Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.
And to make an end is to make a beginning.
When you’re in a hole, the saying goes, you should stop digging. So far, so sensible. But what do you do when you’ve stopped digging, and you need to fill in that hole, and then get back on the road you were on before?
You find someone who has not only used a shovel before, but who has experience with the road you’ve been on, and the road you want to get back on. Maybe even someone who was on that very road with you, a while ago, before they took a little detour.
Like many of my analogies in this column, it may have worked better in my head at 4am than it does on paper, but I am, of course, talking about the news that Travis Perkins – they of the hole. (Sorry guys, but that hole is – was – real) – are to get a new CEO. Enter, stage left, Gavin Slark, currently CEO of SIG plc, formerly CEO of Grafton Group, and, before that, managing director of BSS when it was owned by, *checks notes*, Travis Perkins plc.
In the interests of fairness, I do need to say that the hole-filling had begun in earnest, under the leadership of Pete Redfern, before he had to give up the role due to ill-health, and the force of nature that is the TP chairman Geoff Drabble.
We have heard a lot in the past couple of years about the need for broadening the appeal of our industry, for bringing in fresh ideas, fresh eyes and a real diversity of lived experiences. It’s true that, by-and-large, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. So, there’s a lot to be said for a fresh perspective and new thinking.
Sometimes, however, you need experience, you need the assurance of knowing that the person wielding the shovel has done so before, knows when to dig, when to stop digging, and which direction to turn once you’re back on the road.
Some of Travis Perkins’ woes were of its own making, others were the result of external forces, which have also affected the rest of the sector to a greater or lesser extent. TP isn’t the only company having to reassess and rethink its journey plans. At the risk of sounding like my personal trainer, it’s important to have the core strength to withstand those external forces, whether foreseeable or not. The market needs a strong leader, something for others to tilt at, to have in their sights. The markets – financial markets – need to have the confidence that this sector has the core strength to make it worth investing in. Suppliers need to know that there is the core strength across the sector to keep the supply chain flowing.
I once, possibly unfairly, described the CEO-ship of TP as a ‘chalice’, leaving it up to you, my esteemed readers, to decide whether to mentally add the word ‘poisoned’ or not. Gavin, it’s good to see you coming back. The chalice is heading for your hands; it’s been through the mill, but also, hopefully, the dishwasher, so it should be safe to sup from now. Time will tell.
