Top 20 Builders' Merchants chart - PBM April 2024

BUILDE RS

100%

Key Brands

Key Brands

£4.862bn

1,339 branches

2022

651

1

CEO:

2

CEO:

Key Brands

Key Brands Huws Gray The Timber Group

£1.423bn

600+ branches

244 branches

2022

3

100% L

4 HUWS GRAY

CEO:

Key Brands

City Plumbing PTS

HIGHBOURNE GROUP £1.4bn

370 branches

2022

5

6

7

182

UK

Source:

Key Brands Arnold

Previous year

11

KEY

12

Group

15

MD:

Top

It has undoubtedly been a challenging year for the merchant sector and the wider construction industry A declining housebuilding market and a stuttering RMI segment contributed to falling revenues for a number of our respondents in the ‘Top 20’ and beyond whilst material price inflation added further pressures to the bottom line

Efficiency savings, often involving reductions in headcount, were not uncommon though many merchants also continued to expand their branch networks and / or introduce new services

In broad terms, it was a somewhat static picture as the exact same businesses make up this year ’ s league table, with only a handful even moving positions in our listing Equally, there were no seismic mergers and acquisitions, breaking a pattern which had seen some substantial shifts in the ownership and composition of the UK’s biggest merchants in recent years

Looking to our countdown itself, Travis Perkins plc remains well clear at the summit The organisation says it “invested to protect and build market positions with market share gains in both Toolstation and Travis Perkins General Merchant” during 2023 and in looking to whether the challenges ahead, it is “transforming the operating model to build a stronger business through the simplification of Group structures, lowering supply chain costs and harnessing benefits from new technology ”

Following a £417 million increase in revenue over the period, Wolseley UK

just edges out Stark Building Materials

UK to take second place The plumbing and heating specialist noted that organic growth accounted for approximately one third of the increase, with the remainer attributed to the “strategic acquisitions it has made over the last 18 months to strengthen its market positions ”

The record-high net sales delivered by the overall Stark Group in 2022/23 were said to be “particularly driven” by its purchase last year of Jewson et al from Saint-Gobain Group CFO Sisse Fjelsted Rasmussen said: “We acquired our UK business because we believe we can run it better The company has underperformed for several years We’re now changing that ”

Huws Gray maintains fourth place and in December 2023, announced the appointment of Daksh Gupta as its new CEO The Highbourne Group, meanwhile, finishes fifth and CEO Dave Evans commented: “Over the last 12 months we ’ ve continued to invest in our people, customer experience and digital innovation to build the business and support the UK’s Net Zero goals ” Examples of this ethos included the launch of the first City Plumbing Renewables Centre (in Farnborough) last year, whilst a second centre has just opened in Basildon

In sixth, MKM added 13 new branches in addition to a further five acquired from John Nicholls As it maintains its strategy of growing market share, the business says it is planning for 15-20 additional depots in 2024

Within Grafton’s UK Distribution division, Selco added a new branch in Peterborough and announced intriguing partnerships with HSS Hire, Magnet and Chiltern Brick and Tile to enhance its range of in-store services

UK Plumbing Supplies moves up one to eighth, whilst IBMG completed a number of strategic acquisitions in 2023 including the builders’ merchant operations of Kent Blaxill and boosted its roofing division by acquiring Roofing Gear and MS Roofing Supplies In addition, it announced its first foray into private-label products with the launch of the ProRange brand, starting with a UFH range and with more planned for 2024

Completing this year ’ s top ten is Lords Group Trading During 2023, it acquired Chiltern Timber and the five branches of Alloway Builders Merchants along with the organic opening of Mr Central Heating Edinburgh Despite predicting a challenging first half of 2024, the Group will continue to invest in its 3 Ps of people, plant and premises with refurbishments earmarked for a number of sites and “ new technology investments planned” across its Merchanting and P&H divisions New locations are also in the pipeline for Mr Central Heating and George Lines

We are extremely grateful for the support of the sector in compiling this industry barometer More details on the full ‘Top 20’ (and those who narrowly missed the cut…) are available on our website www professionalbuildersmerchant co uk

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2024 Top 20: PBM looks behind the numbers at the per formance of the UK merchant sector ’s largest businesses during 2023.