West London-based independant civils merchant George Lines has become part of Lords Builders Merchants.
Based at Heathrow, George Lines is a long-standing independent civils builders’ merchants which has been trading for over 60 years. The business has been led by Mark Bone who will join Lords, alongside his entire team, and continue to manage George Lines as a separate division but trading under the existing name.
Shanker Patel CEO of the Lords Group commented: “I have known Mark Bone for many years and our businesses share the same culture of putting our customers and colleagues first. George Lines has a tremendous reputation within its niche sector and we are delighted to have the oportunity of joining this business to our existing builders’ merchants in London.We would like to welcome all the team at George Lines to Lords and look forward to working with them.”
The two businesses have had a supplier-customer relationship for over 10 years. Mark Bone commented: “Lords is a natural fit for our business as we have known the Lords team, we are both independent family-owned businesses and are both part of the successful H&B Buying Group.”
The transaction also marks a watershed for the Lords Group as the company signfies its ability to work with potential independant merchants seeking to exit or move their business forward.
Alongside its former Burdens branch in Hayes, the group will have a significant presence in the local civils materials market. With infrastructure construction forecasted to grow, Lords is seeking to capitalise on being one of the only independent builders’ merchants with a civils speciality in London.
Indeed, the original strategy to move into this speciality started in Sept 2012 with a research visit to George Lines and the Burdens and Hendricks Lovell sites in Hayes. Shanker and his team at that time were looking to add civil products to their existing location of Park Royal NW10 and within just a few years two of those sites researched would become part of Lords.
