LEAGUE TABLES
TRAILBLAZERS
Employee Trends
The UK merchant business remains a substantial employer. The 53 companies listed this year employed a total of 67,700 people at their latest accounts dates – an average of 1,227 staff per company. For comparison, in 2024 Trail Blazers listed 58 companies and 70,678 staff (average 1,218); in our 2023 survey it was 56 companies and 65,251 staff (average 1,165) – but the financial results covered in that year reflected the turmoil of the lockdown years. A more interesting comparison may be with 10 years ago, in 2015, when we listed a total of 42 companies which between them employed 55,751 staff – an average of 1,327 people per company. It will be interesting to see what happens to staff numbers in the context of a falling market. And for the record, 10 years ago Travis Perkins accounted for 39.4% of the Trail Blazers staff total – this year just 29% work for TP.
Stockturn
As always, there’s a wide range of stockturn figures here, from Brown’s 16.6 times to Boys & Boden’s 2.4. If we exclude the top six and the bottom six, and focus on the middle ground, the industry achieved an average stockturn of 5.8 times, which sounds pretty healthy. Assessing the 2024 Trail Blazers figures on the same basis (no top six or bottom six), the average comes out at 5.5 times. Does this suggest the industry is getting more proficient? Or – more likely in the current market conditions – that it is simply cutting back on stock levels? In a falling market, one of the first responses is to reduce stock, and if your year- end stock valuation has decreased by more than the fall in your sales, the stockturn figure is bound to improve.
STAFF : NUMBERS TIGHTENING
1. Travis Perkins 2. Stark
3. Huws Gray 4. Wolseley UK 5. Highbourne 6. Grafton-Selco 7. MKM 8. IBMG
9. UK Plumbing Supplies 10. Brewer
11. National Timber Group 12. Lords
13. Bradford & Sons 14. Lawsons
15. Haldane Shiells 16. Howarth Timber 17. JT Atkinson
18. Nicholls & Clarke 19. LBS
20. Sydenhams 21. EH Smith 22. Covers 23. Williams 24. Markovitz
25. James Hargreaves 26. JT Dove
27. Elliott Bros
28. Builder Depot 29. James Burrell 30. Joseph Parr
31. Robert Price & Sons 32. MP Moran
33. Boys & Boden 34. Beesley & Fildes 35. Walter Tipper 36. C&W Berry
37. Myers Building Supplies 38. Alsford Timber 39. Turnbull
40. MGM Timber 41. Carver
42. Kellaway 43. Frank Key
44. Champion Timber
45. County Building Supplies 46. Beggs & Partners 47. Robert Pochin 48. PGR Timber 49. John Nicholls 50. Strutka
BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY
51. Beatsons
52. John A Stephens 53. Browns
19,172 8,422 5,091 4,712 3,324 2,896 2,755 2,249 2,157 1,448 1,373 926 892 762 725 604 537 475 466 463 435 435 406 375 373 364 326 319 312 298 292 292 269 267 263 248 241 232 227 223 217 215 201 190 172 160 154 146 140 138 133 105 83
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts. 6 A supplement to builders merchants journal April 2025
STOCKTURN: A WIDE RANGE 1. Browns
2. MGM Timber 3. James Burrell 4. Builder Depot 5. Beatsons 6. C&W Berry 7. Markovitz 8. Strukta 9. MKM
10. Joseph Parr 11. Lords
12. Kellaway
13. Bradford & Sons 14. EH Smith 15. Brewer
16. County Building Supplies 17. IBMG
18. Turnbull
19. Haldane Shiells 20. John Nicholls
21. John A Stephens 22. Frank Key
23. Robert Pochin
24. Beggs & Partners 25. Covers
26. Elliott Bros 27. JT Dove
28. National Timber Group 29. UK Plumbing Supplies 30. Huws Gray 31. LBS
32. Beesley & Fildes 33. James Hargreaves 34. Williams
35. JT Atkinson 36. Travis Perkins 37. Wolseley UK 38. Lawsons 39. MP Moran
40. Alsford Timber 41. Highbourne
42. Myers Building Supplies 43. Carver
44. Robert Price & Sons 45. Grafton-Selco 46. Walter Tipper 47. Howarth Timber 48. Stark
49. PGR Timber
50. Champion Timber 51. Nicholls & Clarke 52. Sydenhams 53. Boys & Boden
16.6 14.2 13.2 12.3 11.9 10.8 9.2 8.2 8.4 8.4 7.5 7.4 7.0 6.9 6.8 6.6 6.5 6.4 6.2 6.1 6.1 6.1
5.8 5.8 5.8 5.5 5.5 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.1 5.0 5.0 5.0 4.9 4.9 4.8 4.7 4.7 4.5 4.4 4.4 4.1 4.1 4.1 4.0 3.9 3.9 3.7 3.6 3.6 2.7 2.4
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