Member Article

Builders Merchant Celebrates Turnover and 150 Anniversary With Charity Fundraising Effort

Leading Builders Merchant JT Dove Ltd has neared the £60m milestone in revenue and is celebrating its 150th year in business.

The latest accounts released by the company, which has nineteen branches across the North East, Cumbria and Scottish Borders show a turnover of £58.8m up to the end of 2018, an increase of over 12% from the previous year.

Founded in Newcastle in 1869, the team at JT Dove are celebrating the two achievements with a huge fundraising effort. Managing director, Steve Robinson, explains;

“The growth has been across the whole of our business Building Materials, Plumbing & Heating and Contract Sales as well. The success of the turnover is down to good customer service and a consistent strategy in these changing and uncertain times.”

“The increase in revenue is great news, as is our 150th anniversary, but what is really driving the business at the moment is our great team. That team is pulling together and doing some fabulous work and together we have also focused massively on our challenge to raise £100,000 for CHUF (Children’s Heart Unit Fund). There is some outstanding activity going on, and the whole team is very energised by it all.”

300 Dove colleagues have all participated in raising funds towards the £100,000.00 target for CHUF, including 25 runners that completed the Great North Run this week raising £8,000.00.

Efforts will culminate at the supplier dinner dance in November. This is being held at the Crowne Plaza and the team aim to raise £25,000 towards the total target. The event boasts cornerstone sponsors - Hanson Cement, Arbor Forest Products, The Keystone Group and Ibstock Brick – to whom the team are very grateful.

Rounding up the last financial year and how the company is looking forward, Steve Robinson said:

“I am delighted the Herbert Dove Trustees sanctioned a profit share payment equivalent to 13.3% of salary to ever colleague, an appreciation of their hard work, loyalty and commitment.”

“Accordingly pre-tax profit has increased from £2.3m to £2.4m and plans for next year are to expand with new product and additional customer service initiatives through current sites. There will also be a focus on developing the company’s online capability.” “However there is no denying that Brexit is starting to bite and we are seeing some confidence in the RPI market drift, particularly on fashionable spend such as kitchen & bathroom. We also have smaller developers putting off new housing developments until Brexit is sorted one way or the other.”

“We launch our new K8 ERP system on 2nd January which will further enhance our Customer Relationship Management and improve the customer experience. It will also improve our environmental credentials as it is largely paperless.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Anna Toms .