TRAILBLAZERS
STOCKTURN GROWTH: POST- COVID TURMOIL
1. Huws Gray 2. IBMG
3. MGM Timber 4. Alsford Timber
5. Robert Price & Sons 6. Strukta Group 7. Beesley & Fildes
8. National Timber Group 9. C&W Berry
10. Nicholls & Clarke 11. Builder Depot
12. Beggs & Partners 13. Markovitz 14. Stark
15. Champion Timber 16. Travis Perkins 17. Elliott Bros
18. James Burrell 19. Browns 20. Kellaway
21. UK Plumbing Supplies 22. Howarth Timber Supplies 23. Joseph Parr
24. Bradford & Sons
25. County Building Supplies 26. Haldane Shiells 27. Covers
28. Boys & Boden 29. Turnbull
30. Sydenhams 31. MKM
32. Parker Building Supplies
33.PGR Timber 34. Crossling 35. Beatsons 36. J T Dove
37. MP Moran 38. Williams
39. Myers Building Supplies 40. Frank Key
41. John Nicholls
42. James Hargreaves 43. LBS
44.Wolseley UK 45. EH Smith
46.Robert Pochin 47. Highbourne 48. Grafton/Selco 49. Brewer 50. Lords
51. Walter Tipper 52. JT Atkinson
53. Grant & Stone 54. Carver
55. Lawsons
56. John A Stephens 57. Paintwell 58.RGB
241.5% 71.4% 53.9% 25.4% 23.7% 23.0% 22.5% 20.8% 17.1% 14.1% 13.2% 13.1% 12.4% 10.4% 10.0% 9.6% 8.0% 7.5% 5.1% 3.3% 2.8% 2.7% 2.6% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
-0.6% -1.3% -1.9% -3.8% -4.1% -4.1% -4.2% -4.6% -4.7% -4.9% -5.0% -5.1% -5.1% -5.8% -6.3% -7.4% -7.6% -8.6% -10.0% -10.0% -10%
-10.8% -12.4% -15.4% -17.1% -17.3% -19.3% -19.8% -23.4% -28.7% n/a
GROSS MARGIN: REMARKABLY CONSISTENT
1. Sydenhams
2. Champion Timber 3. Nicholls & Clarke 4. Grafton/Selco 5. MP Moran 6. Lawsons 7. Frank Key 8. Paintwell 9. LBS
10. Alsford Timber 11. Walter Tipper 12. PGR Timber 13. Beatsons 14. Covers
15. Grant & Stone 16. Boys & Boden 17. Bradford & Sons 18. John A Stephens
19. Howarth Timber Supplies 20. James Hargreaves 21. RGB
22. Builder Depot
23. Parker Building Supplies 24. JT Atkinson 25. IBMG
26. Strukta Group
27. National Timber Group 28. Huws Gray 29. J T Dove
30.Robert Price & Sons 31. Crossling
32. Haldane Shiells
33. County Building Supplies 34. Carver
35. John Nicholls
36. Myers Building Supplies 37. Turnbull
38. Travis Perkins 39. Beggs & Partners
40. UK Plumbing Supplies 41. MKM
42. Joseph Parr 43. Highbourne
44.MGM Timber 45.Wolseley UK 46. EH Smith 47. Williams
48.Kellaway 49. Markovitz 50. Lords
51. Robert Pochin 52. James Burrell 53. C&W Berry
54. Beesley & Fildes 55. Elliott Bros 56. Browns 57. Stark
58. Brewer
40.5% 40.5% 39.4% 38.9% 38.8% 36.4% 36.0% 35.8% 35.1% 35.0% 34.4% 33.2% 33.1% 31.7% 30.7% 30.6% 30.6% 30.5% 30.4% 30.3% 30.1% 29.9% 29.8% 29.7% 29.6% 29.6% 29.5% 29.4% 29.4% 29.3% 29.1% 29.1% 28.7% 28.6% 28.5% 27.9% 27.8% 27.7% 27.6% 27.5% 27.5% 27.3% 26.9% 25.2% 24.6% 23.9% 23.8% 22.7% 21.8% 19.7% 19.7% 19.0% 17.9% 17.6% 17.0% 14.3% 13.9% 8.3%
April 2024 A supplement to builders merchants journal Stockturn Growth
Huws Gray pulled off the remarkable feat (through acquisitions) of increasing sales by 215%, while increasing stock value by just 5%. It isn’t clear exactly how this was achieved, but on paper it led to an extraordinary 241.5% improvement in stockturn. Some other merchants achieved satisfactory but less spectacular gains, and some didn’t – overall, the table shows a pretty even split between increases and decreases. We suspect that this is a knock-on effect of the supply chain turmoil which resulted from the pandemic, and that when these figures were recorded in 2021-22 accounts, there were probably very few merchants who were entirely happy with their stock situation. All being well, next year’s table may show a more stable situation.
Gross Margin
As always, there are some outliers in this table, and as usual we assume that some of the companies at the lower end of the table are (perfectly legally) using the ‘cost of sales’ line in their accounts to reflect more than the purchase cost of goods for resale alone. Other than that, what the table shows is that average gross margins are remarkably consistent. Over the past 10 years, the industry average has fluctuated hardly at all, from 28.2% in the 2015 edition of Trail Blazers to 28.1% this year, with a high of 29.2% in 2023 and a low of 27.8% in 2021. So in short, whatever issues the merchant market faces, maintaining gross margins doesn’t seem to be one of them. Or does it? Table 6 seems to tell a different story.
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts.
LEAGUE TABLES
BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY
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