Blogs

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield   A picture tells a thousand words, and some things are worth fighting for. Beijing 2008 age 14 London 2012 ???? Rio 2016 ???? TOKYO 2020 ????age 27 Fiona Russell Horne is away

If I had my life to live over again, I’d be a plumber. Back in the olden days – before Covid,  the credit-crunch and the 2008-financial-crash, it was a truth, universally acknowledged, that one of the easiest things to do in this industry was set up a plumber’s merchant. All …

A man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Else, what’s a heav’n for? It was great while it lasted. The England football team’s gallant quest for a huge shiny piece of bling for the St George’s Park trophy cabinet. They will win one. They surely will. Just not this year. Just …

O, it is excellent To have a giant’s strength, but it is tyrannous To use it like a giant Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Once upon a time there was a small independent builder’s merchant who had ambitions to be a bigger independent builder’s merchant. So, they …

From the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step Well, that was a weird weekend. I’m pretty sure there were lots of newsworthy things going on the world that would have been a better start to my Friday morning than seeing a picture of our erstwhile health secretary …

Confusion now hath made his masterpiece When is a hug not a hug? When no-one sees you do it? That must be the reason why last night’s England V Czech Republic game was sans Chilwell or Mount because they hugged their Chelsea teammate Billy Gilmour. ‘Typhoid Billy’ has tested positive …

Gareth Osborne at Tarmac Cement offers a few tips to merchants looking to step things up a gear in 2021. Builders merchants have been key in helping support the construction industry’s recovery after a turbulent year, maximising their essential retail status to support trades that worked through COVID-19 restrictions. Growing …

What are you rebelling against? What have you got? So near and yet, so far. Just when we think things are getting back to normal – proper normal that is, not the new normal – the data proves otherwise and we are back in the midst of a huge lockdown, …

The scene: A dark alley, at the rear of a builders merchant yard. Midnight. Somewhere in Britain.   One man sits in a dirty white van as another drives up and flashes his lights, twice. They both get out of their vehicles. Man 2: Got the stuff? All of it? …

Most people sell their souls, And live with a good conscience on the proceeds Almost 11 years to the day since Travis Perkins’ then CEO Geoff Cooper surprised the markets with a bid, subsequently successful, for the BSS Group, his successor bar one, Nick Roberts, has overseen the long-touted divestment …