TRAILBLAZERS NET MARGIN % 1. CRS 14.9


2. National Timber Group Scotland 14.1 3. Sydenhams 4. Huws Gray


5. Beggs & Partners 6. JT Atkinson 7. Walter Tipper


8. Myers Building Supplies 9. AW Lumb 10.Beatsons


11.Robert Price & Sons 12.Lawsons


13.C&W Berry


14.Grant & Stone 15.MP Moran


16.AW Champion


17.James Hargreaves 18. Carver


19.Joseph Parr


20.Beesley & Fildes 21.Crossling 22.LBS


23.Covers


24.Robert Pochin 25.Haldane Shiells 26.Alsford Timber 27.Turnbull 28.EH Smith 29.J T Dove 30.Brewer 31.MKM


32.John Nicholls 33.Elliott Bros 34.Wolseley UK 35.MGM Timber 36.Frank Key 37.Kellaway 38.Williams


39.Kent Blaxill


40.Bradford & Sons 41.Builder Depot 42.James Burrell 43.John A Stephens 44.Lords


45.Parker Building Supplies 46.Browns


47.Howarth Timber Supplies 48.Travis Perkins


49. Grafton Merchanting GB 50.UK Plumbing Supplies 51.Arnold Laver 52.RGB


53.Nicholls & Clarke 54.Saint-Gobain


13.5 10.9 9.5 9.5 9.3 9.0 8.7 8.7 8.0 7.9 7.3 7.2 7.1 6.7 6.5 6.3 6.1 5.9 5.9 5.8 5.5 5.4 5.4 5.4 5.3 5.2 5.1 5.0 4.6 4.2 4.2 3.9 3.7 3.4 3.0 2.8 2.3 2.3 2.2 1.8 1.5 1.5 1.0 0.8 0.4


(0.1) (0.1) (1.0) (1.4) (1.7) (5.2) (9.6)


OPERATING MARGIN GROWTH: IN A WORD, IMPRESSIVE


1. Beatsons


2. Beggs & Partners 3. Kent Blaxill


4. Bradford & Sons 5. Beesley & Fildes 6. CRS


7. EH Smith 8. Williams


9. Alsford Timber 10.AW Champion


11.Myers Building Supplies 12.Sydenhams 13.John Nicholls


14.Robert Price & Sons 15.Carver


16.Grant & Stone 17.Wolseley UK 18.Turnbull


19.Joseph Parr 20.Walter Tipper 21.Haldane Shiells 22.Crossling 23.Huws Gray 24.Elliott Bros 25.AW Lumb 26.JT Atkinson 27.Frank Key 28.Markovitz 29.Kellaway 30.Brewer 31.LBS


32.Lawsons 33.Covers


34.Builder Depot 35.J T Dove


36.James Hargreaves 37.Robert Pochin 38.James Burrell 39.MP Moran 40.MKM


41.MGM Timber 42.C&W Berry


43.John A Stephens


44.Howarth Timber Supplies 45.Browns


46.Travis Perkins


47.Grafton Merchanting GB 48.RGB


49.Arnold Laver


50.UK Plumbing Supplies 51.Saint-Gobain


52.Parker Building Supplies


1358% 585% 375% 360% 347% 283% 274% 192% 172% 156% 134% 122% 113% 106% 101% 89% 79% 76% 68% 48% 45% 43% 43% 40% 31% 30% 28% 28% 22% 22% 20% 17% 15% 13% 11% 2% 1% 0%


-1% -7%


-14% -15% -39% -46% -54% -62% -78%


-136% -158% n/a n/a n/a


53.National Timber Group Scotland n/a 54.Lords


n/a April 2022 A supplement to builders merchants journal 11 NET MARGIN


This is the table to share with your bank manager, with your shareholders, and with potential investors: the one that shows that in their latest accounts, 47 of the UK’s top 54 builders merchants recorded a net profit. Of course within that, there are some wild fluctuations and those at the bottom of the table may not wish to be quite so free and easy with the information. Yes, margins are still under pressure - and with the price rises of 2021 continuing well into 2022, next year’s table is possibly going to tell a differnt tale, but the fact remains that building materials distribution is a consistently profitable business.


Again, the longer-term trend is clear. In 2017, 47 of 48 Trail Blazers recorded a net profit, and average net profit among those 47 companies was 5.32%. In 2018, it was 50 companies out of 50, and the average slipped to 4.75%. A year later in 2019, 48 of 51 companies recorded a net profit, and their average rose marginally, to 4.89%. In 2020, it was 49 of 53, with an average of 4.49%; and 2021, 45 of 52 companies were profitable at pre-tax level, with an average net profit of 3.77%. It’s looking even better in thes figures, with an average of 4.7% across the 54 companies. Bottom line: the overwhelming majority of companies in the builders merchant industry are still managing to make money – year after year after year.


.


OPERATING MARGIN GROWTH Another table which emphasises the underlying strength of the merchant industry. Ignore the outliers; Beatsons, for instance, improved its operating margin from 0.6% to 8.9%, but it had been 5.0% in the previous financial period. Also ignore the half dozen at the bottom for which year-on-year comparisons were unreliable, for one reason or another. In fact, ignore the top 10 and the bottom 10 for which growth figures are available, and look at the middle ground: 27 companies, 24 of which actually improved their operating margins in the middle of a global upheaval. That’s a pretty impressive endorsement of the merchant market’s abilities


LEAGUE TABLES


Source: BMJ analysis of filed company results


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