TRAILBLAZERS
M&A still confusing the picture
Once again, the Trailblazers League Tables have been complicated by the number of takeovers and financial restructuring sessions amongst the UK’s top 58 merchant companies.
Turnover
Travis Perkins is still by far the largest force in the market, with £750m more in sales than Stark (Jewson) and Wolseley UK combined. No surprise there: TP has been firmly at the top of this table ever since the first issue of Trailblazers. More interesting are the movements further down the list – especially when compared to the same table in 2015. Huws Gray, ranked fourth this year, was only ninth in the list then. Highbourne (PTS, City Plumbing Supplies etc), ranked fifth now, didn’t figure in the 2015 list. Ditto UK Plumbing Supplies (HPS, Willbond etc, and now, Crossling) – seventh now, not there in 2015, although HPS was in 20th place.
Eighth-placed IBMG didn’t exist in 2015, likewise 10th-placed National Timber Group (although Rembrand Timber, one of its main subsidiaries, did appear in the list in 33rd position). Lords, now in ninth place, didn’t feature in the 2015 list. The only company in this cluster whose position is effectively unchanged is MKM: fifth in 2015, sixth now. And, of course, we’re still waiting for some of the recent mergers and acquisitions to have an impact on filed company accounts – next year’s list is likely to show more significant changes. Some of these companies still file separate accounts at Companies House, as well as their overall holding company. Where it makes sense to show the brands’ strengths in their particular geographical market, and where separate figures are available, we have included them. Hence the inclusion of Grant & Stone, Parkers and RGB. Also worth noting is that the position of John Nicholls in these League Tables is, of course, prior to the sale of the heavyside branches to MKM, and the subsequent MBO. Plus, Grafton sold iits traditional merchanting brands to Huws Gray three years ago. We have used Selco as the benchmark Grafton business.
NB: sometimes the formula used in compiling the table can’t cope with negatives, hence the occasional use of n/a.
Turnover Growth
Some spectacular sales growth here, and it’s not hard to see the reason for it: acquisitions. Huws Gray bought a raft of companies, but chiefly of course Grafton. IBMG took over seven businesses, acquiring 22 branches, and opened another 17 new branches. UK Plumbing Supplies hived up Plumbase (bought in 2019) into its own accounts, and continued to hoover up other plumbing businesses. Robert Price bought Tudor Building Supplies. MKM bought Rowan Timber. Lords bought half a dozen businesses, including Nu-Line and AW Lumb; more recently Alloway Timber. So the sales growth figures recorded by all these companies, impressive though they are, don’t really tell us anything useful. A more accurate picture is shown by the companies at the other end of the table, where some pretty modest single-figure growth rates probably give a truer picture of the like-for-like market. But we would single out three businesses which made it into the top ten with 20%-plus growth, without actually making any acquisitions: Markovitz, James Burrell, and Browns.
BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts. April 2024 A supplement to builders merchants journal
TURNOVER: TP STILL WAY OUT IN FRONT
1. Travis Perkins 2. Stark
3. Wolseley UK 4. Huws Gray 5. Highbourne 6. MKM
7. UK Plumbing Supplies 8. IBMG
9. Grafton/Selco 10. Lords
11. National Timber Group 12. Bradford & Sons 13. Brewer 14. Lawsons
15. Grant & Stone 16. Haldane Shiells 17. EH Smith
18. Howarth Timber Supplies 19. JT Atkinson 20. Builder Depot
21. James Hargreaves 22. Williams
23. James Burrell 24. Markovitz 25. Covers
26. Sydenhams 27. J T Dove
28. Elliott Bros
29. Parker Building Supplies 30. Joseph Parr 31. LBS 32. RGB
33.MGM Timber
34.Robert Price & Sons 35. C&W Berry 36. John Nicholls 37. MP Moran 38. Turnbull
39. Nicholls & Clarke
40.PGR Timber
41. Alsford Timber 42. Carver
43.Walter Tipper 44. Browns
45. Beesley & Fildes
46.Kellaway
47. Boys & Boden
48.Robert Pochin
49. Myers Building Supplies
£4,994.8m £2,376.4m £1,869.8m £1,553.5m £1,324.2m £818.0m £809.4m £619.5m £615m
£450.0m £347.8m £224.0m £211.2m £188.8m £187.4m £179.8m £168.4m £143.6m £129.1m £126.3m £122.4m £120.9m £113.5m £108.5m £95.6m £95.4m £94.8m £93.8m £91.9m £89.2m £88.1m £84.3m £79.8m £72.4m £70.1m £70.0m £66.9m £64.9m £64.6m £61.9m £57.2m £56.0m £55.6m £55.4m £52.9m £52.7m £50.9m £50.9m £50.1m
50.Crossling £49.3m 51. Beggs & Partners 52. Champion Timber 53. Beatsons 54. Frank Key
55. County Building Supplies 56. Strukta Group 57. John A Stephens
58.Paintwell
£42.7m £37.8m £37.2m £34.0m £36.3m £28.0m £27.8m £19.7m
LEAGUE TABLES
TURNOVER GROWTH: ACQUISITIONS SET THE PACE
1. Huws Gray 2. IBMG
3. Grant & Stone
4. UK Plumbing Supplies 5. Markovitz
6. Robert Price & Sons 7. MKM
8. James Burrell 9. Lords
10. Strukta Group 11. Browns 12. Lawsons 13. C&W Berry
14. Myers Building Supplies 15. Robert Pochin
16. Nicholls & Clarke
17. National Timber Group 18. Elliott Bros
19. Bradford & Sons 20. Turnbull
21. James Hargreaves 22. Travis Perkins 23. Builder Depot 24. Paintwell 25. Brewer
26.Wolseley UK 27. MGM Timber 28. PGR Timber 29. Joseph Parr 30. Highbourne 31. J T Dove 32. Covers
33. Frank Key
34. John Nicholls 35. JT Atkinson 36. Crossling
37. Howarth Timber Supplies
38.MP Moran
39.Kellaway 40. Williams
41. Boys & Boden 42. Beesley & Fildes 43. Alsford Timber 44. Haldane Shiells 45. Beggs & Partners 46. LBS
47. Carver
48. Grafton/Selco
49.Walter Tipper 50. EH Smith
51. John A Stephens
52. Parker Building Supplies 53. Beatsons
54. County Building Supplies 55. Champion Timber 56. Sydenhams 57. Stark 58.RGB
214.5% 88.5% 70.8% 31.4% 30.5% 29.3% 24.2% 24.0% 23.9% 23.0% 22.5% 20.8% 14.6% 12.8% 12.6% 12.3% 12.0% 10.7% 9.9% 9.2% 9.0% 8.9% 8.7% 8.3% 8.3% 8.1% 7.8% 6.0% 5.8% 5.7% 5.4% 4.7% 4.1% 4.0% 3.8% 3.2% 2.2% 2.1% 1.8% 1.7% 1.5% 0.5% 0.5% 0.4% -0.2% -0.8% -1.1% -2%
-2.7% -4.0% -5.7% -5.7% -5.8% -6.0% -6.6% -10.5% -14.3% n/a
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