News

South West branches of builders’ merchant Travis Perkins came together to host a charity darts evening at the Port of Bristol Sports & Community Hub, raising more than £3,000 for Alzheimer’s Society. Organised by Leonard Pentland, branch manager at Travis Perkins Bristol Clifton, the darts competition was compered by ‘The …

Professor Anand Menon, a leading expert on the UK’s relationship with Europe, will offer a fresh perspective on future relations at the BMF Annual Members Conference in September. Menon, who co-authored ‘Brexit and British Politics,’ is a Professor of European Politics and Foreign Affairs at King’s College London and serves …

Building materials distributor Lords has completed the refinancing of the Group’s existing £75 million lending facilities. The Group’s existing £75 million facilities, with a three bank syndicate which consisted of a £50 million revolving credit facility (‘RCF’) and a £25 million receivables financing facility (‘RFF’), have been cancelled and repaid pursuant …

The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report, produced by MRA research, has been published, highlighting January’s builders’ merchant like-for-like total value sales (adjusted to remove the effect of trading days) were -2.6% lower than the same month in 2025. With one less trading day this January, total value sales …

The January Plumbing & Heating Merchant Index (PHMI) report, produced by MRA Research, has been published. The report shows total like-for-like value sales (adjusted to remove the impact of trading days) through specialist plumbing and heating merchants were up +3.0%  for January 2026 compared to the same month the year before. …

Crown Paints has partnered with professional painters and decorators to front its new ‘Looks like…’ campaign. The trade campaign features decorators at work: Mica Hill of Drip Decorating and Lewis Coomber of L.C.Painters, alongside On The Tools content creators Russell Payne, founder of The Talking Tradesman, and Aimee Stanton a …

Heating manufacturer Baxi has switched to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) as its standard HGV fuel, reducing the companies HGV fuel emissions by ~ 99%. Baxi began the transition from diesel to HVO in 2024, as part of continuing progress towards net zero. HGV emissions reduced from 260 tCO₂e in 2024 …

Benchmarx Kitchens & Joinery, part of the Travis Perkins Group, has invested in new design software to improve the pace at which it can produce kitchen designs. The new software, ArtiCAD, is designed to plan and render a kitchen design in under 10 minutes, with the CGI designs giving customers …

Bathroom manufacturer, SONAS Bathrooms, has announced the opening of their UK distribution centre in Redditch, scheduled for August 2026. Opening in Summer 2026, the distribution centre will become the central base for SONAS’ UK distribution operations. The facility aims to improve supply reliability and shorten its delivery time to 24 …

Heating manufacturer Vaillant is the latest plumbing and heating specialists to join the BMF (Builders Merchants Federation). With over 21,500 active installers and a nationwide distribution network, the company supports the development and promotion of heat pumps in both new-build and retrofit projects, and has invested in new production lines …