COMMENT “


Looking for the bright side


I


f it’s April, it must be time for Trailblazers, our annual dissection of the merchant sector. Well, the top 52 performers in it anyway.


As you will see from the pages in the supplement, the current state of merchanting affairs does not make for particularly easy bedtime reading. Less a cure for insomnia than a cause, I would venture. The worry is that this is only the calm before the storm, as the way we compile the information for an undertaking such as this can only be done in retrospect. The figures we use are those at Companies House, and then we crunch the numbers and analyse them the best we can.


With so many people telling me that they have never known trade as hard as it has been in the past few months, I do have a huge amount of trepidation about what horrors next year’s supplement will throw up. That said, I know that there are companies featured that are simply doing what they do best, getting on with understanding their customers, their marketplace, their suppliers, their business. Despite the governments best efforts to bash the living daylights out of businesses, there are independents who have pulled on their big boy pants, and found the wherewithal – financial and mental – to carry on carrying on. They have continued to expand, to build, to acquire where appropriate, and, yes, to close and divest where necessary.


Travis Perkins and IBMG too have had their ups and downs in the past couple of years, but both organisations now believe themselves to be in a better place, without a lot of the baggage that sucked them down previously. Whether


CONTACTS Builders Merchants Journal


Datateam Business Media London Road Maidstone Kent ME15 8LY Tel: 01622 687031 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


EDITORIAL


Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382 frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk


Assistant editor Oliver Stanley 01622 699106


ostanley@datateam.co.uk


Production Controller: Nic Mandeville


that’s right is something that the next 12 or so months will show.


For now, this is still a vibrant, diverse, exciting sector to run a business in. Yes, it’s tough. It’s really, really tough. Tougher than anyone deserves, but it’s still a vital sector for the economy as a whole. The Government is not going to get anything like the growth it wants to see from the economy without the help and support of the construction sector, of the building materials sector.


So, in that spirit, why not celebrate this sector while we can. Highlight all the great things that we know are still happening.


The nominations for this year’s BMJ Industry Awards are now open. Might I gently remind you that you can put yourself forward if you like. You can nominate your colleagues, your company, the suppliers that you think make the difference to your business.


Is there someone in your organisation that you know goes all out to make the difference for their customers, thereby boosting the business? Then nominate them. If you know an account manager at one of your suppliers who goes above and beyond to make sure you get what you need when you need it, sometimes before you know you need it yourself, then surely, they deserve to be celebrated? Head to our website, www.bmjindustryawards.


co.uk fill out the form and then wait for the voting window to open. It’s got to be worth a few minutes of your time, to big-up the very best this industry has to offer.


Fiona Russell-Horne Group Managing Editor - BMJ


In the depth of


winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.. Albert Camus


CONTENTS ” 4 Newsround


What’s happening in the sector 8 News Extra


Fortis and the independent future 12 People


10 minutes with Cemex’s Vicki Elliott 14 Rising Stars


City Plumbing’s Leo Bringham’s viewpoint


16 Business Helpdesk Looking at the Employment Rights Act 17 Viewpoint


Our guest columnists share their insights


22 Case Study Discussing the exit strategy


24 Merchant Focus BMJ speaks to Kent Builders Merchants


28 NMBS Case Studies How NMBS can help businesses 30 Heavyside


Bricks, blocks, and lintel success 34 Roofing


Topping off with timber and tiles


38 Rainwater management Weathering the sales storms 43 Timber


Growth and logistics in the world of wood ADVERTISING


Group Sales Manager: Dawn Tucker 01622 699148 07934 731232 dtucker@datateam.co.uk


Media Account Executive Morgan Borthwick-Hunter mborthwick-hunter@datateam. co.uk


01622 699126


Publisher: Paul Ryder


pryder@datateam.co.uk © Datateam Business Media Ltd 2026


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall. Suppliers have contributed towards production costs of some photographs in this issue.


CIRCULATION


ABC audited average circulation


July 2018-June 2019: 7,801 SUBSCRIPTIONS


UK 1 year: £97 UK, 2 years: £164 Outside UK: one year £113/$204; two years: £196/$353


46 Industry voice What’s new from the BMF


48 Product News What’s new from suppliers 50 And finally


News from all around and the Prize Crossword Supplement TRAILBLAZERS


The annual benchmarking publication, looking at the top 52 merchants and their performances in the past three years.


April 2026 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 3


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