MERCHANT FOCUS: DJS BUILDING SUPPLIES PICTURE THIS
Fiona Russell Horne takes a snapshot of a new builder’s merchant that’s building on a broader experience to grow.
November 2023, all the behind-the-scenes side of things followed, such as joining a buying group, developing relationships with customers and suppliers, and getting accounts established. It opened to the public in September 2024
“I went from being a director of the construction company to taking more of a back seat. Dan is managing director of the construction company, and a director of the merchants, I’m managing director of the merchants, and director of the construction company. Then we help each other out as and when required. It works really well.”
Customer pain points
Both roles have entailed Spendelow going out onto building sites a lot, so she developed a real understanding for what builders working on site want from their builders’ merchant. “I have a pretty good idea of the pain points, and what the frustrations are. I think that’s really good in terms of being able to be empathetic. In business you have to remember that you are there for your customers, you are not there for yourself, and if your customer isn’t happy, they are not going to come back and use you again. So, understanding the customer’s point of view is vital. I think being a merchant by builders is really helpful in that respect, Dan is still actively building as well, so we have a director of the merchant business who is able to keep us in touch with changing requirements and regulations,” she says.
L 26
ike many people in the building materials sector, Nicki Spendelow never intended to be a builder’s merchant. The managing director of DJS Building Supplies in Ampthill, Bedfordshire was originally a wedding photographer She did, however, have a connection with building via her husband, Dan, who runs a construction company, specialising in new builds in and around Bedfordshire. “He was getting busier and busier and needed some help: administration, the website, marketing and social media. Basically, all the creative director side of things. So, I moved over to help him with that, and as is usual with family businesses I ended up doing more and more, and getting more and more involved,” she says.
In 2021, with Spendelow now full time in the construction company, it expanded to take on a yard to store materials. When they realised they were stocking more than the construction company could utilise, an idea
formed that, perhaps, the yard could be a base from which to sell off the excess materials. One thing led to another, and DJS Building Supplies was born.
“We wanted to make the space work for us,” she says. “There’s a national merchant branch just around the corner from us, but otherwise you have to go either all the way into Luton, which is a nightmare for traffic, or all the way into Bedford, and most of the merchants are the other side of town to us. There was nothing in the middle. If you’re on site, and you need to just pop and get something, it’s quite a distance you’d have to travel. We spotted a gap in the market for an independent corner-shop type of merchant. We felt that people would come to us for the smaller things that they need that day, and then maybe we could start to sell them more.“ Not wishing to rush into things before they were absolutely sure, Spendelow says the pair sat on the idea for a while, researching with the market. The company was registered in
The buying group is IBC which Spendelow says is perfect for a start-up merchant of this size, as they take on so much of the hard work and the administrative burden. “I’ll always be grateful to them for giving a boost and an understanding of the industry. Since then, particularly since we have been active on Linked in, I’ve had so many suppliers contact us, and have made some really good connections.”
Customers tend to come from the wider Bedfordshire area, and parts of Hertfordshire. DJS Building Solutions tends to buy most of its supplies via its own merchant, and the bread-and-butter business tends to come from general builders working on extensions, as well as electricians, fencers and groundworkers . Spendelow says: “I’d rather grow slowly and well with the right systems in place. It took us a while to open after making the decision to go down this route, because I wanted to ensure we had everything nailed down in terms of customer service.
“That first impression is vital; you never get a second chance to make it. Particularly with builders, they like who they like. If you mess up that first impression, it’s very difficult to
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net October 2025
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