COMMENT People matter T
here’s something quite special about this industry. I know most people in whatever field they choose to work in probably feel that about their sectors, but in this case,
I really think it’s true.
It’s the people, you see. Plain and simple – the fact is plain and simple, not the people (although thinking about it…)
This is an industry where what you do, with whom and to whom, matters. And it gets remembered.
This is an industry where life-long friendships are forged over golf clubs, beers, and tequila (if you know, you know). A sector where people will drive halfway across the country to support someone when they really need it. Where support doesn’t just mean offering to help, but getting in the car and turning up where you’re needed, armed with cake, crayons and colouring books (again, if you know, you know). Where the Linked In ‘open to work’ post can turn into a solid job offer within a matter of hours. An industry full of good people.
It’s this camaraderie that, I think, is partly behind the continued success of the independent merchant sector, where people are running not just a business but one with their name over the door. They understand they have responsibilities not just to employees and customers, but to their own history. I think it also explains, again partly, how big corporations are viewed when they do things that go against that ethos. Towards the end of last year, Travis Perkins cut swathes through branch and headcount numbers, throwing out both wheat and chaff, with the brutality of a massive threshing machine at harvest time. And it left a slightly bitter taste. We all know that businesses have to make money, else what’s the point, and that the bigger businesses have shareholders that they have
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EDITORIAL
Group Managing Editor: Fiona Russell Horne 01622 699101 07721 841382
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to please as well as customers. Probably ahead of customers. When Travis Perkins’ CEO Nick Roberts announced he was standing down, I wrote that an organisation of TP’s size is always going to be held up as an example, its methods and motives scrutinised; being the biggest means your successes and failures are more visible. Now the TP chair, Jasmine Whitbread is following Roberts out of the boardroom door, nearly a quarter of shareholders having opposed her re-election at the AGM. To lose one leader, etc.
This isn’t an anti-TP or big business tirade by any means, rather a recognition that, if you forget certain fundamentals about this business, then you will never truly succeed in it in the long run. This is a great industry, but it has its idiosyncrasies. It doesn’t operate quite the same way as other industries. If you are going to run a successful business in merchanting – or be successful in selling your wares to the merchanting sector – then you have to understand that. The fact that what this sector does makes, as the BMF will be telling us when its Sector Awareness Campaign launches later this year, a material difference to the world around us, only adds to that idiosyncracy. There are similarities to other sectors, sure, but what this one does matters to the wider world. What we do shapes the world around us - what we make, write about, process, move, package, finance, design, and sell changes our environment, for good and bad.
If you don’t get that, understand it properly, then you’ll never really get the benefit. It’s business, yes, but it’s a people business. Forget that at your peril. BMJ
Fiona Russell-Horne Group Managing Editor - BMJ
“
To lose one parent, Mr Worthington, is unfortunate; To lose two seems like carelessness.
Oscar Wilde
CONTENTS 4 Newsround
The news from around the industry. 8 News Extra
Fortis focus on Building & Timber 12 People
Who’s moved where, and 10 minutes with…
13 Meet the future Forgefix’s Emily Rowland talks to BMJ. 14 Viewpoint
Our regular and guest columnists.
17 Rainwater Management Stormwater rules, and how to keep your stock dry
20 Merchant Focus Jewson has unveiled its latest look and renewed focus
23 BMJ INDUSTRY AWARDS 2024
Get your tickets for the lunch event of the year
24 Charity focus A look at the Rainy Day Trust.
25 Bathrooms & Showers Trends and developments in lightside and showroom sales
31 Kitchens
What can we expect in the heart of the home in the next few years?
ADVERTISING
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Media Account Executive Morgan Borthwick-Hunter mborthwick-hunter@datateam.
co.uk
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Publisher: Paul Ryder
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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.
42 And Finally News and the Prize Crossword.
May 2024
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net 3
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
35 Insulation
Keeping warm and keeping cool: trends in insulation
38 Industry Voice News &views from the BMF
40 Product News
Latest products and developments from suppliers.
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