TRAILBLAZERS
STAFF: IS THERE AN OPTIMUM NUMBER?
1. Travis Perkins 2. Saint-Gobain 3. Wolseley UK
4. Grafton Merchanting GB 5. MKM
6. Huws Gray 7. Brewer
8. Bradford & Sons 9. Arnold Laver
10. UK Plumbing Supplies 11. Haldane Shiells 12. Lords
13. Howarth Timber Supplies 14. Lawsons
15. Sydenhams 16. JT Atkinson 17. Covers
18. EH Smith 19. LBS
20. Builder Depot
21. James Hargreaves 22. RGB
23. Grant & Stone 24. Williams
25. Parker Building Supplies 26. Elliott Bros 27. J T Dove
29,288 11,467 4,323 3,242 1,658 1,574 1,182 766 759 726 653 507 503 502 471 438 408 406 379 346 342 336 328 325 321 297 297
28. National Timber Group Scotland 282 29. Joseph Parr 30. MP Moran
31. Robert Price & Sons 32. Walter Tipper 33. C&W Berry
34. Beesley & Fildes 35. Markovitz
36. James Burrell 37. Alsford Timber 38. John Nicholls 39. Crossling 40. Frank Key 41. Carver
42. MGM Timber 43. AW Champion 44. Turnbull
45. Kent Blaxill 46. Kellaway 47. CRS
48. Myers Building Supplies 49. Beggs & Partners 50. Beatsons
51. Robert Pochin 52. John A Stephens 53. AW Lumb 54. Browns
276 264 263 262 254 254 250 246 237 225 218 217 213 212 205 198 192 185 159 157 142 138 133 116 83 79
STOCKTURN: STILL VERY HEALTHY
1. MGM Timber 2. Browns
3. AW Lumb 4. C&W Berry
5. Builder Depot 6. MKM
7. EH Smith 8. Kellaway
9. Parker Building Supplies 10. Joseph Parr
11. John A Stephens 12. Beatsons 13. Brewer 14. Turnbull
15. Grafton Merchanting GB 16. James Burrell 17. Bradford & Sons 18. Robert Pochin 19. Haldane Shiells 20. RGB
21. Howarth Timber Supplies 22. Carver
23. John Nicholls 24. Markovitz 25. Lords
26. Myers Building Supplies 27. Lawsons
28. Elliott Bros 29. J T Dove 30. LBS
31. Covers
32. Frank Key 33. JT Atkinson 34. MP Moran 35. Wolseley UK 36. Saint-Gobain
37. Beesley & Fildes 38. Travis Perkins
39. James Hargreaves 40. UK Plumbing Supplies 41. Beggs & Partners 42. Walter Tipper 43. CRS
44. Grant & Stone 45. Williams
46. Alsford Timber
47. Robert Price & Sons 48. Crossling 49. Kent Blaxill 50. Arnold Laver
18.7 18.0 17.8 11.9 11.1 10.9 10.2 9.7 8.9 8.3 8.1 8.1 7.2 7.1 7.0 6.8 6.4 6.4 6.2 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 5.9 5.8 5.8 5.8 5.6 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.0 4.9 4.6 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.1 3.9 3.7 3.7 3.7
51. National Timber Group Scotland 3.6 52. Huws Gray 53. Sydenhams 54. AW Champion
3.5 3.2 3.1
April 2022 A supplement to builders merchants journal 5 STAFF
Make what you will of this: the 54 merchant companies covered by this survey employ a total of 68,297 people; and 42.9% of those 68,308 people all work for one company: Travis Perkins. But Travis Perkins accounts for only 41.2% of the 54 companies’ total sales. The pattern is the same at Saint Gobain, number two by market share: 15.1% of sales, but 16.8% by headcount. Intriguingly, the situation is the exact opposite with the next two companies: third- placed Wolseley GB accounts for 9.4% of sales but only 7.3% of employees; and fourth-placed Grafton makes 5.1% of the sales with only 4.7% of the people. Perhaps the conclusion to be drawn is that there may be an optimum size for a merchant business – and that expanding beyond that optimum may result in a decline in productivity.
LEAGUE TABLES
STOCKTURN
Looking back on two years in which demand has fluctuated wildly, supply lines and product availability have been hugely disrupted, and accurate forecasting has become a distant memory, it would be surprising if the industry’s stockturn performance hadn’t been affected. In reality, as this table shows, stockturn overall has remained remarkably healthy; even AW Champion, in last place, managed to turn its entire stock more than three times in the year. The figures recorded by MGM, Browns and AW Lumb are quite extraordinary, and contribute to an average stockturn across all 54 companies of 6.7 times. Exclude the top and bottom five to get a more realistic picture of the middle ground, and the average is still six times. Narrow it down further by excluding the top and bottom 10, and the ‘middle ground’ average still comes out at 5.8 times – and that’s a healthy figure by any standards.
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company results
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