Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
It seems a long time ago now but back in June at the Industry Conference in Budapest I made a bold announcement, ‘I going to run the 2018 London Marathon!’.
Read More »Of morals and men
Blimey. This Harvey Weinstein thing just goes on and on. And it gets worse and worse.
Read More »Seeking the industry’s best
One of the first things you learn when you come into this industry, as I did so very, very many years ago, is that behind every successful brand – be it a supplier or merchant brand - there is a pool of hugely talented people with drive and determination to make their brand, product or…
Read More »Enough is enough
I’m English. I live in the United Kingdom. My politics are informed by my life here in the UK and, to a lesser extent by what I see happening around me in the world.
Read More »Up for a fight?
The Government may well have decided that it wants to push through its planning proposals from the Housing White Paper as Sajid Javid the planning minister told the National Housing Federation conference last week. However, that doesn’t mean that the message has yet got through to local authorities – many of them Tory-run.
Read More »The factory-built thing
As long as I have been in this industry, there has been talk of factory-built houses, of ways we can reduce the time it takes to turn a plan on an architect’s drawing into a home.
Read More »A farewell to a comrade in arms
Whenever I ask anyone in this industry what it is they like about it so much and why they’ve hung around it so long, the answers are usually a variation on one theme – the people. It doesn’t matter whether you are on the merchant side, the supplier side, working for a buying group, a…
Read More »Merchanting’s Got Talent
It’s that time of year again when I form part of the judging panel for the BMJ/BMF Young Achiever Awards.
Read More »POTUS’s true colours?
Sometimes things happen that you can’t believe won’t become total game changers. And if the game isn’t changed, then is it a game that we really want to be playing anyway.
Read More »Britain at war with adverse weather, but who’s fighting the battle?
Climate change is our problem, everybody’s problem. The changing weather patterns are relentless reminders that our built environment and infrastructure are unable to cope with extreme storms and heavy rainfall. And it’s only getting worse. There will be more rain, more flash flooding and more extreme weather.
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