LEAGUE TABLES
Stockturn Growth
A 50:50 split here, between merchants which managed to improve their stockturn in the latest financial period, and those which didn’t. Among those which did, the average improvement was 8.2% - among those which didn’t, the average decline was 5.3% – which tends to suggest that despite the decline in sales and pressure on margins, the industry is keeping a tight control on stock levels.
STOCKTURN GROWTH: TIGHT CONTROL
1. EH Smith 2. MKM
3. Beggs & Partners 4. Markovitz
Gross Margin
Again, it’s instructive to compare the current industry average with the picture 10 years ago. Remove the outliers (top five and bottom five), and the average gross margin across the middle ground is 27.2%. A decade ago in 2016, the comparable ‘middle ground’ average was 28.6%. The message seems pretty clear: faced with a combination of falling demand and rising prices, merchants struggle to pass on price rises to their customers. That said, 27.2% is still a reasonably healthy average gross margin for the merchant industry. Again, the fact that Stark’s accounting period changed means the growth margin growth is uncalculable.
5. John A Stephens 6. PGR Timber 7. Joseph Parr 8. Kellaway 9. C&W Berry 10. Wolseley UK 11. MP Moran 12. Elliott Bros 13. Lawsons 14. Turnbull 15. Williams
16. Beesley & Fildes 17. JT Atkinson 18. Travis Perkins 19. Frank Key 20. IBMG
21. Robert Price & Sons 22. Myers Building Supplies 23. County Building Supplies 24. JT Dove 25. Browns 26. Selco
27. Builder Depot 28. Haldane Shiells 29. Covers
30. Walter Tipper 31. Brewer
32. UK Plumbing Supplies 33. Bradford & Sons 34. Boys & Boden 35. MGM Timber
36. Howarth Timber Supplies 37. Nicholls & Clarke 38. Robert Pochin 39. Sydenhams 40. Beatsons
41. Champion Timber 42. Lords
43. Highbourne 44. Stark
45. James Hargreaves 46. Huws Gray 47. Strukta 48. LBS
49. Alsford Timber 50. John Nicholls 51. James Burrell 52. Carver
18.6% 18.4% 18.3% 14.2% 13.1% 11.2% 10.4% 10%
9.2% 4.0% 9.0% 8.4% 8.1% 7.3% 6.4% 6.4% 5.8% 5.8% 5.4% 5.2% 4.7% 4.6% 3.0% 2.6% 2.0% 2.0% 0.5% 0.0% 0.0%
(0.1%) (0.2%) (0.7%) (1.2%) (1.2%) (2.0%) (2.8%) (2.8%) (2.9%) (4.4%) (4.8%) (4.9%) (5.0%) (6.7%) (6.0%) (7.3%) (8.6%) (9.0%) (9.9%) (12.3%) (13.1%) (13.3%) (14%)
GROSS MARGIN: WHERE THE PRESSURE STARTS
1. Sydenhams
2. Nicholls & Clarke 3. Champion Timber 4. Lawsons 5. Frank Key 6. Selco
7. Alsford Timber 8. MP Moran 9. Beatsons 10. PGR Timber 11. LBS
12. Covers
13. Walter Tipper 14. Bradford & Sons
15. Howarth Timber Supplies 16. Haldane Shiells 17. Boys & Boden
18. County Building Supplies 19. Strukta
20. Huws Gray 21. IBMG
22. Builder Depot 23. JT Atkinson 24. Carver
25. John A Stephens
26. UK Plumbing Supplies 27. James Hargreaves 28. John Nicholls
29. Robert Price & Sons 30. MKM
31. JT Dove
32. Beggs & Partners 33. Travis Perkins 34. MGM Timber 35. Turnbull
36. Myers Building Supplies 37. Joseph Parr 38. Highbourne 39. Wolseley UK 40. EH Smith 41. Markovitz 42. Williams 43. Kellaway 44. Lords
45. James Burrell 46. Robert Pochin 47. Elliott Bros
48. Beesley & Fildes 49. Browns
50. C&W Berry 51. Stark
52. Brewer
40.5% 40.0% 39.7% 38.2% 36.0% 35.9% 35.4% 34.2% 34.0% 33.1% 32.9% 32.1% 32.1% 31.7% 30.8% 30.4% 30.1% 29.4% 29.4% 29.3% 29.3% 29.1% 29.1% 29.0% 28.8% 27.9% 27.7% 27.2% 27.1% 27.0% 26.9% 26.5% 26.1% 25.9% 25.4% 25.3% 25.1% 23.8% 23.0% 22.2% 21.8% 21.3% 21.0% 19.5% 18.8% 17.7% 16.5% 16.3% 14.1% 13.4% 12.2% 4.5%
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A supplement to builders merchants journal April 2026
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