Northampton has a rich vein of history – stretching from Saxon times and encompassing Danish occupation, rebellion against the monarchy and being a centre for the wool trade.
These days it is a modern town of 195,000 inhabitants and a main hub for the likes of the Nationwide Building Society and builders merchanting chain Travis Perkins plc. It was the latter that brought me here.
Walking in to Travis Perkins plc’s head office you are confronted with an impressive set of company statistics on the walls.
This includes the group having 200 years of building materials history and selling 31,126 miles of bricks (laid end to end) every year, as well as 2.4 million ft2 of warehouse space and 541,000 deliveries conducted in 2013.
It recorded a turnover of £5.5bn in 2014 and pre-tax pro_ t of £321m. Even in 2009, when the building materials industry was reeling from the construction slowdown, the business recorded pre-tax pro_ ts of £180m.
And it now has more than 2,000 branches. There is little doubt the group is one of the biggest sellers of timber products on the UK market. And of late it has been putting more emphasis on the timber side of its business.
I was here to interview the group’s head of supply centres Jonathan Bower, who from a timber perspective has an important role co-ordinating the supply of the company’s timber products.
His background in the wood trade is relatively recent, having held positions previously in the mining, concrete and steel industries.
Born in South Africa, his father was an engineer in the steel industry who built and sold steel rolling mills.
"My background is in mining," Mr Bower started off.
"I joined the Coal Board (British Coal Corporation) and did a year underground before going to university.
"My first job sat the age of 18 was working on a 3ft coal face, which was a fair introduction to working life. Timber was still being used in that industry then."
Mr Bower, who grew up in the northeast, qualified as a Class 1 mine manager and was also qualified in mine rescue. During those early days he spent more than three months at a South African gold mine working adjacent to probably the deepest mine in the world at 12,500ft deep.
"It was very different in terms of culture." He worked in project management and operations.
"When the mid-1990s hit I took the decision to move out of the Coal Board."
There followed spells at Ready Mixed Concrete Ltd where he managed nine concrete plants and then at Sheffield-based steel wire producer Tinsley Wire, part of the global steel wire producer Bekaert Group.
After several years at Fusion Group Manufacturing, a producer of pipe jointing equipment, he entered the timber industry, becoming operations manager at Arbor Forest Products in 2003.
"I fell into the industry, the opportunity was there at a time in life when my wife said to me you have done a lot of moving around and we need a bit of stability.
"There was a great deal of opportunity at Arbor. It was a very interesting product." He pointed out that at the time the timber industry had started to consolidate and rationalise operations, but was still behind other industries in this respect, such as steel and concrete.
His last move before coming to Travis Perkins plc was as operations director at SCA Timber Supply.
One of his first tasks at Travis Perkins plc as the head of timber supply centres was to oversee the rationalisation of its timber manufacturing business.
The last 10 years has seen consolidation of UK PSE mouldings manufacture among several large producers.
"The cost of entry into high volume timber manufacturing is increasing as we go forward. It’s the cost, complexity and efficiency of the process that means you need larger volumes to make it viable."
When the Wickes DIY retailing business in the Travis Perkins plc group signed a timber supply deal with SCA in 2013, the group also looked at its timber manufacturing operations.
"As part of that process, we decided against further capital investment in the manufacturing operation throughout 2014 and ran down our production of PSE and mouldings. Travis Perkins plc had a substantial manufacturing operation but it was being run at lower speeds."
The signing of a softwood mouldings supply agreement with SCA in 2014 allowed Travis Perkins plc to focus on its core mission – being a distributor of products and finding ways to better service its network of branches.
Travis Perkins Timber sourcing
Timber sold annually through Travis Perkins plc branches exceeds 400,000m3. Structural material is typically from Sweden, Latvia and Germany, from a range of suppliers including Vida and Kurekss.
Travis Perkins’ carcassing comes into several different ports, including King’s Lynn, Rochester, Cardiff and Grangemouth, using a mixture of its own port facilities and those of other suppliers.
As such a large seller of timber, Travis Perkins plc is understandably hot on environmental sourcing credentials. Some 97% of its timber is certified as from legal and sustainable sources, of which 84% is FSC-certified.
As Mr Bower pointed out, this is already ahead of the group’s own target which envisaged a 96% certified rate by 2017. Recently it received the 3 trees score from WWF in the latter’s 2015 Timber Scorecard – which assesses policies and performance around responsible purchases of timber.
"There is a bigger emphasis on timber now in the group," said Mr Bower.
"There was an awareness that we had more to offer in the timber market."
He said there may have been a perception of the timber trading roots of the group being lost since its expansion into all manner of building materials and the group was seeking to re-emphasise the company’s timber heritage.
The roots of the company go back over 200 years to the Benjamin Ingram company being founded in 1797. Ingram began selling hardwoods in 1850.
After Sandell Perkins and Travis & Arnold merged to form Travis Perkins plc in 1988, there was a period of key acquisitions in the 1990s, which included several timber traders such as Sherry & Haycock (1998), comprising seven timber and building material branches and two truss rafter manufacturing facilities, as well as the Britton Group.
"We have identified that timber is a category product area for the future. If you look at the way things are going – timber is and will continue to be a key part of the building process. We want to be part of that going forward and we are reinforcing the fact that we are a serious player in timber."
That desire was demonstrated recently when it announced a supply partnership deal with Staircraft, a leading producer of staircases and an I-joist structural flooring kit manufacturer.
The attraction for Travis Perkins plc was that Staircraft had established supply channels with national housebuilders and was able to provide innovative products – especially integration of staircase and I-joist production.
The national merchant has also invested in a minority stake in Staircraft.
A benefit for both companies is the opening up of Staircraft’s specialist staircase services to smaller housebuilders through the Travis Perkins plc network.
However, Mr Bower admits that the UK building industry, in general terms, is very resistant to change and it often takes time for people to change their ways, citing the example of timber windows, which took many years for builders to move over to factory finished and glazed units.
"Sometimes as a country we are driven by the lowest cost," he added.
He said developments in the European timber sector, with large use of engineered timber products designed for purpose showed the way ahead.
New range centres
New Range Centres have been a feature of the group’s policy to keep customer service at the top of its priority list.
"We are currently simplifying our service offer through to branches to see how we can improve the service level they get," explained Mr Bower.
The Range Centre programme forms part of an ambitious new expansion programme by Travis Perkins plc, which will see 4,000 new jobs created and 400 new branches (Travis Perkins merchanting branches, Wickes, Toolstation, Benchmarx and plumbing/ heating sites) opened in the next four years, the majority outside London and the southeast.
Sheet materials and carcassing will be the initial timber products stocked as part of Travis Perkins plc’s new Range Centre at the Port of Tilbury – launched by chancellor George Osborne in March.
The centre at London Distribution Park is one of four new Range Centres being opened across the country, allowing all Travis Perkins plc branches to offer next day delivery on any heavyside product.
Travis Perkins plc says the expansion demonstrates its confidence in the UK economy, supported by government actions over the past two years, including the Help to Buy ISA, which support construction activity and improves the level of consumer confidence.
"I am hugely optimistic about the future. Before the election there appeared to be trepidation from the industry and there was a little bit of slowing. Yet both main parties were signed up to the fact that we need to build more houses.
"If you look at how the industry has come through the recession, there is a good deal of optimism for growth and moving in the right direction.
"Ultimately, timber is a natural product that we still have not yet taken on to the next stage of development."
