TRAILBLAZERS Merchanting industry


APRIL 2024 shows its strengths W


elcome to the 21st issue of BMJ’s Trailblazers supplement, the publication that tracks the journey of the UK’s top builders merchant


companies, benchmarking them against their previous performance and, crucially, those of their competitors.


The churn in ownerships has continued apace throughout the last year. As usual, this makes the compiling of accurate figures slightly problematic. This year has been more difficult than ever. There is, as we explain in the League Tables commentary, a degree of double-counting, for the simple reason that several taken-over companies are still filing figures at Companies House under their own names. As Trailblazers is a benchmarking exercise, it makes sense, we believe, to include some of these to illustrate where they fit into the bigger picture, and how they relate to their peers.


There is, of course, the usual caveat with the information we publish here. That is that the only figures we have available are what is in the public domain. Different financial year-ends mean most of the results we quote are for the financial year ending December 31 2022, a few finish before that, a few afterwards.


The full-year 2023 results have been released for a number of these merchants, however, in many cases they were published too late for us to take them into


CONTACTS Builders Merchants Journal


Datateam Business Media London Road Maidstone Kent ME15 8LY Tel: 01622 687031 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


EDITORIAL


Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382 frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk


Assistant editor:


Will McGill 01622 699185


wmcgill@datateam.co.uk


Production Controller: Nic Mandeville


consideration when compiling the financial tables. While this year’s publication shows how complicated the industry’s finances have become, it also shows the strength of the sector. Year-on- year sales growth, stockturn, and operating margin are the key ratios we use to determine the BMJ Index, our way of assessing the overall health and competitiveness of a company. If any one of the three is negative – i.e. sales declined year-on-year, or the company recorded an operating loss – the result will be a negative Index score.


Last year’s publication showed the development of the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic and the two lockdowns on the industry, plus, of course, the boom in certain RMI areas, and the product shortages that were associated with that. This year’s figures are showing, to an extent, the come-down from this, and the effect of the rampant inflation and mortgage interest rate hikes.


The League Tables, in particular our exclusive BMJ Index figures, show that being a builders merchant selling to the UK market, despite everything, is still a pretty good way to spend your days.


CONTENTS


5-11 12


League Tables


Alsford Timber, AW Champion, Beatsons


15 Beesley & Fildes, Beggs & Partners, Boys & Boden


16 Bradford & Sons, Browns, Builder Depot


18 C&W Berry, C Brewer, County Building Supplies


19


Carvers, Covers, EH Smith


20 Elliott Bros, Frank Key, Haldane


22 Highbourne, James Hargreaves, Howarth


23 25


Huws Gray IBMG


26 John A Stephens, Joseph Parr, JT Dove


27 John Nicholls, JT Atkinson


28 James Burrell, Kellaway Group, LBS


Fiona Russell Horne Group Managing Editor


29 Lords, Lawsons 30 MKM, Markovitz, Myers


32 MP Moran, MGM Timber, Nicholls & Clarke


ADVERTISING


Group Sales Manager: Dawn Tucker 01622 699148 07934 731232 dtucker@datateam.co.uk


Media Account Executive: Morgan Borthwick-Hunter mborthwick-hunter@datateam. co.uk


01622 699126


Publisher: Paul Ryder


pryder@datateam.co.uk © Datateam Business Media Ltd 2024


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall. Suppliers have contributed towards production costs of some photographs in this issue.


42 Turnbull, Tipper Williams,


43 UK Plumbing Supplies Wolseley


April 2024 A supplement to builders merchants journal 3 CIRCULATION


ABC audited average circulation


July 2018-June 2019: 7,801 SUBSCRIPTIONS


UK 1 year: £97 UK, 2 years: £164 Outside UK: one year £113/$204; two years: £196/$353


33 National Timber Group, Paintwell


34 Robert Pochin, PGR Robert Price


35 Selco (Grafton) Strutka


40 Stark Building Materials Sydenhams


41 Travis Perkins


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