TRAILBLAZERS APRIL 2026 CONTENTS 4 League Tables
It’s grim out there
I
’m half minded to start this with a health warning, à la fag-packets and bottles of plonk. It will come as no surprise to anyone that reading this year’s Trailblazers supplement could cause even the jolliest of merchant industry observers to wince, if not place their heads in their hands and weep copiously. At the risk of doom-mongering, what worries me is that this may not be the worst of it. In fact, this very definitely is not the worst of it. Due to the usual Companies House/Financial Year End caveat I trot out every year, the figures you with find herein refer, for the most part, to what happened in 2024. We spent 2024 just hoping to get through it – “Survive till 25”, and all that. Then, thanks in no small part to Labour’s first Budget, that turned into “Survive IN 25”, and now it’s more like “One day at a time”. Too many people have told me, anecdotally, that trade in the last year seems to be as bad as they have ever known it. If that is, indeed the case, then I’m not looking forward to compiling next year’s at all. There had been, at the start of this year, a slight feeling of optimism that things would get better because they have to. That the Government would start to make good on its election promises of housing market investment. Indeed, there were strong rumours that some sort of incentive was quite a way down the line. Then President Trump decided to kick things around in the Middle East, and all bets, as they say, are off.
A few things feel slightly different with this year’s Trailblazers. The churn in ownerships that
CONTACTS Builders Merchants Journal
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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
characterised the past few editions has changed. It’s still happening, but now, instead of heaps of private equity cash and debt funding takeovers, it’s more likely to be independent businesses acquiring branches and businesses on an ad hoc basis.
These independent businesses are also continuing to grow and develop under their own steam and their own funding. As I have said before, diversity of ownership models is as important as anything else. Plus, while there is still PE money washing around the sector, it’s much less obvious, with acquisitions and bolt-ons happening far closer to the radar, if not actually under it.
While this year’s publication shows how difficult the industry has become, it also shows that, despite the very many, very serious, challenges, there is still strength to the sector, though it will take blood, sweat and tears to maintain it. There is year-on-year sales growth, there is decent ROI in places. Stockturn, operating margin and sales growth are the key ratios we use to work out the BMJ Index, our way of assessing the overall health and competitiveness of a company. If any one of the three is negative – i.e. sales declined year-on-year, or the company recorded an operating loss – the result will be a negative Index score. Most years, the few negative scores, are cancelled out by the positives. This is not one of those years.
Fiona Russell Horne Group Managing Editor
12 Alsford Timber 12 Beatsons 12 Beesley & Fildes 13 Beggs & Partners 13 Boys & Boden 13 Brewers 14 Bradford & Sons 14 Browns 16 Builders Depot 16 C&W Berry 16 Champion Timber 17 Carver 17 Country Building Supplies 18 Covers 18 EH Smith 18 Elliotts 19 Frank Key 19 Haldane Group 19 Highbourne Group 20 Grafton
20 Howarth Timber & Building Supplies
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21 IBMG 21 Huws Gray 22 James Burrell 22 James Hargreaves 22 John A. Stephens 23 John Nicholls 23 Joseph Parr 24 J T Atkinson & Sons 24 JT Dove 24 Kellaway 25 Lawsons 25 LBS 26 Lords 26 Markovitz 27 MGM Timber 27 MKM 28 MP Moran 28 Myers Building Supplies 29 Nicholls & Clarke 29 PGR Timber 29 Robert Pochin 30 Robert Price & Sons 30 Strukta 31 Sydenhams 31 Tippers 32 STARK 33 Turnbull 33 UK Plumbing Supplies 33 Williams Trade Supplies 34 Travis Perkins 35 Wolseley UK
April 2026 A supplement to builders merchants journal 3
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