TRAILBLAZERS


LEAGUE TABLES


STOCKTURN GROWTH: GREATER RELIANCE ON SUPPLIERS


1. MP Moran


2. UK Plumbing Supplies 3. Joseph Parr 4. JT Atkinson 5. Builder Depot 6. John Nicholls 7. Highbourne 8. Beatsons 9. IBMG


10. Beggs & Partners 11. Lords


12. Walter Tipper 13. Wolseley UK


14. Champion Timber


15. National Timber Group 16. James Burrell 17. LBS


18. Bradford & Sons 19. MGM Timber 20. Huws Gray 21. Elliott Bros


22. Alsford Timber


23. James Hargreaves 24. Robert Pochin 25. Boys & Boden 26. Markovitz


27. Nicholls & Clarke 28. Struckta


29. County Building Supplies 30. Turnbull 31. MKM


32. C&W Berry


33. Robert Price & Sons 34. Lawsons


35. Grafton-Selco


36. Myers Building Supplies 37. Browns


38. Howarth Timber 39. Haldane Shiells 40. Covers 41. Williams 42. Brewer


43. Travis Perkins 44. Kellaway 45. Carver


46. Sydenhams


47. Beesley & Fildes 48. JT Dove


49. John A Stephens 50. EH Smith 51. Frank Key 52. PGR Timber 53. Stark


29.7% 25.2% 23.0% 22.0% 16.0% 15.2% 13.0% 11.9% 11.7% 11.1% 10.6% 10.2% 9.2% 9.0% 8.6% 8.5% 7.4% 7.3% 7.2% 6.9% 6.9% 6.5% 6.4% 5.8% 5.7% 5.5% 5.5% 5.0% 5.0% 4.5% 4.5% 2.9% 2.3% 2.2% 2.0% 1.4% 0.7% 0.6% 0.0% 0.0%


-0.9% -1.4% -1.4% -3.4% -3.6% -4.2% -4.8% -6.3% -6.4% -9.8% -10.0% -13.8% -39.8%


Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts. April 2025 A supplement to builders merchants journal 7


GROSS MARGINS: STILL HOLDING UP


1. Sydenhams


2. Champion Timber 3. Nicholls & Clarke 4. Lawsons


5. Grafton-Selco 6. Frank Key 7. MP Moran


8. Alsford Timber 9. PGR Timber 10. LBS


11. Covers


12. Walter Tipper 13. Beatsons


14. Bradford & Sons 15. Howarth Timber 16. John A Stephens 17. Boys & Boden 18. JT Dove 19. Strukta


20. County Building Supplies 21. IBMG


22. Builder Depot 23. Haldane Shiells 24. JT Atkinson


25. James Hargreaves 26. Huws Gray


27. John Nicholls


28. Robert Price & Sons 29. UK Plumbing Supplies 30. Myers Building Supplies 31. Turnbull


32. Beggs & Partners 33. Travis Perkins


34. National Timber Group 35. MKM


36. MGM Timber 37. Carver


38. Joseph Parr 39. EH Smith 40. Williams


41. Highbourne 42. Wolseley UK 43. Kellaway 44. Markovitz 45. Lords


46. James Burrell 47. Robert Pochin 48. C&W Berry


49. Beesley & Fildes 50. Elliott Bros 51. Browns 52. Stark


53. Brewer


40.9% 40.4% 38.6% 38.5% 36.7% 36.3% 35.9% 35.1% 34.0% 33.3% 32.8% 32.5% 32.1% 31.5% 31.4% 30.3% 30.2% 30.0% 29.9% 29.5% 29.3% 29.1% 28.4% 28.4% 28.1% 28.1% 28.0% 27.8% 27.6% 27.4% 27.3% 26.9% 26.8% 26.7% 26.6% 26.2% 26.1% 25.7% 24.1% 23.3% 23.2% 23.0% 22.9% 22.7% 20.0% 19.1% 17.2% 17.0% 16.8% 16.5% 14.3% 8.3% 5.1%


Stockturn Growth


And this seems to confirm our suspicions: that faced with declining demand, merchants start looking for ways to manage with less stock. 38 out of 53 companies saw stockturn improve, two saw no change, and 14 saw stockturn slow down. There’s an obvious message for suppliers here: merchants want to sell more of your product, but they want more of it to be held in your warehouse, not theirs. And they are probably going to want more frequent deliveries of smaller quantities as well.


Gross Margin


As always, we assume that of the figures at the bottom end of this table reflect an accounting policy which charges more than simply the cost of goods for resale to the ‘cost of sales’ line; so we focus instead on the top end of the table. Take the average gross margin of the top 10 companies in the list, and it comes out at 36.6%. A year ago it was 37.2% – which seems clearly to suggest that merchants are coming under pressure to maintain their gross margins. Except that if we look back over the longer term, 10 years ago in 2015, the average gross margin of the top 10 was… 36.5%. Le plus ca change…


BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY


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