The latest £100,000 redevelopment at EH Smith’s Enderby, Leicester branch was launched last week by John Parker, company chief executive officer and chair of the Fortis buying group.

Customers joined in the celebrations at a hog roast event with England and Leicester Tigers RFU star Tom Croft, who built a wall from Porotherm clay blocks, took on some of Leicestershire’s most competitive builders at darts and signed rugby balls for fans as young as three years old.

Mr Parker said: “This £100,000 redevelopment has transformed our site in Leicester, to meet demand at a time when the construction industry is really starting to take off.

“The construction sector’s return to growth, which has been building for a number of months, is led by the new housing sector. What we’re seeing now is that this growth is being hampered by the national shortage of bricks. We’re even seeing some manufacturers closing their order books until further notice.

“This is really frustrating the ability of the industry to build its way out of recession. Fortunately, due to EH Smith’s long and close relationships with key manufacturers, more than 13m bricks in stock and the ability of our brick specialists to match from more than 2,000 brick types, we are probably in a better position than most.”

As well as this investment in the Leicester branch, a smaller-scale redevelopment of the Longbridge, Birmingham branch is currently underway.