JTD Building Supplies, the first graduate from h&b’s innovative Development Group into the primary h&b Buying Group in 2018, has reported double digit year-on-year growth and improved profitability since, giving credit to h&b’s “unrivalled buying deals and supply agreements.”
The h&b Development Group was established to offer small to medium-sized independent merchant businesses the opportunity to take advantage of h&b’s “industry-beating buying deals and business support to grow turnover, profitability and professionalism.” It provides smaller merchants a proven pathway to membership of the main buying group, and all the benefits that offers.
Established in 2011 and based in Brockholes, Holmfirth in Yorkshire, JTD Building Supplies is a local independent builders’ merchants providing building materials and supplies to construction firms, trade and retail customers across Yorkshire. Using H&B’s buying deals, JTD says it has provided its customers with the best quality branded products at highly competitive prices, from an impressive yard and trade counter, or via its fleet of delivery vehicles.
JTD was founded by MD Tony Sharkey in 2011. He immediately identified membership of h&b as a central pillar of his ambitious growth plans for the business which is now turning over £12m pa from its main Holmfirth depot plus a smaller satellite branch nearby. With a staff head count increase from seven staff to 40, Tony says this growth has been built on “gold-standard compliance” to h&b deals and on the strong supply assurances that the group offers.
The merchant also states it has achieved that impressive growth without losing its strong independent credentials and culture, and plans are afoot for expanding both in merchanting and related services. The JTD team lies at the heart of the business’s success with zero staff churn assisted by a culture which is described as prioritising staff welfare and development.
Tony Sharkey said: “When I started this business there was only one buying group I wanted to be part of: h&b. Joining the group has enabled us to grow and expand profitably. It was absolutely vital to the business when we opened a purpose-built new branch and yard in Holmfirth back in 2018, and ever since.”
So committed is he about he benefits of the Development Group that Tony has acted as mentors to other merchanting businesses following in JTD’s footsteps in the h&b Development Group.
The h&b Development Group reportedly remains as a one-off concept for the merchanting industry, offering smaller merchants access to a “vast range of negotiated deals and a strategically mapped route to growth and success” with a number of structures and strategies in place to help members to achieve the turnover required to take them to the next level.
