COMMENT Running on empty O


ne of the drawbacks of writing this column, as I’ve mentioned before, is that by the time you, dearest reader, are perusing my carefully chosen words over your mid-morning caffeinated beverage of choice, the world has moved on and my wisdom is out-of- date.


No chance of that happening this time. It was announced, at the time of writing, that the energy bill for the average household in the UK this Winter could go as high as £4,400 a year. That’s £366 a month. Just over £12 a day. Those sorts of numbers are not coming down quickly. In fact, it’s likely that, with OFGEM having decided to revise the price cap more often ‘to better reflect the volatility of the market’, there’s only one direction those numbers are going in. And it’s not down.


Surely, there has to be a way out of this mess? If this does come to pass, there will be a great many people who, come the cold, dark, frosty mornings of late January, will be unable afford to heat their homes. Some may decide to follow the trend on social media and refuse to pay: Can’t Pay, Won’t Pay as it were. Others will believe they have no choice, and will prioritise that over other spending options. It’s likely, alas, that these will be the impoverished elderly, who were brought up to believe that you paid your bills on time, often in cash, and whom the digital society is slowly, gradually excluding. Have we gone soft over the years? Has the ease with which North Sea gas was pumped into our homes made us forget how to be frugal with heat and energy? My mother tells of needing to break the ice in a wash basin when she was a child, and my student flat was regularly icier on the inside of the windows than the outside. Did years of paying our bills by direct debit, the same amount each month,


COVER LINES BMJ


The Original Multi-Surface Construction Sealant & Adhesive is suitable for bonding and sealing a variety


BUILDERS MERCHANTS JOURNAL AUGUST 2022


inure us to the actual cost of what we were using? I’d say yes to all of those, but acknowledging that isn’t going to help. Smart meters were supposed to be the answer to making us take responsibility for our energy use, but look what a mess they turned out to be.


Economics 101, Supply & Demand: restricting the supply without doing likewise to demand means prices go up. Equally, increasing demand, which is what happens in Winter, without doing likewise to the supply, increases prices. There is less natural gas coming in, thanks to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and that is just one of the reasons that household energy prices are rocketing. The householder is also having to indirectly pay the price for the lax regulation of the energy supply market over the past few years. The last three companies that supplied my gas and electricity all went belly-up. Somewhere in my distended direct debit from British Gas is a levy to pay towards that bail-out.


The £400 or £650 pay-out that everyone is to receive off their energy bills from October won’t even touch the sides of some of those bills. For others it will be the lifeline that just might mean the difference between surviving and not. Then there are the lucky few for whom it’ll be a nice little bit of pocket-money to help pay the Waitrose Christmas online shopping bill. One could argue that those £4,400 bills contain a healthy dose of VAT for the Government and profit for the energy suppliers, so surely there is room for some more largesse. But would it be enough? I have no idea what the answer is. Neither, more worryingly, does anyone in Government. Time to learn to knit, perhaps. BMJ


Fiona Russell-Horne Group Managing Editor - BMJ


CONTACTS Builders Merchants Journal


IT


Making pricing and quoting more efficient


TIMBER


Are your battens really fit for purpose?


TRANSPORT


Electrifying logistics for merchants


HOW ZAT!!


OB1 HITTING THE SPOT EVERY TIME


Datateam Business Media London Road Maidstone Kent ME15 8LY Tel: 01622 687031 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net


EDITORIAL Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382 frussell-horne@datateam.co.uk


of materials, including: felt, copper, aluminium, mirror, wood, plastic, steel, glass, tile and more. It maintains its robust bond when cured from -40°C to +120°C, allowing it to cope in harsh external weathering conditions.


Assistant editor Anjali Sooknanan 01622 699186


asooknanan@datateam.co.uk


Production Controller: Nic Mandeville


A fragment had pierced his heart as well, and soon it would turn into a lump of ice.


“ Hans Christian Andersen CONTENTS


4 Newsround The news from around the industry.


8 In Person


BMJ talks to Keylite’s Matthew King about kicking it to mental illness.


10 BMJ Industry Awards Did you make the cut?


14 People


Who’s moved where and 10 Minutes With…


16 Business Helpdesk Logistics and handling issues.


18 Viewpoint Comment and thought leadership


22 Merchant Focus How a merchant and supplier are working together to their mutual benefit.


25 IT


BMJ talks to a software supplier who is easing the pricing and quoting log-jam.


28 Timber


Are your battens really what they say?


ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager: Dawn Tucker 01622 699148 07934 731232 dtucker@datateam.co.uk


Publishing Director Paul Ryder


pryder@datateam.co.uk CIRCULATION


ABC audited average circulation July 2018-June 2019: 7,801


SUBSCRIPTIONS


UK 1 year: £97 UK, 2 years: £164 Outside UK: one year £113/$204; two years: £196/$353


© Datateam Business Media Ltd 2022.


All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, electronic or mechanical including photo-copying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher. The title Builders Merchants Journal is registered at Stationers’ Hall. Suppliers have contributed towards production costs of some photographs in this issue.


31 Transport Electrifying logistics for merchants.


35 Tools & Workwear Latest products and developments from suppliers.


36 Security Locking down the trends.


38 BMF Industry Voice News from the BMF.


40 Product News The latest products.


50 And Finally Try your hand at the BMJ Brainteaser prize crossword.


August 2022 www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 3 ”

Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44