THE MONTH
Cairngorm Capital adds Grant & Stone to merchant mix
Specialist private investment firm Cairngorm Capital has added independent builders merchant Grant & Stone to its portfolio.
Grant & Stone has 29 Thames Valley branches across three specialist building, plumbing and electrical
divisions.There is also an ecommerce subsidiary, Trading Depot, launched in March 2008. Headquartered in High Wycombe, it employs 360 people and in 2019, achieved revenues of £100m.
Cairngorm Capital has bought the business from Grant & Stone’s founding shareholders and is backing the incumbent management team, led by chief executive, Nick House, commercial director Peter Cudd, and divisional managing directors Andy Grant, Mat Miller and Matt Bland.
Cairngorm Capital’s investment was led by Andrew Steel, managing partner and Stuart Whiteford, investment director. Steel said: “Grant & Stone is an excellent example of the sort of business in which we like to invest. Its employees, technical know-how and customer service are all exceptional. We are delighted
£36m fine for construction
The Competition and Markets Authority has issued 3 firms with fines totalling more than £36m for breaking competition law in relation to the supply of certain concrete drainage products. Northern Ireland-based firm FP
McCann Ltd is facing a fine of more than £25m, while Derbyshire-based Stanton Bonna Concrete Ltd and Somerset-based CPM Group Ltd will pay more than £7m and £4m respectively.
The fines have been imposed after the CMA discovered an illegal cartel covering Great Britain. From July 2006 to March 2013, the companies agreed to fix or coordinate their prices, allocated customers and regularly exchanged competitively sensitive information. Last year, two of the three firms, Stanton Bonna Concrete Ltd and CPM Group Ltd, both accepted that they broke competition law and have received reductions to their fines
6 Browns mop up
after Derby floods Independent builders merchant Browns Builders Merchants is back in business at its newest site, after a massive flood.
to contribute the investment funding and industry expertise to support Nick and his leadership team in the next stage of Grant & Stone’s growth.” Nick House, Grant & Stone’s chief executive said, “We welcome the investment and support from Cairngorm Capital. Our company is at a really exciting point in its development and is ready to capitalise on the numerous growth opportunities.”
Labour pledges to build the
“Retrofitting millions of homes is all part of Labour’s Green Industrial Revolution to move to a net-zero carbon economy,” John McDonnell told the Builders Merchants’ Federation last month. “And we want to build up the supply chain
throughout the country to do that”.
The Shadow Chancellor was answering a question from the BMF’s Brett Amphlett at a Labour Party event at Westminster. McDonnell gave a keynote televised speech, before the General Election, on corporate governance and reforming company law to give workers, suppliers and customers more say in how businesses are run. McDonnell said the threat of
climate change would be Labour’s priority if it were elected and said that the Party would look at tax reliefs to help businesses scale-up
It is estimated that upwards of £250,000 of damage was caused at Browns' Chequers Road branch, opened a year ago, following torrential rain in the region. However, the company says that the staff have all pulled together and that the branch is open for business again.
Browns’ Edd Parlato says,
although staff had put sandbags round the branch when they left on the Friday evening, by Saturday morning the water had risen 3ft over the top of the sandbags. As well as damage to stock, Parlato says that the office computers, phones and forklifts were damaged.
He said: "Some of the guys are absolutely gutted. They've put so much work into the site over the last year, and now they've got to start again.
to meet demand. He also said that Labour would conduct a review to see which business tax reliefs are effective in meeting the challenge of the climate emergency. He said big companies not taking adequate steps towards de-carbonisation should be de-listed from the London Stock Exchange. The Shadow Chancellor also told Amphlett that the BMF is doing a good job representing its members like one his constituency. McDonnell was referring to Lords Builders Merchants who he visited last year to meet Shaker Patel, Lords’ chief executive.
On a more positive note, Parlato says that many of Browns’ suppliers rallied round to help, as did other local merchants and partners in the NBG buying group, which Browns is a partner of. “Even competitors asked how they could help us out, which is brilliant and says a lot about the people in the industry.”
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net December 2019
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