Lawsons Group is marking its first Fair Tax week (8th to 15th June 2025), having become the “first ever building materials merchant to be awarded the Fair Tax Mark,” described as the gold standard of responsible tax conduct, earlier in 2025.
Fair Tax Week 2025 (8–15 June 2025) is billed as an opportunity for businesses to “step forward and say what they pay with pride,” and for UK councils to declare their support for the economic contribution this makes locally. And over the last decade, the success of Lawsons has contributed £14.9m of Corporation Tax payments, £18.9m of employers national insurance and £62.5m of VAT.
During this time, Lawsons has more than doubled its size from a seventeen-branch network with revenue of £76m with 370 employees to a £165m, thirty-five branch network with 700 employees. And despite recent operating and financial headwinds for the sector, Lawsons states that it has remained profitable during 2024 and 2025. Additionally, in November 2024 it announced up to £25m of new facilities which the Group is actively using to continue its journey of both organic growth and strategic acquisition.
Chris Harrison, Group Finance Director, commented: “As a significant player in the builders’ merchant sector, which is a key sector for the UK economy, it is only right that we should publicly demonstrate our approach to paying our fair share of tax in full and at the right time.
“We were delighted to be the first builders’ merchant to be recognised in this space which is important given the corporation tax, employment tax and VAT contributions the sector makes to the Treasury. We have a culture of transparency across our entire business, whether in our dealings with customers, suppliers or our people.”
Chris continued: “Tax funds the huge array of public services from education, health and social care, to flood defence, roads, policing and defence. We are active in the communities we serve and see all of those much-needed public services in action.
“It is another way at Lawsons we demonstrate our community values and best practices. We also believe that this inspires confidence and trust in our goods and services and I would not be surprised to see this accreditation becoming a mandatory requirement for all public construction contracts in the coming years given that funding decisions for those contracts are funded wholly or partially by UK tax revenues.”
For the duration of Fair Tax week, Lawsons is offering customer 5% off online purchases via its website – activate by clicking the Fair Tax week logo on www.lawsons.co.uk
