NEWS EXTRA
DON’T BECOME ONE WHEN THREE
LET’S FIRST OF all address the semantic elephant in the room – when does an ‘alliance’ become a group? When there’s more than two parties? More than three? Or when there is a formal structure or dedicated people employed to make it all happen?
The three merchant businesses – Bradfords Building Supplies, JT Atkinson and Lords Builders Merchants – are adamant that this isn’t a new buying group in the way that the industry has come to understand buying groups. Whether it is, or it isn’t, what most of us would recognise as a buying group is perhaps neither here nor there. The point is that all three wanted to create something different. They wanted to change the narrative, but only where doing so would add proper, discernible value. Critically, that value has to benefit not only the three merchant businesses, but also the suppliers with whom they work.
After all, for generations, independent builders’ merchants have built their success on relationships: relationships with customers, suppliers and their local communities.
It is a model that continues to work, though it is increasingly being tested. Operating costs continue to rise, margins remain under pressure and meaningful market growth remains difficult to find.
For David Young, CEO of Bradfords Building Supplies, that means independent merchants
8
Fiona Russell Horne looks at procurement, and why three independent builders’ merchants believe it’s time for them to challenge conventional thinking on buying.
need to continue challenging how they operate.
“Every merchant is facing similar pressures – higher employment costs, rising utility bills, increased rates and the wider inflationary costs of running a business,” he says.
“At the same time, the
Construction Products Association is forecasting virtually no market growth. When you put those things together, you quickly realise that doing what you’ve always done isn’t necessarily going to be enough. The challenge is finding different ways to respond.” The answer, he argues, wasn’t simply about cutting costs or driving harder negotiations with suppliers. Instead, it began with a more fundamental question: could independent merchants collaborate differently? As it turns out, Young wasn’t the only merchant asking that question.
Bradfords and Lords had already made the decision to leave the h&b buying group at the end of last year, while JT Atkinson had left Fortis a year earlier.
This industry being what it is, the principals of the three businesses found themselves talking at various events, with conversations naturally turning to the challenges and opportunities each were facing.
“There was no masterplan,” Young says. “Initially, all we wanted to do was buy for our own businesses. But we kept finding ourselves talking about exactly the same things. The challenges we were facing were remarkably similar.”
Those conversations became increasingly serious.
Jamie Atkinson, managing director of JT Atkinson, says there was also a strong cultural fit between the three businesses. “We’re like-minded businesses with very similar ambitions and values. We all want to grow and continue to develop, and we quickly recognised there were opportunities to work together without compromising our independence.
“We wanted to create something that encapsulated the unique benefits of being independent merchants who can make decisions quickly and collaboratively. The Alliance is built very much on commitment, collaboration and trust.” Thus did Bradfords Building Supplies, JT Atkinson and Lords Builders Merchants create what, for ease, we will henceforth term The Alliance.
It’s new – though some aspects might look familiar – it’s collaborative, and it combines the
buying strength and commercial expertise of three substantial independent businesses whilst allowing each to remain entirely independent.
“This isn’t about trying to recreate something that already exists,” says JT Atkinson’s Keith Wright, who will also act as Alliance Procurement Director. “It’s about recognising that our businesses have evolved, the market has evolved, and the way we collaborate needs to evolve as well.
“We’ve tried to keep the principle very simple. The three businesses work together where there is a clear benefit in doing so, while each remains completely independent.”
That simplicity extends to how the Alliance will operate. Rather than building a large central organisation, the intention is to use the commercial and procurement capability that already exists within the three businesses.
Wright says: “The businesses are the Alliance. The expertise already exists within Bradfords, JT Atkinson and Lords and those teams will deliver the strategy. “My role is to help bring that together, but we’re not trying to
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www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2026
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