LEAGUE TABLES
GROSS MARGIN GROWTH – OR LACK OF IT
1. Carver 2. Stark
3. Haldane Shiells 4. Beatsons 5. Huws Gray
6. Nicholls & Clarke 7. Robert Pochin 8. Highbourne 9. JT Atkinson 10. Strukta 11. MKM
12. UK Plumbing Supplies 13. Bradford & Sons 14. Alsford Timber 15. Builder Depot 16. Frank Key 17. IBMG
18. County Building Supplies 19. Kellaway
20. Wolseley UK 21. Elliott Bros
22. Boys & Boden 23. Lawsons
24. MGM Timber 25. Browns
26. Sydenhams 27. LBS
28. Walter Tipper 29. James Burrell
30. Beggs & Partners 31. James Hargreaves 32. Champion Timber
33. Howarth Timber Supplies 34. PGR Timber 35. Covers 36. Selco 37. Lords
38. Robert Price & Sons 39. Joseph Parr 40. Travis Perkins 41. John Nicholls
42. Beesley & Fildes 43. Markovitz 44. MP Moran
45. John A Stephens 46. Turnbull
47. Myers Building Supplies 48. EH Smith 49. Williams 50. JT Dove 51. Brewer
52. C&W Berry
11.5% 11.0% 6.8% 5.9% 4.4% 3.6% 3.3% 2.6% 2.6% 2.0% 1.4% 1.2% 0.8% 0.8% 0.3% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0%
(0.3%) (0.4%) (0.8%) (0.9%) (1.0%) (1.0%) (1.1%) (1.2%) (1.4%) (1.6%) (1.7%) (1.8%) (1.9%) (2.0%) (2.1%) (2.1%) (2.2%) (2.3%) (2.4%) (2.7%) (2.9%) (2.9%) (3.8%) (4.6%) (4.9%) (6.9%) (7.8%) (7.8%) (8.7%) (10.1%) (12.2%) (21.3%)
OPERATING MARGINS: PROFITABLE, BUT ONLY JUST
1. PGR Timber 2. Strukta
3. James Hargreaves 4. Beatsons
5. Boys & Boden 6. JT Atkinson
7. Robert Pochin
8. Beggs & Partners 9. C&W Berry
10. UK Plumbing Supplies 11. MKM
12. Travis Perkins
13. Myers Building Supplies 14. Bradford & Sons 15. Haldane Shiells 16. Huws Gray 17. JT Dove
18. MGM Timber 19. Carver
20. Robert Price & Sons 21. Elliott Bros 22. John Nicholls 23. Walter Tipper 24. Sydenhams 25. Turnbull
26. Builder Depot 27. Browns 28. EH Smith
29. Wolseley UK 30. Frank Key 31. Brewer
32. Markovitz 33. Lords
34. Lawsons 35. LBS
36. MP Moran 37. Highbourne 38. Selco
39. Champion Timber 40. Alsford Timber 41. Joseph Parr
42. Howarth Timber Supplies 43. County Building Supplies 44. James Burrell 45. Beesley & Fildes 46. Nicholls & Clarke 47. Stark
48. Kellaway 49. Williams 50. Covers
51. John A Stephens 52. IBMG
7.3% 7.2% 7.2% 6.6% 4.6% 4.5% 4.5% 3.9% 3.8% 3.4% 3.4% 3.3% 3.2% 3.1% 3.1% 3.0% 2.9% 2.7% 2.5% 2.3% 2.3% 2.2% 2.1% 2.0% 1.8% 1.6% 1.4% 1.4% 1.4% 1.3% 1.2% 1.0% 1.0% 0.9% 0.8% 0.7% 0.4% 0.4%. 0.2% 0.2%
(0.0%) (0.8%) (1.1%) (1.2%) (1.5%) (1.7%) (2.0%) (2.4%) (3.0%) (4.5%) (4.6%)
(24.9%)
Gross Margin Growth
Not so cheerful here. Exactly one-third of Trailblazers merchants (17 out of 52) managed to improve their gross margin in the latest financial period – which means that two-thirds saw their gross margins shrink. This shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone in the merchant industry, but it does show the problem in sharp relief: if you’re not able to pass price increases on to your customers in full, there’s trouble in store
Operating Margin
A slightly more upbeat picture here: 39 of 52 merchants showed an operating profit in their latest reporting period. But the margins are modest: 10 years ago the top four merchants all reported double-digit operating margins, and the average across all the companies listed was 5.2%. This year nobody is near double digits, and the average across all merchants is minus 0.3%. Even excluding the outliers, the top and bottom 10%, the difference is stark: the industry average was 4.7% in 2016, and it’s just 1.3% now.
April 2026 A supplement to builders merchants journal
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