When William Bradford opened his doors for trade in Somerset in 1770 he may well have had aspirations for growth, but he probably didn’t predict his legacy would extend to the 43 branch, £150m turnover business Bradfords Building Supplies is today.
The 18th century business was an agricultural merchant, initially focused on selling lime and coal – at one point it was the biggest coal distributor in the country – and then branching into agricultural seeds and feeds. Agricultural fencing and building materials came into the mix and around 150 years ago these came to dominate the product portfolio.
The company is still owned by the Bradford family, currently numbering 168 and shareholders have to be related to the original Mr Bradford.
The group actually comprises two businesses – Bradfords Building Supplies and Snows Timber. The latter, which distributes timber from three locations (Glastonbury, Andover and Mansfield), was acquired in 1988 and, as Bradfords managing director David Young explained, the relationship between the two is symbiotic.
“We are Snows biggest customer and we work incredibly closely together,” he said. “In fact Snows’ managing director, Ian Church, was formerly our operations director.”
Snows supplies the majority of Bradfords “prepared” timber – such as decking, PSE, mouldings and fencing products.
“They also supply specialist products that they will buy in bulk and then break down and distribute to Bradfords’ branches,” said Mr Young. “For example, this includes some specialist panel products for internal use in wet wall systems and external timber and composite cladding.
“We also buy CLS and some specialist carcassing through Snows but our core carcassing requirements come direct from Södra in southern Sweden. We invariably buy in full loads so it makes economic sense to do that.”
Sheet materials are purchased from suppliers such as Norbord and International Plywood, with specialist products supplied by major distributors such as Lathams and Arnold Laver. Not everything comes from the major nationals, however, and local sawmills such as Brookridge Timber, Stalbridge Timber, Bond Timber and Parkway Timber supply when geography and time pressures make it appropriate.
“We’re focused on the need to provide a service for our customers so we don’t exclude any suppliers – but having said that, we do try to push as much through Snows as is possible,” said Mr Young.
He added that Snows’ timber expertise was also an invaluable resource and that its recently opened sales office in Towcester fields many of Bradfords’ enquiries.
“If we have any queries around technical specifications they will work with us on jobs and help us value engineer products for our clients,” he said.
Snows also helps Bradfords keep pace with product innovations, such as Provincial Plank, a new FSC hardwood plank internal wall cladding product from Canada.
“It’s a lovely product – it’s the sort of cladding you see in restaurants but which is becoming more popular in domestic settings.”
Bradfords’ stocks are ordered centrally and comprise a core range of around 2,000 products, plus branch-specific extended ranges, meaning that most individual branches stock around 6,000 different items. Some outlets will have their roots in timber supply, for example, while others will have more of an agricultural product portfolio because of their more rural location.
“We want them to stock the range that is on our website and in the catalogue we produce twice a year but we understand that every branch and every customer base is different, so we allow them to be flexible,” said Mr Young.
What the branches do have in common though, is that stocks are kept high – probably a couple more weeks’ worth than a national builders’ merchant.
“We just don’t work on the same ratios as the nationals,” said Mr Young. “We have working capital restraints like all businesses but I’m not really interested in taking cash out there.
“We will move to central distribution but for our lightside products, not for timber and that is just to provide next day service across all our sites. I don’t see a massive stock reduction across the estate because of that.”
Stock ordering is carried out by three teams around the region, each looking after a specific geographical area and using Epicor’s BisTrack software, which Mr Young rates extremely highly.
“The software suggests orders so our stock teams run the reports, make up loads and get them to branches,” he said. “It takes the hassle away from ordering and provides our staff in the branch with more time to focus on their customers.”
Bradfords share of the national builders’ merchant market is around 2% but in its home territory of the south-west that rises to 16%. Number-wise, it has an impressive customer base.
“We had 40,000 account customers when I joined four-and-a-half years ago but we weren’t maximising the larger customer base so we developed two key account departments to cater for those larger customers. We’ve had one for many years at the Yeovil headquarters and two years ago we opened another at Plympton.
“We also invested heavily in external sales,” he continued. “We have got salespeople out on the road calling on [construction] sites, not looking to take orders immediately but working with customers on their projects and helping them take costs out of their supply chain. There are ways we can do that, from the estimating functions that we offer to the product specification.
“We aren’t really in it for the one order, we want long-term, sustainable relationships with our customers where we each understand how we can add value.”
