MERCHANT FOCUS: HUWS GRAY STARRING ROLE FOR W
hen you’re one of the country’s five largest builders merchant chains, and you’ve grown to that size via a lot of bolt-on
acquisitions, there comes a time when you need to get a bit of consistent branding across your portfolio.
That’s the conclusion that Huws Gray came to this year, 35 years since it started out as a one-branch operation in Anglesey. The company’s story, adding branches and businesses across Wales and much of the North West of England, is well known, as is the fact that it managed to double in size every five years. That is, of course, far easier when you have three or four branches than when you have 370; having bought, first East Anglian independent Ridgeons in 2018, and Grafton Group’s UK merchanting operation in 2021. Both those moves brought with them additional brands and businesses, as well as merchanting branches, a situation that CEO Daksh Gupta describes as making it something of a “Heinz 57 varieties operation”.
He says: “Trying to unite an organisation when you’ve grown that way is hard, and it's even harder when you have such a mixture.” It was clear that, with the number of different types of business in the group, something needed to be done to pull them all together, under, as Gupta puts is, “one North Star, with a common vision and a common purpose”. Spearheaded by chief commercial officer Adrian Wallington and the Huws Gray leadership team, the new branding features a vibrant colour scheme, and four building blocks, arranged into a vague star shape. “I think what we’ve ended up with is very modern, and very fresh,” Gupta says. “The rationale of the building blocks, is clear, they are the foundations of what we do as an industry, and they signify strength as an organisation. But also, if you look at the shape that the four blocks have made, it’s a star shape. And of course, the relevance of the star is uniting our people behind the North Star in terms of Huws Gray mission.
“I’m really pleased with the outcome. We have to give a big credit to the team that worked on it, because everyone has an opinion, and a view of what it should look like, but I
think the guys have done a fantastic job. Our strap line is around making building better. That’s what we aspire to do. At the heart of the business is our people. They have gone through massive growth, and a huge amount of change over the years. We believe this is something for them all to be able to unite behind, particularly the people who lead our branches and our branch managers. I see them as absolutely central to the way that we run the business.”
Engagement efforts One of the first things Gupta did on joining the group was engage with the Great Place to Work Institute. He says: “Our scores are really moving in the right direction, and we are now 13% off being a Great Place to Work Company, which I am really pleased about. We’ve been doing a lot of comms to ensure we bring people with us. Engagement is really important to me. I think I’ve done about 21 videos since I’ve joined. I am really passionate about the people, about our branch managers. Without them, we don’t have a business.” The next challenge, having decided on the logo, the brand image and the colours, is, of course, getting that message out to customers. Existing customers, and potential customers. As official Professional Game Match Officials (PGMO) kit sponsor for the 2025/26 football season, the Huws Gray logo will appear on the matchday and training kits of referees, assistant referees and VAR officials across all English professional football matches, spanning the Men’s Premier League, Premier League 2, Premier League Cup, Premier League International Cup, EFL Championship, EFL League 1 & 2, League Cup, EFL Trophy, FA Cup, Community Shield, National League, National League Cup, Women’s Super League 1 & 2, FA Cup and League Cup competitions. Last year 40 million fans attended live
September 2025
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matches and over 900 million viewers tuned in to follow the 168 teams in these competitions across 1,900 games. That audience is expected to climb to over 1 billion this year and with the recent win for England’s women’s team in the Euros, women’s football has never been more high profile.
Gupta says: “We could have sponsored a team. That is the first thing that you think about. But which team? We wanted to be neutral and we wanted our logo to be seen by as many people as possible. Who are the people who are on every single football field, for all 90 minutes of the games? The match officials. The referee and the linesman and the rest of the match officials. “
Research amongst 10,000 Huws Gray customers confirmed that the move would be seen positively by the majority of customers. The Huws Gray-branded kit made its debut on Friday 8th August in the Championship match between Birmingham City and Ipswich Town, followed by the Community Shield match at Wembley Stadium between Crystal Palace and Liverpool.
Gupta adds: “We are incredibly proud to announce our sponsorship of PGMO. We know that over 83% of our customers follow football and that’s why we have strategically aligned ourselves behind the sport. The partnership gives us an exciting opportunity to reach new and existing customers through football, whilst retaining neutrality and not showing bias towards a particular team.
“It underscores our ambition to grow our presence and compete at the highest level. We are also delighted that the sponsorship covers both the men’s and women’s competitions, especially given the incredible success of our Lionesses. This aligns with our commitment to promoting diversity and inclusion, both at Huws Gray and in the wider sector.” BMJ
21
HUWS GRAY RE-BRAND Fiona Russell Horne gets the low-down on Huws Gray’s new brand as it kicks off for the Autumn.
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