LEAGUE TABLES
The storm before
the...hurricane? Wider economic forces have been at
play and the Trailblazers League Tables are bearing the brunt of it.
There are some notable gaps in the Traiblazers League Tables and pages this year. Gone are the entries for National Timber Group (which included long-standing Trailblazer name Rembrand Timber) and Kent Blaxill, due to the administration of both National Timber and Paintwell, the decorators merchant group into which Kent Blaxill had been absorbed. Missing also are the separate entries for Parker Building Supplies, RGB and Grant & Stone, part of IBMG. Although there are Companies House figures available for each of these entities, we made the decision to just focus on the wider group. IBMG has had its own, well-documented difficulties, the results of which are only too evident in these tables. A serious restructuring ensued, so next year’s tables will show whether the gamble has worked. It is, of course, not without notice, that all of the above mentioned companies were bought initially by the same private equity firm. Make of that what you will.
As usual with Trailblazers, we are a little behind the curve, being dependent on when different groups publish their year-end results and upload them to Companies House. Thus, this is never an entirely like-for-like comparison, with year ends for companies such as Wolseley, Lawsons, PGR and Beggs & Partners falling at various points in 2025, while the majority of the figures are for the year ending December 31 2024. This also means that the huge economic pressures that came to bear on the sector during 2025, and which are continuing into 2026, have yet to show their effect on the tables. Trailblazers may very well get worse before it shows any improvement.
A couple of other things are worth pointing out. The figures we have used for Grafton are for Selco, as that is the part of the wider group that is the most relevant, competitor-wise, to the rest of Trailblazers. In the past we have left specialist companies like Howdens and Screwfix out, mainly due to the latter’s DIY implications, being part of B&Q parent Kingfisher. However, merchants’ customers shop there in their thousands. So, had we included Screwfix and Howdens in this year’s Turnover Table, they would have been at 2 (£2.6bn), and 3 (£2.27bn) respectively, behind Travis Perkins, but ahead of Stark. Toolstation – the Travis Perkins-owned competitor to Screwfix – is included in TP’s figures; separating it out would place it in the number 8 spot (£821m), just behind UK Plumbing Supplies, but well ahead of IBMG. However, Travis Perkins, even without Toolstation, would remain in pole position.
Turnover
Travis Perkins is still by far the biggest player in the market – but behind them, there’s a long-term shift in the competition. 10 years ago, we observed that TP’s turnover exceeded the combined sales of the next 10 companies in the list. Now the combined sales of the next three companies considerably exceeds TP’s figure – and were any two of numbers two to four to merge, it would create a real competitor to TP in terms of size. That’s a scenario which was pretty much unimaginable a decade ago.
Source: BMJ analysis of filed company accounts. 4 A supplement to builders merchants journal April 2026
TURNOVER: TP STILL WAY OUT IN FRONT
1. Travis Perkins 2. Stark
3. Wolseley UK 4. Highbourne 5. Huws Gray 6. MKM
7. UK Plumbing Supplies 8. IBMG 9. Selco 10. Lords
11. Brewer
12. Bradford & Sons 13. EH Smith
14. Haldane Shiells 15. Lawsons
16. Howarth Timber Supplies 17. JT Atkinson 18. Builder Depot 19. Markovitz
20. James Hargreaves 21. Williams 22. JT Dove
23. James Burrell 24. Covers
25. Elliott Bros 26. Joseph Parr 27. LBS
28. Sydenhams
29. Robert Price & Sons 30. MGM Timber 32. Turnbull
31. Nicholls & Clarke 33. MP Moran 34. C&W Berry 35. PGR Timber 36. Robert Pochin 37. Walter Tipper 38. Kellaway
39. Alsford Timber 40. Beesley & Fildes
41. Myers Building Supplies 42. Boys & Boden
43. Beggs & Partners 44. Browns 45. Carver
46. John Nicholls
47. Champion Timber 48. Beatsons
49. County Building Supplies 50. Frank Key 51. Strukta
52. John A Stephens
£4,607.4m £2,053.0m £1,779.1m £1,369.7m £1,326.3m £986.2m £833.8m £592.4m £566.6m £436.7m £267.8m £219.5m £165.9m £165.0m £164.6m £142.4m £136.1m £135.8m £135.2m £131.2m £119.0m £96.6m £95.1m £94.1m £92.9m £91.9m £88.9m £81.7m £74.5m £71.8m £63.1m £62.7m £62.7m £61.5m £58.1m £57.4m £51.0m £50.0m £49.6m £48.8m £46.8m £46.4m £46.0m £44.8m £43.3m £38.3m £37.1m £36.9m £35.9m £31.0m £30.9m £24.1m
TURNOVER GROWTH: EH SMITH LEADS THE WAY
1. EH Smith 2. Brewer
3. Markovitz 4. MKM
5. Beesley & Fildes 6. Beggs & Partners 7. Champion Timber
8. UK Plumbing Supplies 9. Beatsons
10. Robert Price & Sons 11. Joseph Parr
12. Howarth Timber Supplies 13. Builder Depot 14. JT Dove 15. LBS
16. Covers
17. JT Atkinson 18. Elliott Bros 19. Turnbull 20. Lawsons
21. Robert Pochin 22. PGR Timber
23. Haldane Shiells 24. John A Stephens 25. James Hargreaves 26. Stark
27. Strukta
28. Bradford & Sons 29. Highbourne 30. Kellaway
31. Sydenhams
32. County Building Supplies 33. Frank Key
34. Alsford Timber 35. Wolseley UK 36. Selco 37. IBMG
38. Travis Perkins 39. Browns
40. MP Moran 41. MGM Timber 42. Huws Gray 43. Williams 44. Lords
45. Boys & Boden
46. Nicholls & Clarke 47. John Nicholls
48. Myers Building Supplies 49. Walter Tipper 50. Carver
51. C&W Berry 52. James Burrell
12.7% 10.2% 7.4% 6.4% 5.1% 5.0% 4.0% 3.8% 3.7% 3.2% 2.7% 2.6% 2.5% 2.3% 2.1% 1.9% 1.5% 1.4% 1.2% 0.8% 0.8% 0.4%
(0.1%) (0.9%) (0.9%) (1%) (1.0)
(1.2%) (1.3%) 1%
(2.8%) (3.0)
(3.5%) (3.7%) (1.0%) (4%)
(4.7%) (4.7%) (5.1%) (5.2%) (5.3%) (5.4%) (5.5%) (5.6%) (6.1%) (6.8%) (7.7%) (7.8%) (7.8%) (8.8%) (11.4%) (12.1%)
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