LEAGUE TABLES
STAFF HEADCOUNT: TP CUTS BACK
1. Travis Perkins 2. Stark
3. Huws Gray 4. Wolseley UK 5. Highbourne 6. MKM 7. Selco
8. UK Plumbing Supplies 9. IBMG
10. Brewer 11. Lords
12. Bradford & Sons 13. Lawsons
14. Haldane Shiells
15. Howarth Timber Supplies 16. JT Atkinson 17. LBS
18. Covers 19. Sydenhams
20. Nicholls & Clarke 21. EH Smith 22. Markovitz 23. Williams
24. James Hargreaves 25. JT Dove
26. Builder Depot 27. Elliott Bros
28. Robert Price & Sons 29. Joseph Parr 30. James Burrell 31. Boys & Boden 32. MP Moran
33. Walter Tipper
34. Beesley & Fildes 35. C&W Berry 36. MGM Timber 37. Turnbull 38. Kellaway 39. Carver
40. Alsford Timber
41. Myers Building Supplies 42. Champion Timber 43. Frank Key
44. Robert Pochin 45. Beggs & Partners
46. County Building Supplies 47. PGR Timber 48. Strutka
49. Beatsons 50. John Nicholls
51. John A Stephens 52. Browns
17,594 7,081 4,762 4,568 3,215 3,059 2742 2,293 2,058 1,475 945 857 741 728 612 529 469 460 450 443 417 391 383 376 357 330 324 321 309 301 267 265 259 255 248 234 224 233 216 213 211
202 194 162 160 158 154 127 126 125 105 78
STOCKTURN: STOCK LEVELS STILL TOO HIGH?
1. Browns
2. MGM Timber 3. Builder Depot 4. C&W Berry
5. James Burrell 6. Beatsons 7. Markovitz 8. MKM
9. Joseph Parr 10. EH Smith 11. Strukta 12. Lords
13. Bradford & Sons 14. John A Stephens
15. County Building Materials 16. Turnbull 17. IBMG
18. Brewer
19. Beggs & Partners 20. Frank Key 21. Kellaway
22. Haldane Shiells 23. Elliott Bros 24. Stark
25. Covers
26. Robert Pochin 27. JT Dove
28. Beesley & Fildes
29. UK Plumbing Supplies 30. John Nicholls 31. Williams
32. Travis Perkins 33. JT Atkinson 34. MP Moran 35. Lawsons
36. Wolseley UK 37. Huws Gray
38. James Hargreaves 39. LBS
40. Myers Building Supplies 41. Selco
42. Robert Price & Sons 43. PGR Timber 44. Highbourne 45. Walter Tipper 46. Alsford Timber
47. Howarth Timber Supplies 48. Carver
49. Nicholls & Clarke 50. Champion Timber 51. Sydenhams 52. Boys & Boden
16.9 13.9 12.4 11.8 11.5 11.3 10.5 9.9 9.2 8.2 7.5 7.1
7.0 6.9 6.9 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.8 6.6 7.1
6.2 6.0 5.6 5.8 5.7 5.6 5.4 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.2 5.2 5.1 5.1 5.0 4.8 4.6 4.6 4.6 4.4 4.3 4.2 4.1 4.0 4.0 3.8 3.5 3.5 3.4 2.5 2.4.
Turnover Growth
This tells the story of current market conditions pretty clearly. Of the 52 companies listed, only 22 managed to record sales growth in their latest accounts (a change of accounting period means that Stark’s year-on-year performance can’t be measured). Moreover, the average growth rate among those 22 companies was just 3.7%, whereas the average decline among the other 29 was 5.3%. And note that all the market leaders are in the negative section: EH Smith’s growth of 12.7% is creditable, but it is dwarfed by Travis Perkins’ decline of 4.7%. Considering the market as a whole, Smith contributed just under £19m of growth, but that was eclipsed by TP’s decline of £230m.
Staff headcount
Travis Perkins is of course the industry’s largest employer, and by a huge margin. But that margin is nowhere near as huge as it used to be. 10 years ago Trail Blazers listed 46 companies employing a total of 54,443 people; and 23,480 of those people, 43% of the total, worked for TP. Now we have 52 companies employing a total of nearly 62,000 people – but now only 17,594 of them, 28% of the total, work for TP. Over those 10 years, the market leader has shed nearly 6,000 jobs, a quarter of its workforce – and that fact seems to say something quite significant about long-term trends in the merchant industry.
Stockturn
Trying for a direct comparison of stockturn performance among 52 companies in a diverse market is pretty much impossible; there are too many variables (lightside, heavyside, civils, for a start). It’s probably more instructive to look at the long-term trend in averages. If we exclude the top 10% and bottom 10%, the outliers, and focus solely on the middle ground, the industry’s average stockturn is currently 6.1 times. 10 years ago, the comparable figure was 6.8 times. But we don’t think that means the industry has become less efficient at managing its stock than it was a decade ago – more that it reflects the downturn in sales, which has left many merchants sitting on higher stocks than they would wish.
April 2026 A supplement to builders merchants journal
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