Historically, newbuild wasn’t a huge part of Bradfords’ business but a surge in housebuilding activity in its south-west stronghold means that it now accounts for around 20% of trade.
“I don’t see the market slowing down in the south-west,” said Mr Young. “I live in Dorset and I count the number of properties for sale in the local magazine every week and there were 20% more in 2018 than in 2017. And I know from our customer base that they are selling the properties they are building. They are building in good locations and if you have a good building in a good location it will sell whatever the market.
“We have tailored a solution that helps housebuilders,” he added. “We work with their architects and we work on specifications in terms of timber, bricks and drainage and so on and take the hassle out for them.”
When it comes to timber products such as roof trusses and floor systems, Bradfords benefits from its “wonderful relationship” with Crendon Timber Engineering. Crendon was part of the Bradfords group between early 2007 and July last year when it was sold to Wyckham Blackwell.
“We’ve always put all our roof truss and floor system work through Crendon, invariably for newbuild applications, and we had a record year with them last year,” said Mr Young.
In fact timber in general is performing very well for the group, with volumes up and price inflation helping the bottom line. Timber accounts for around 30% of overall sales.
“Inflation is good as long as you can pass it on and we can because we have made a stand on quality. For example, our PSE and mouldings are all fifths, our sleepers are all redwood, our sawn carcassing is C24 and we stock Q-Mark plywood. It is really paying off and I would say timber has outperformed most of our other product categories.”
As well as this focus on top-end products, Bradfords has also invested in its human resources via timber development manager Paul Crook and joinery development manager Kevin Coombs, both of whom help to steer the timber side of the business.
Investment extends to staff training, which the company takes very seriously.
“We have an online academy, which is tied into Cortexa and we ask all our customerfacing staff to take training modules,” said Mr Young. “Over the last couple of years we have had two big timber campaigns called “Let’s talk timber’ and ‘Good for wood’ and we ask all our colleagues to take or re-take courses on individual products, such as carcassing, mouldings, sheet materials, wood care and so on.
“We have also just joined TRADA, which provides us with training and ‘learning burst’ opportunities and we use their wood information sheets for some specific products. We want our staff to fully understand the features and benefits of those products.”
Staff are also invited to tour Snows Timber from time to time to aid their understanding of further processing.
“I think when you see how a product is made you understand its full value. You don’t undersell it because you know what has gone into it.”
It’s important for the training to be ongoing and for the staff to feel appreciated and motivated because unemployment is relatively low in the south-west, so recruitment can be a challenge, said Mr Young. When recruiting for its new buying department, for example, the company opted to locate it in Towcester, where Snows’ sales office is now based.
“Travis Perkins is in Northampton, Jewson is in Coventry, Wolseley is in Leamington Spa and Grafton is in Birmingham so there is a pool of buying talent in that region,” said Mr Young. “We’ve had to move closer to them.”
Having said that, Bradfords works hard to promote itself – and the builders’ merchant sector – as a good career prospect. Thirty people are currently on Bradfords’ fast track internal management programme or its apprenticeship programme, working closely with Yeovil College on the latter. The company also attends school and college careers evenings.
“Some 730 people work within Bradfords and we wouldn’t be the business we are without them. They are committed and give their all to us and I hope we reciprocate,” said Mr Young, adding that the company operates an internal awards scheme, a staff benefit scheme and offers free healthcare and legal advice and a number of counselling services.
“Keeping the staff energised and rewarded is key to previous and ongoing success and it’s what I plan to continue to do,” he said.
Employees also have the comfort of knowing the company they work for is set to grow in the future, both organically and through acquisitions.
Last year Bradfords acquired Paigntonbased Landmark Landscaping and Building Supplies and Penzance-based Solo Building Supplies. In both these cases the assimilation into the parent company is very gradual and sensitive, with one eye on extending the Bradfords brand and the other on retaining local loyalty.
The company is currently looking at no fewer than 26 growth opportunities, 16 of which are potential acquisitions and 10 of which are greenfield sites.
“I would prefer to work with a business and acquire them but I’m also happy to open up a greenfield site. I’d love them all to happen but realistically 25% of the acquisitions and probably 80% of the greenfields will,” said Mr Young.
“There are a number of areas in the south-west where we don’t have a presence yet and we would like to get to 60 branches in the next couple of years. Although, to be honest, when we get to 60 we’ll probably want to get to 80 – and then 100.”
