBS
30. Jewson 31.Wolseley UK
32. Haldane Shiells 33. Howarth Timber
34.Covers
35. Travis Perkins 36. Grant & Stone 37. JT Atkinson 38. Crossling
39. James Hargreaves 40. Beesley & Fildes 41. Ridgeons
42. Kent Blaxill
43.Walter Tipper 44. Robert Price 45. Williams 46. Carver
47. Alsford Timber
48.Huws Gray
49. AW Champion
50. Nicholls & Clarke 51. Sydenhams
52. Rembrand Timber 53. Beatsons
20.4 19.5 14.3 13.0 12.3 11.9 11.6 10.4 10.2 9.9 9.7 9.6 8.7 8.3 8.3 8.0 7.9 7.8 7.4 7.3 7.2 7.2 6.9 6.9 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.4 6.3 6.3 6.3 6.2 6.0 5.8 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.3 5.2 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9 4.8 4.6 4.4 4.1 3.9 3.7 3.4 2.9 n/a n/a
April 2020 A supplement to builders merchants journal
GROSS MARGIN: THINGS LOOK HEALTHY 1. AW Champion 2. Sydenhams 3. MP Moran 4. Lawsons
5. Nicholls & Clarke 6. Frank Key 7. Huws Gray 8. LBS
9. Alsford Timber
10.Covers
11. Beatsons
12. John A Stephens 13. Rembrand Timber 14. JT Atkinson 15. Ridgeons 16.RGB 17.HPS
18. Chandlers 19. Kent Blaxill
20. Bradford & Sons 21. Grant & Stone 22. Howarth Timber
23.Walter Tipper 24. John Nicholls 25. Builder Depot 26. Travis Perkins
LEAGUE TABLES
42.6% 39.5% 38.7% 37.2% 37.1% 35.6% 35.4% 34.2% 34.1% 34.1% 32.9% 32.7% 32.1% 31.7% 31.3% 31.1% 30.9% 30.7% 30.5% 30.3% 30.2% 30.1% 30.1% 28.9% 28.8% 28.6%
27.Parker Building Supplies 28.6% 28.JT Dove
29. Robert Price
30.CRS
31.MKM 32. Lords
33. Haldane Shiells 34. James Hargreaves
35.Beggs & Partners
36.Myers Building Supplies 37. Joseph Parr
38. Grafton Merchanting GB 39. Crossling 40. EH Smith
41.MGM Timber 42. Williams 43. Markovitz
44.Wolseley UK 45. Carver
46. Beesley & Fildes 47. Kellaway
48. James Burrell 49. Elliott Bros 50.C&W Berry 51. Browns
52. AW Lumb 53. Jewson
28.4% 28.1% 27.9% 27.6% 27.6% 27.3% 26.8% 26.4% 26.4% 26.1% 25.6% 25.0% 24.1% 24.0% 23.7% 23.5% 22.8% 22.4% 21.5% 20.1% 19.7% 16.8% 15.3% 13.6% 11.3% 10.0%
Stockturn
AW Lumb underwent a management buyout a couple of years ago, and after publication of Trailblazers 2019 it became clear that direct comparison of the new and old holding companies wasn’t valid. So this year’s figures ignore the holding company, and are based solely on the filed accounts of the subsidiaries: AW Lumb (Midlands) and AW Lumb (Northern), added together to gve a full picture. And the company has explained that around 45% of its sales are direct to site – hence the extraordinarily low stock figure, and extraordinarily high stockturn. The direct to site factor may also have a bearing on the stockturn figures recorded by Browns, C&W Berry, Builder Depot, MKM, MGM Timber, CRS, Parker Building Supplies and EH Smith. There are other factors at work too: heavyside v lightside, number of branches, number of kitchen and bathroom showrooms, and so on. If nothing else, this table show clearly what a very diverse industry merchanting is.
Gross margin
This table paints a pretty bright picture. Discounting a few companies at the bottom of the table whose accounting practice presumably extends the ‘cost of sales’ line to include more than simply the cost of goods for resale, we’re looking at an industry where the vast majority of participants are achieving solid, meaningful gross margins. Merchants in the middle and lower part of the table might perhaps look at the gross margins achieved by AW Champion, Sydenhams, MP Moran, Lawsons, and Nicholls & Clarke, and wonder how they do it (and whether they can copy it). But in a market where suppliers’ prices are rising, but the transparency of online trading effectively limits the merchant’s ability to pass those increases on to the end user, most merchants have probably persuaded themselves that a gross margin in the 25%-35% range is something they can live with.
5
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
