IN PERSON FROM THE BOTTOM TO THE TOP
Julie Chandler started work at her family’s builders merchant cleaning the offices for pocket money when she was 13. She retired in March as the md of a thriving two-branch business in Essex. Fiona Russell Horne chatted to her about her life in the business.
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ike many builders’ merchants, Chandler Material Supplies in Chelmsford started life as a housebuilder’s yard. It was operated by the grandfather of Julie Chandler, who has just retired as managing director of the two-branch business. “He built garages at the top of the yard, in which he stored his left-over materials, and rented out some of them to local tradespeople, who would come back from their own jobs, see what he had left over and ask to buy some. That’s how the builders merchant business got started,” she says. During the 1970s, it became apparent that the merchanting side-line was doing so well that a separate company would be required. So, in 1980 Chandler Material Supplies Ltd was incorporated.
School leaver
Chandler had already started working for the company; aged 13 she was cleaning the offices and toilets at weekends and in the holidays. When she was 15, her uncle Pete, who was running the builders’ merchants, asked what she intended to do when she left school. She says: “I had no idea. I knew I didn’t want to be a teacher or work in a bank, but that was all. He said he would need someone to type letters and take phone calls, so that’s what I did. I left school at 16, and started answering the phone and typing up letters. I had to go to evening classes, as I’d not done typing and shorthand at school. Very quickly, I absolutely fell in love with our industry. “
Coming to work for a family business, where the customers felt like family too, was definitely the right path for Chandler, she continues. “We knew every customer, their wives, the names of their children, and their dog. My dad always thought it was odd that in my breaktime I wouldn’t read the girls’ magazines, but BMJ, and that’s how I learned about the industry. But I knew at that stage to be a success I had to know what I was talking about. I just found the products we were buying and selling so interesting. Even now, if a new product comes out, I want to know about it and how it’s going to work.” Chandler continued at evening classes, graduating to business studies, which gave
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net May 2025
her a grounding in accountancy, and how to run a business, although she admits that she learned most of it as uncle Pete’s apprentice for 25 years.
“I became managing director when uncle Pete retired, and there were three of us as directors, Charlie my brother, and Simon, my cousin. The generation before us, my father, David, uncle John and uncle Pete were equal directors. The first two ran the building side, and Pete ran the builders’ merchants. So, I suppose he was the unofficial managing
director, though that wasn’t what he was called. Pete said that he thought the business needed to have an official managing director and that it needed to be me. It was lovely that he felt he had the confidence in me, especially as Simon, his son, was also one of the directors. To be honest, I’ve never really had to play the managing director role within the business, we just always seem to agree on what needs to be done.
“Pete retired at Christmas in 2006, and on New Year’s Day 2007 I came in and sat in his huge chair that swamped me, as he was a very tall man, and I felt this huge sense of responsibility. We had around 25 members of staff, and I knew that these people, and their families, were relying on us to not mess it up so that they could carry on feeding their families.”
Working her way up through the company meant, Chandler says, that she earned the respect of her peers and colleagues. “I have always treated people the way I would want to be treated, and that goes an awful long way. The people we have here, colleagues and customers aren’t numbers, they are people - I’ve always cared about that - and I think, I hope, it’s always showed.” Now that Chandler has retired, the leadership team is changing, in that there will
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