TRAILBLAZERS
LEAGUE TABLES
TURNOVER: TP STILL WAY OUT AHEAD
1. Travis Perkins 2. Wolseley UK 3. Huws Gray 4. Highbourne 5. Stark 6. MKM
7. UK Plumbing Supplies 8. IBMG
9. Grafton-Selco 10. Lords
11. National Timber Group 12. Brewer
13. Bradford & Sons 14. Haldane Shiells 15. Lawsons 16. EH Smith
17. Howarth Timber 18. JT Atkinson
19. Builder Depot
20. James Hargreaves 21. Williams 22. Markovitz
23. James Burrell 24. JT Dove 25. Covers
26. Elliott Bros 27. Joseph Parr 28. LBS
29. Sydenhams 30. MGM Timber
31. Robert Price & Sons 32. C&W Berry
33. Nicholls & Clarke 34. MP Moran 35. Turnbull
36. PGR Timber
37. Robert Pochin 38. Walter Tipper 39. Alsford Timber
40. Myers Building Supplies 41. Kellaway
42. Boys & Boden 43. Carver 44. Browns
45. Beesley & Fildes 46. Beggs & Partners 47. John Nicholls
48. County Building Supplies 49. Champion Timber 50. Beatsons 51. Frank Key 52. Strutka
53. John A Stephens
£4,861.9m £1,794.2m £1,402.4m £1,388.4m £1,321.3m £926.8m £803.0m £621.7m £590.8m £462.6m £297.3m £243.0m £222.2m £165.2m £163.3m £147.2m £138.7m £134.1m £132.4m £132.4m £126.0m £125.9m £108.2m £94.5m £92.3m £91.6m £89.4m £87.1m £84.1m £75.8m £72.2m £69.4m £67.3m £66.2m £62.3m £58.1m £57.0m £55.3m £51.5m £50.8m £50.6m £49.4m £47.5m £47.2m £46.5m £43.8m £41.5m £35.9m £35.6m £35.6m £32.2m £31.2m £24.3m
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts April 2025 A supplement to builders merchants journal 5
TURNOVER GROWTH: NOT A LOT OF IT ABOUT
1. Markovitz 2. Brewer 3. MKM
4. Robert Pochin 5. Strutka
6. James Hargreaves 7. Builder Depot 8. Highbourne 9. Williams
10. Nicholls & Clarke 11. JT Atkinson 12. Lords
13. Beggs & Partners
14. Myers Building Supplies 15. IBMG
16. Joseph Parr
17. Robert Price & Sons 18. JT Dove
19. Walter Tipper
20. UK Plumbing Supplies 21. Bradford & Sons 22. C&W Berry
23. County Building Supplies 24. MP Moran 25. LBS
26. Elliott Bros
27. Travis Perkins 28. Boys & Boden 29. Covers
30. Howarth Timber 31. Turnbull
32. Wolseley UK 33. Grafton-Selco 34. Kellaway 35. Beatsons
36. James Burrell 37. MGM Timber 38. Frank Key
39. Champion Timber 40. PGR Timber 41. Lawsons
42. Haldane Shiells 43. Alsford Timber 44. Sydenhams 45. EH Smith
46. Beesley & Fildes 47. John A Stephens 48. Huws Gray
49. National Timber Group 50. Browns 51. Carver
52. John Nicholls 53. Stark
16.1% 15.1% 13.3% 11.9% 11.0% 8.2% 4.9% 4.8% 4.2% 4.1% 3.8% 2.8% 2.6% 1.3% 0.4% 0.3%
-0.3% -0.3% -0.4% -0.8% -0.8% -0.9% -1.0% -1.1% -1.2% -2.4% -2.7% -3.0% -3.4% -3.4% -4.0% -4.0% -4.0% -4.1% -4.3% -4.7% -5.1% -5.4% -5.8% -6.2% -6.5% -8.1% -9.9% -11.8% -12.0% -12.1% -12.5% -13.4% -14.5% -14.8% -15.1% -40.7% n/a
Economic pressures start to bite
Once again, the Trailblazers League Tables have been complicated by the number of takeovers and financial restructuring sessions amongst the UK’s top 53 merchant companies.
Turnover
Travis Perkins remains the market leader, and by a huge margin – but that margin is less huge than it used to be. 10 years ago in 2015, Trail Blazers reported that TP’s turnover was greater than the combined sales of the next 12 companies in the list. Now, as a result of some substantial merger and acquisition activity, TP’s turnover is greater than the combined sales of only the next three in the list – and it’s substantially less than that of numbers two to five combined. It’s unlikely that the TP management will be lying awake at night worrying about this particular measurement, but it serves to demonstrate the impact that rationalisation and economic uncertainty has had (and continues to have) on the merchant market.
Turnover Growth
This is where it starts to look gloomy. 17 of the 53 merchant companies listed saw a year-on-year sales increase in their latest financial period – and 36 of them didn’t. Moreover, among the 17 which did see a sales increase, there was quite a bit of acquisition activity, coupled with new branch openings – so the rise in sales isn’t a like-for-like comparison. And only five companies saw a double-digit rise, compared to nine which saw a double-digit decline. All in all, not a really what you’d call a pretty picture.
BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY
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