MERCHANT FOCUS: TRAVIS PERKINS IN THE
Travis Perkins is a prime example of a merchant who find themselves spending amounts of time and money that detract substantially from their working week as well as being frustrated in being out of arm’s reach of their customers. Elizabeth Jordan reports...
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ravis Perkins, the UK’s largest builders and plumbers merchanting group, hosted a summit promoting the use of mixed use developments in London, bringing together councils and major developers to discuss builders merchant’s future within the capital and how the theory of such developments might be used nationwide.
Essential services such as builders’ merchants are increasingly under threat of being pushed out of major cities. Industrial land where they usually have sites has declined across London by 34% since 2001, according to SEGRO. The Greater London Authority’s recent Industrial Land Demand Report found it has fallen at a rate of 100 hectares annually since 2010.
Martin Meech, Group Property Director for Travis Perkins, introduced the speakers and opened the summit, saying that mixed use developments are “A concept that could deliver homes, protect jobs and create jobs in London.”
“We’re very passionate about our business and our existing estate in London. We also want to expand the concept into other boroughs across London. This city, if it’s going to survive, needs to make space for all the services that keep it going. We’re seeing great progress in getting the concept in principle accepted, what we now need is for the
16 Above: Martin Meech, Nick Hayes, Paul Tallentire, Stephanie Cryan and Deputy Mayor for Planning Jules Pipe.
market to really take this concept seriously.” Paul Tallentire, CEO of the General Merchanting division at Travis Perkins plc, then took to the stage to explain the concept further. “Travis Perkins is different. We try to run our business differently. Our core business is about looking after the tradesmen who build homes, repair homes and look after social housing.
Customer contact
“Because of the products we sell and the products our customers consume, we need to be close to our customers. We can’t start sending HGVs 40 miles with bricks or blocks because they’re not high-value items. We need to get close to places where the construction is happening. Therefore the location of a builders’ merchant and the proximity of them to their customer is absolutely essential; for the cost of the
business and also for the service we wish to provide our customers. In London we have 182 Travis Perkins branches, around 2000 employees and 400 HGVs. That number is declining due to premises being taken over. “We have researched the number of people employed by builders’ merchants in London over time to find that the number is going down, firstly because of the difficulty merchants have in obtaining and retaining sites. The second reason is the cost that employees would have to bear in getting to the merchant’s premises. The ability of our industry to supply in London has been starting to struggle.”
The plan is to combine builders’ merchant premises with low-cost housing in London on previously underinvested sites. The alternative without these in-city facilities would be longer travelling distances and times, more stem mileage, increasing costs on business
www.buildersmerchantsjournal.net September 2018
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