LEAGUE TABLES
Return on Capital
Given the recent turmoil in the merchant industry – National Timber Group, IBMG and so on – there is definitely a case for excluding the outliers from any analysis of this table. Ignore the top five and bottom five, and the average return on capital across 42 companies is 4.4%. Focus on the middle ground even more closely by eliminating the top 10 and bottom 10, and that figure improves very slightly, to 4.5%. That’s modest – 10 years ago it was around 20% – but it serves to make the point that even in these challenging market conditions, the vast majority of builders merchants continue to deliver a return to their investors. Focus on that one fact: despite all the recent and unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions, this is still a solid industry with a record of consistent safe investment.
BMJ Index
The BMJ Index is intended to give a snapshot of a company’s overall competitiveness. It’s arrived at by multiplying what we see as three key trading ratios: year-on-year sales growth, stockturn, and operating margin. This means that a year-on-year decline in sales automatically generates a negative index score, and in current market conditions, that of course means that most merchants are in the negatives – so all credit to Beatsons, MKM, EH Smith and Beggs & Partners for achieving healthy scores despite the overall market trends.
Over 10 years, the average BMJ Index twice has twice gone negative: in 2022, reflecting the chaos of lockdown, and then again last year, reflecting (we assume) the start of the current decline in demand and pressure on margins. This year’s average of minus 41 is the lowest it’s ever been, and, alas, it looks as though it may be the precursour to worse to come.
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
540 337 319 303 336 159
2022 2023 2024 2025 2026
(30)
1152 350 (33) (41)
RETURN ON CAPITAL: SOUND IN THE MIDDLE GROUND
1. JT Atkinson 2. Highbourne 3. Robert Pochin 4. Strukta
5. UK Plumbing Supplies 6. PGR Timber 7. MGM Timber
8. James Hargreaves 9. MKM
10. Beatsons 11. Turnbull
12. Bradford & Sons 13. Builder Depot 14. John Nicholls
15. Myers Building Supplies 16. JT Dove
17. C&W Berry
18. Haldane Shiells 19. Beggs & Partners 20. Huws Gray 21. Wolseley UK
22. Robert Price & Sons 23. EH Smith 24. Browns
25. Markovitz
26. Boys & Boden 27. Elliott Bros 28. Carver
29. Walter Tipper 30. Sydenhams 31. Frank Key 32. LBS
33. MP Moran 34. Brewer 35. Selco
36. Alsford Timber 37. Joseph Parr
38. Champion Timber 39. Lawsons
40. Travis Perkins 41. Kellaway
42. Beesley & Fildes 43. Lords
44. John A Stephens
45. Howarth Timber Supplies 46. Covers
47. County Building Supplies 48. Nicholls & Clarke 49. Williams
50. James Burrell 51. Stark 52. IBMG
98.2 43.7 33.8 31.4 24.1 23.7 22.9 21.0 18.8 18.6 14.6 13.4 10.9 10.7 10.6 9.4 9.3 9.0 8.5 8.1 7.9 7.4 6.4 5.9 5.5 5.1
4.8 4.5 4.0 3.9 2.8 2.7 2.6 2.0 1.8 1.7 1.5 1.1
0.7
(1.0) (1.9) (5.4) (5.5) (5.9) (8.1) (9.1)
(14.2) (18.4) (22.1) (25.8) (176.8) n/a
BMJ INDEX: NOT A HAPPY PICTURE
1. Beatsons 2. MKM
3. EH Smith
4. Beggs & Partners 5. Brewer
6. Markovitz
7. UK Plumbing Supplies 8. Builder Depot 9. JT Dove
10. JT Atkinson
11. Robert Price & Sons 12. Robert Pochin
13. County Building Supplies 14. Elliott Bros 15. Turnbull
16. PGR Timber 17. LBS 18. Stark
19. Lawsons
20. Champion Timber 21. Joseph Parr
22. Haldane Shiells 23. Highbourne
24. Alsford Timber 25. Wolseley UK 26. Selco
27. Kellaway
28. Howarth Timber Supplies 29. Sydenhams 30. MP Moran
31. Bradford & Sons 32. John A Stephens 33. James Hargreaves 34. Frank Key 35. Lords
36. Nicholls & Clarke 37. Covers 38. Strukta
39. Boys & Boden 40. Walter Tipper 41. Carver
42. Huws Gray
43. Travis Perkins 44. Williams
45. John Nicholls 46. Beesley & Fildes
47. Myers Building Supplies 48. Browns
49. James Burrell 50. MGM Timber 51. C&W Berry 52. IBMG
276 214 145 133 85 81 70 49 37 35 32 20 19 19 15 11 8 8 4 3
(0) (2) (2) (3) (6) (7)
(10) (8)
(15) (20) (26) (28) (30) (31) (39) (41) (49) (52) (67) (67) (76) (78) (82) (87) (89) (114) (115) (121) (162) (196) (507) (800)
10
A supplement to builders merchants journal April 2026
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