The Worshipful Company of Builders’ Merchants (WcoBM) has been investing time and money into promoting the industry, to get the ‘Get Britain Building’ message on to BBC TV.

On Saturday 9 November, the city will celebrate the appointment of a new Lord Mayor of London at the Lord Mayor’s Show. This year, the WCoBM will have its own float to support the new Lord Mayor Elect Alderman, Fiona Woolf CBE, who is an Honorary Member.

The float is an eye-catching promotion of builders’ merchanting through the ages. The company’s new strapline, ‘Supplying Britain's Building Needs’, will be displayed on banners, vehicles and giveaways. The WcoBM has briefed BBC researchers in the hope that the float will be caught on camera.

There will be six vehicles in the float show: a Handcart circa 1813; Ridgeons’ Dray drawn by two Suffolk Punch horses; Buildbase’s Model T 1920; Buttle’s 1934 truck; a Calor Gas 1950s truck and a large, brand new Lawsons’ flat-bed. Marching with the vehicles will be 30 liverymen in long brown ‘Arkwright’ work coats, with flat caps and traditional pencils tucked behind their ears. There will also be 28 sponsors in imaginative costumes, representing well-known building materials from toilet pans to windows.

Over 150 builders’ merchant liverymen, freemen and guests – wearing bright yellow hard hats and waving yellow rulers – will be in North Stand by St Pauls as the new Lord Mayor stops to bow to them, at which point they will throw their yellow hats in the air and cheer.

You can follow the Worshipful Company on Twitter @WCoBM and all merchants and suppliers are invited to come along to support the industry along the route.