Builders Merchants Journal – BMJ Publishing to Builders Merchants and the UK merchanting industry for more than 95 years
Four Partner companies in independent builders merchant buying group have added branches as part of their expansion plans.
Liverpool-based Beers has expanded its branch network with the opening of a new site in Southmoor Road, Wythenshawe in Manchester in August. The city has been a target for Beers for a while and this site offered them an ideal base that is the right size and the right side of Manchester to link with its Liverpool operations.
“Business is buoyant and we had been looking for the right site for some time. This location offers us a perfect foothold in the area,” says Beer’s Paul Conboy. At 1.8 acres, the new branch is large enough to stock a very wide range of timber, heavyside and lightside products. The company’s sister brand MBS opened on the same site stocks a huge range of plumbing and heating materials. Earlier this year the company also opened a new branch in Birkenhead.
A new Andrews branch in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on a 1.2-acre site, opened in November, the family-run company’s second. “We felt it was the right time for us to open a second branch of Andrews Building Supplies, and with increasing numbers of our customers working down in Huntingdon and Cambridge we knew we needed to expand further south” says Andrews managing director Natasha Rose. “From November we will be able to offer our existing and new customers a greater level of service at our new site in Huntingdon.”
UK Plumbing Supplies has opened Oxford Plumbing Supplies near the city centre, bringing the company’s branch tally to six.
“This branch opening was definitely customer-led,” says director Nick Wheatley. “So many of our customers at other branches told us that they would welcome a central Oxford branch and we have been happy to oblige with this new depot.”
Kellaway Building Supplies made acquisitions at Marlborough and Worcester in 2017 and has now opened a new distribution depot at Bedminster in Bristol to replace the previously smaller Ashton branch.
Following the acquisitions of Jennings Roofing and Plumbing in Bridgwater at the start of 2016 they are also diversifying the business offering to include specialist roofing and plumbing centres. Founded in 1982 and now with over 200 employees, Kellaway is one of the South West’s fastest growing independent builders merchants with twelve branches under the Kellaway banner.
