News

Toolstation colleague Fiona Staples will be participating in Macmillan Cancer Support’s Brave the Shave campaign to help raise money for people whose lives have been affected by cancer. Staples, who currently works in the Contact Centre at Toolstation’s Head Office in Bridgwater, will be shaving her head in front of …

Grant & Stone has enabled a water pump to be installed in Manicaland in Zimbabwe,, which will provide much-needed clean and fresh drinking water for hundreds of people in the province. Grant & Stone installed AquAid watercoolers into its 44 locations. With each purchase of an AquAid watercooler, the company …

Travis Perkins plc managed a resilient first quarter trading performance, despite challenging market conditions. Total sales were down 2.8%.  Weak new build housing and domestic repair, maintenance and improvement markets especially impacted the Merchanting sector, although the commercial, industrial and public sector markets, accounting for just under half of the …

The latest figures from the Plumbing & Heating Merchant Index (PHMI) report show total value sales for February 2023 through specialist plumbing and heating merchants were +8.6% higher than February last year. Growth came exclusively from increasing prices (+9.6%) as volumes fell slightly (-0.9%) during the period. Month-on-month, February value …

The latest Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report reveals that builders’ merchants’ value sales were up +0.8% in February compared to the same month in 2022. This growth was driven exclusively by price inflation (+14.9%) as volume sales fell -12.2%. There was no difference in trading days. Nine of the …

Without a change in attitudes and government action the UK could face a building retrofit crisis, warns a new report. The Role of Retrofitting our Non-Domestic Buildings in the Race to Net Zero, by Ridge and Partners LLP, the multi-discipline property and construction consultancy, shows that fewer than one in …

Marking another step towards achieving their sustainability goals, specifically their target of zero waste disposal by 2032, Knauf have changed the pallet hoods used on their laminated boards to use 30% more recycled content. The move to 30% recycled content in their pallet hoods represents a real win at scale …

Four BMF members are amongst the latest cohort of companies to become Zero Carbon Business Champions within the Construction Leadership Council’s CO2nstruct Zero programme. Cemex, Harlow Timber Group, Robert Price and Saint Gobain Interior Solutions, join 27 other BMF members as Business Champions, part of a total group of over …

North East and Yorkshire independent builders’ merchant James Burrell has reported continued progress during a year in which they announced their largest investment to date. A multi-million-pound outlay in their 11th branch at Billingham has been instrumental in seeing the family owned and managed business leverage further operational and logistical …

The 2023 BMJ Industry Awards is the only merchant industry awards where the winners are decided by the industry itself. To ensure that everyone gets a chance to enter, we have extended the deadline for entries until the middle of May. It’s really easy to enter. Simply go to the …