LMR TIMBER SUPPLIES CIVIL A VERY STARTING POINT
NBG’s help was key in Partner LMR Building Supplies developing a new division, LMR Timber Supplies.
L
ike many merchant businesses, LMR Building Supplies started when its founders, working elsewhere in the industry, took the plunge and set out on their own. Bringing a wealth of experience in civils merchanting, founding Directors Paul Londers, Chris Matthews and Sam Richards specialised in that area at first, before branching out and adding more general building supplies.
Director Dan Denton, who had worked with the three at their previous company some years prior, joined LMR to help move it into the timber side. Denton is Sales Director of LMR Building Supplies, Matthews has a finance background and is very civils orientated, while Londers is operations driven and Richards specialises in sales. “It’s a really good blend of skills and personalities,” Denton says. “Much like NBG as a whole.” He adds that LMR’s gradual expansion into offering general building supplies opened more doors for the company. “Not only were we able to offer a wider range of products to our existing customers, but we were also able to attract new customers who hadn’t used us before.”
It then became apparent that the real gap in the company’s offering was timber. “I previously worked for a timber merchant, and could see the opportunity in having a timber depot – not just offering timber alongside the building supplies, which we did anyway, but a specialist timber business to really put us on the map,” Denton explains. “If we were going to do it, we wanted to do it properly.” The company’s timber products offering has expanded and now ranges from carcassing to CLSs and all the way to finished products like skirtings, specialist mouldings and wall panels, There’s also a milling facility.
The timber side was set up in July 2023, so is now into its second year of trading. It
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initially started with the Directors identifying which product ranges they wanted to focus on and which particular specialities they wanted to add, and looking to use their NBG Partnership to help them. They then identified one member of staff to head up that side of the business as a Branch Manager and then added in other members of staff this year. Without being NBG Partners, Denton says the company probably wouldn’t have set up LMR Timber Supplies. “What we probably would have done was added in timber into our existing business, but wouldn’t have been able to specialise. The reason for that would have been, obviously, we wouldn’t have had access to the direct accounts, the resources and experience to call on, and the confidence to know that you’re buying the best products at the best prices. So we’ve leaned on NBG a lot.”
Visibility of the company among Suppliers
has increased, Denton points out. “We’d regularly see the Area Managers from, say, ACO, Brett Martin and Polypipe because of our specialist experience in civils. Now, the really good timber Suppliers have started to come to us to introduce themselves. So membership of NBG has given us a profile in the market that we wouldn’t have had before.”
One of the key benefits to setting up LMR Timber Supplies is the way it has increased the company’s share of its market. Denton says: “We used to sell everything from the ground up to the roof, but then we had to walk away. Now we can add in the doors, the skirtings, the specialist mouldings. We can literally do the full works for our existing customer base. We can also go out and target new customers who wouldn’t have bothered with us before because we couldn’t offer them the full package. Having timber as a specialist
January 2025
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