TRAILBLAZERS
LEAGUE TABLES
SALES PER HEAD: HUGE VARIATIONS
1. Browns 2. Lords
3. Highbourne 4. Builder Depot 5. PGR Timber 6. Wolseley UK
7. UK Plumbing Supplies 8. Robert Pochin
9. James Hargreaves 10. James Burrell 11. MGM Timber 12. EH Smith 13. MKM
14. Markovitz 15. Williams
16. Joseph Parr 17. John Nicholls 18. Elliott Bros 19. C&W Berry 20. IBMG
21. Huws Gray 22. Turnbull
23. Beggs & Partners 24. Beatsons 25. JT Dove
26. Travis Perkins 27. JT Atkinson
28. Bradford & Sons
29. Robert Price & Sons 30. Kellaway
31. John A Stephens 32. Howarth Timber 33. Haldane Shiells 34. MP Moran 35. Strukta
36. Alsford Timber 37. Carver
38. National Timber Group 39. Lawsons 40. Covers
41. Myers Building Supplies 42. Walter Tipper
43. County Building Suppplies 44. Grafton-Selco
45. Champion Timber 46. LBS
47. Boys & Boden 48. Sydenhams
49. Beesley & Fildes 50. Brewer
51. Frank Key 52. Stark
53. Nicholls & Clarke
£568.8k £499.6k £417.7k £415.2k £397.9k £380.8k £372.3k £369.9k £354.9k £346.7k £339.8k £338.4k £336.4k £335.8k £310.2k £300.1k £296.5k £280.9k £280.0k £276.5k £275.5k £274.6k £273.8k £267.6k £260.0k £253.6k £249.7k £249.1k £247.3k £235.2k £231.7k £229.7k £227.9k £226.6k £226.0k £222.2k £218.9k £216.5k £214.3k £212.3k £210.8k £210.3k £209.0k £204.0k £187.6k £186.8k £183.7k £181.6k £174.0k £167.8k £160.1k £156.9k £141.7k
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts April 2025 A supplement to builders merchants journal 9
OPERATING PROFIT PER HEAD: HOLDING UP WELL
1. PGR Timber
2. James Hargreaves 3. C&W Berry 4. Strukta
5. Robert Pochin 6. MKM
7. MGM Timber
8. Myers Building Supplies 9. Joseph Parr
10. UK Plumbing Supplies 11. Beggs & Partners 12. Turnbull
13. Robert Price & Sons 14. JT Dove
15. Walter Tipper 16. Lords
17. Builder Depot 18. Elliott Bros 19. Browns
20. Markovitz
21. Bradford & Sons 22. JT Atkinson 23. Kellaway 24. MP Moran
25. Boys & Boden 26. Beatsons
27. Grafton -Selco 28. John Nicholls 29. Sydenhams 30. Carver 31. Covers
32. Frank Key
33. Travis Perkins 34. Highbourne
35. Haldane Shiells 36. Wolseley UK 37. James Burrell 38. LBS
39. Huws Gray
40. Champion Timber 41. Brewer
42. EH Smith 43. Lawsons 44. Williams
45. Howarth Timber 46. Alsford Timber
47. County Building Supplies 48. Beesley & Fildes 49. Nicholls & Clarke 50. John A Stephens
51. National Timber Group 52. IBMG 53. Stark
£45,452 £31,858 £23,593 £17,616 £18,097 £15,230 £15,009 £14,432 £14,372 £14,259 £13,750 £12,806 £12,432 £11,063 £10,928 £9,863 £9,834 £9,387 £8,602 £8,568 £8,451 £8,443 £8,372 £8,247 £8,030 £7,925 £7,636 £7,214 £7,026 £6,848 £6,726 £6,234 £5,732 £5,596 £5,531 £5,284 £4,760 £3,839 £3,827 £3,347 £3,059 £2,205 £1,845 £1,685 £1,661 £1,427 £1,349
-£3,239 -£3,276 -£4,752 -£7,267 -£11,247 -£14,691
Sales Per Head
As always, this table prompts a couple of obvious questions. Given that the businesses listed may differ in terms of trading style and specialisation, they are all in their own different ways successful merchant companies – so how can there be such a wide spread of figures? How can it be that the average staff productivity across the top six is almost £447,000, and the average across the bottom six is less than £164,000? And presumably the management of the companies in the lower half of the table must be asking themselves a third question: what is it that the companies above us in the table are doing that we’re not doing?
Operating Profit Per Head
This measure of company performance isn’t widely used, but in a falling market with margins under pressure, it’s one which should perhaps be given greater attention. It’s more to do with taking the temperature of the sector as a whole, rather than that of individual companies, and it once again underlines the fundamental strength of the merchant market. Ignore the top and bottom 10 outliers, and the average operating profit contribution in the middle ground is a solid £7,256 per head. That’s only half of the previous year’s average (£14,327); but it’s not far short of the £9,284 figure recorded in our survey five years ago, reflecting pre- pandemic trading. And it’s considerably better than the middle-ground average of £5,630 recorded 10 years ago in 2015.
BMJ LEAGUE TABLES SPONSORED BY
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